Posted on 02/11/2006 3:20:33 AM PST by Lindykim
Enrico Ferri (1856-1926), a prominent socialist of his day, was an Italian criminologist who for many years was the editor of Avanti, a socialist daily. Writing in "Socialism and Religious Beliefs," he spoke of the all-important connection between Darwin's theory and socialism: "I add that not only is Darwinism not contrary to socialism, but that it forms one of its fundamental scientific premises. As Virchow justly remarked, socialism is nothing else than the logical and vital outcome partly of Darwinism and partly of Spencerian evolution." (www.marxists.org/...)
Enrico frankly discussed how and why Darwinian socialism serves as an alternate religion: "socialism is joined to religious evolution and tends to substitute itself for religion because it desires precisely that humanity should have…its own 'terrestrial paradise' without having to wait for it in a 'something beyond'…the socialist movement has numerous characteristics common…to primitive Christianity, notably its ardent faith in the ideal." (ibid)
To wit: Darwinian socialism (Marx's dialectical scientific materialism) is a secularized and distorted mirror image of the Christian teaching of divine providence. In as the Biblical model teaches that man and history are moving towards the Kingdom of God, scientific materialism preaches that man and history are evolving toward a terrestrial paradise created by Promethean humanists. The notion that both history and man are evolving upward through successive stages is what British philosopher Mary Midgley termed the "Escalator Myth." When speaking of scientific materialism's creation account, Ferri candidly admitted: "modern positive science…has substituted the conception of natural causality for the conception of miracles and divinity." (ibid) In other words, scientific materialists have reduced the personal Creator of the universe to the level of an impersonal animating force. It's this 'force' into which Promethean materialists tap, thus using it as the source of both their power and authority.
David Horowitz had this to say about scientific materialism's theology and creation account: "The victorious radicals had proclaimed a theology of Reason in which equality of condition was the natural and true order of creation. In their Genesis, the loss of equality was the ultimate source of mankind's' suffering and evil…The ownership of private property became a secular version of original sin. Redemption…was possible only through the Revolution that would abolish property and open the gates to the Socialist Eden---to paradise regained." ("The Politics of Bad Faith" www.discoverthenetwork.com)
In the Promethean project, everything from the cosmos to all living things, culture, customs, etc. are subject to evolution. The cosmos, or 'supreme being' is alive and in a constant state of transformative change. In speaking of the cosmos, Lenin used explicitly religious terminology: "We may regard the material and cosmic world as the supreme being, as the cause of all causes, as the creator of heaven and earth." (Vladimir Lenin as quoted in Francis Nigel Lee "Communism versus Creation," pg. 28)
Even the convoluted double-speak so peculiar to the Left is itself founded upon the notion of evolution, which no doubt explains why truth is a stranger to them. Dialectics (or more correctly: speaking in tongues) is what they call their snake-oil rhetoric. In Trotsky's words: "Vulgar thought operates with such concepts as capitalism, morals, freedom…etc. Dialectic thinking analyses all things and phenomena in their continuous change. Dialectics…teaches us to combine syllogisms in such a way as to bring our understanding closer to eternally changing reality." (The ABC of Dialectics, Leon Trotsky, http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky)
As double-speak indicates a need for secrecy, it comes as no surprise that dialectical materialism is likewise a hotbed of Gnosticism. Christian Gnostics were people who, when they read Scripture, claimed an ability to receive 'secret' knowledge from it, knowable only to them. Hence, they were practitioners of 'divination.' Modern Gnostics on our USSC have claimed to receive secret knowledge through 'auras, penumbras, and emanations" during their readings of our Constitution. Gnosticism, for obvious reasons, has a history of attracting megalomaniacs in search of secret knowledge to use as power over others. Frederick Engel's reveals that dialectical materialism is rooted in Gnosticism when he says: "An exact representation of the universe, of its evolution, of the development of mankind, and of the reflection of this evolution in the minds of men, can…only be obtained by the methods of dialectics." (The Making of Utopian Socialism," Frederick Engel's, www.marxists.org)
In the theology of scientific materialism, Judgment Day is the Day of Revolution. This is the day of redemption when, in the name of 'Absolute Science! Amen!" the evil bourgeoisie (Conservatives, Christians, white males, all heterosexuals, George Bush, Rumsfeld, etc) will be damned. Likewise, all evil social institutions such as private property, traditional family, absolute moral laws, the Boy Scouts, Christianity, the concept of sin, and man's created condition as either male or female will be demolished, thus allowing equality of condition to prevail. This is what the Left means when it rhapsodizes about 'peace.'
In a brutal, but much deserved condemnation of Marx's dialectical materialism, David Horowitz wrote: "In every revolutionary battle in this century, the Left has been a vanguard without a viable future to offer, whose only purpose was to destroy whatever civilization actually existed. Consider: If no one had believed Marx's idea, there would have been no Bolshevik Revolution…Hitler would not have come to power; there would have been no cold war." (The Politics of Bad Faith) Additionally, more than one-hundred million people would not have been slaughtered.
By the turn of the century, Marx's idea (the religion of scientific materialism) had crossed the Atlantic where it then began to metastasize in America. It was not long before it began to bear rotten fruit. By 1932, William Z. Foster, head of the Communist Party USA stated: "Class ideologies…will give place to scientific materialist philosophy…the American Soviet government will…further the cultural revolution (by doing) the following: schools, colleges, universities will be coordinated…under the National Department of Education…studies will be revolutionized…cleansed of religious, patriotic…ideology…students will be taught…Marxian dialectical materialism; general ethics of the new socialist society. Science will become materialistic…God will be banished from laboratories as well as from schools." ('Toward Soviet America," by William Z. Foster, 1932)
So now its America's turn to be sacrificed upon the altar of Promethean narcissism, for having learned nothing from his corpse-littered past, bloody-handed Prometheus continues to doggedly pursue his fantasy of a terrestrial paradise—in the name of 'Absolute Science! Amen!"
Copyright Linda Kimball 2006 About the writer: Linda is a writer and author of numerous published articles and essays on culture, politics, and worldview.
Yes, but as I stated in #74 Marxism has incorporated its view of Darwinian evolution into its ideology. Remember, a good Marxist felt that its ideology not only was the key to history - dialectical materialism - but it was an all-embracing ideology that explained scientific phenomena in terms of its laws. Likewise, Hegel didn't (and couldn't have) know anything about Marxism but Karl Marx used his idealistic (idealistic in the philosophical definition) evolutionary system and reinterpreted it in terms of materialism. As Marx said, "I stood Hegel right side up."
au contraire -- see my 74 & 81. If you want me to elaborate on this I will.
Thus demonstrating the insanity of Marxism, because if they really understood evolution, they'd take a "hands off" approach to economics, letting the economy develop according to its own dynamics, and then they'd all be disciples of Adam Smith.
For that matter evolution, too, was around long before Darwin -- it can be traced back to the classical Greek Empedocles (5th century BC) who developed not only a theory of evolution but an accompanying "survival of the fittest" doctrine. It's pointless to talk which came first because the fact is that Lenin himself wrote about Darwin's compatibility with the Marxist ideology. And given many of the presuppositions of Marxism they went together like bread and butter. Is the glass half empty or half full? ---- BOTH (scientifically)
If you don't see the connection that's been obvious to Soviet historians and philosophers so be it. By the way your understanding of Stalin's view is very wrong. If you want to inform yourself read about Stalin and Lysenko.
Works of Marx appearing after Darwin’s Origins:
Theories of Surplus Value - Volume 1 (written 1861-3)
Volume 2 & Volume 3 - never published; never, I believe, completed in more than outline form
Articles on the American Civil War in Die Presse, 1861
Speeches and Communications re. International Workingmen's Association, with F. Engels, 1864-1874.
“Value, Prices and Profit” - Address to the IWMA, 1865.
Das Kapital: Critique of political economy -
Volume One: The Process of Production of Capital , 1867.
Volume Two: The Process of Circulation of Capital, 1885.
Volume Three: The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole, 1894.
"The Abolition of Private Property", 1869 memo
"The Civil War in France", 1871.
Fictitious Splits in the (First) International, with F. Engels 1872
Documents, etc. on the Hague Congress of the IWMA, with F. Engels, 1872
"Political Indifferentism", 1874, Almanacco Repubblicano
"Conspectus on Bakunin", 1875, unpubl. notes
"For Poland", with F. Engels, 1875, speech
Critique of the Gotha Program, 1875.
"Strategy and Tactics of the Class Struggle", with F. Engels, 1879, letter
"A Worker's Inquiry", 1880, Revue socialiste
"The Programme of the Parti Ouvrier" with Jules Guesde, 1880
Works of Marx prior to Origins:
"The Difference Between the Democritean and Epicurean Philosophy of Nature", 1841 (first published 1902)
"On Freedom of the Press", 1842, Rheinische Zeitung
"On the Law on the Theft of Wood", 1842, Rheinische Zeitung
"Communism and the Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung", 1842, Rheinische Zeitung
"Comments on the Latest Prussian Censorship Instruction", 1843, Anekdota zur neuesten deutschen Philosophie und Publicistik
Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, 1843
"Introduction to a Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right", 1844, Deutsch-Französicher Jahrbucher
"On The Jewish Question", 1844, Deutsch-Französicher Jahrbucher
"Critical Notes on the "The King of Prussia"", 1844, Vorwarts!
Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts, 1844
"Comments on James Mill's Elements of Political Economy", (written 1844, published 1932)
The Holy Family -- or a Critique of Critical Critique, 1844
"Theses on Feuerbach", 1845, publ. 1886 in Engels, Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy
A Critique of the German Ideology, with F. Engels 1846
The Poverty of Philosophy, 1847.
Manifesto of the Communist Party with F. Engels, 1848.
"On the Question of Free Trade", 1848, speech in Brussels
"Communism, Revolution and a Free Poland", 1848, speech in Brussels
"The Demands of the Communist Party in Germany", with F. Engels, 1848 - pamphlet
"Addresses to the Central Committee of the Communist League" with F. Engels, 1850 - March, June
Articles in Die Neue Reinische Zeitung, 1848-49.
Reviews in Die Neue Reinische Zeitung Revue, with F. Engels, 1850
"Wage Labor and Capital", 1849, Neue Reinische Zeitung
"England's 17th Century Revolution" with F. Engels, 1850, Politische-Okonomische Revue
Articles on the Class Struggle in France, 1848 to 1850, 1850, Neue Reinische Zeitung.
"Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Germany", 1851 (first publ. 1896)
"The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte", 1852, Die Revolution.
Heroes of the Exile with F. Engels, 1852 (first publ. 1930)
Articles from the New York Daily Tribune, 1852-1861
Articles on China War from New York Daily Tribune, 1853-1860
"The Duchess of Sutherland and Slavery", 1853, People's Paper
"Anti-Church Movement: Demonstration in Hyde Park", 1855, Neue Oder-Zeitung
"Speech at anniversary of the People's Paper", 1856, People's Paper
"Pre-Capitalist Economic Formations", 1857 (publ. 1939)
Contribution to a Critique of Political Economy, 1859. - Preface (1857) (and, allowing Marx the need for a little digestion time)
Outlines for a Critique of Political Economy (Grundrisse), 1859
Now everyone can see for themselves if “Marx wrote most of his work about communism before Darwin published Origin of Species” or if he did not. If, that is, they can figure how many Critiques, Comments, notes, articles, and speeches or pamphlets it takes to equal Theories of Surplus Value or one volume of Das Kapital.
Couldn't the same be said of Hitler and Christianity?
"My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God's truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter."
-Adolf Hitler, in a speech on 12 April 1922 (Norman H. Baynes, ed. The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, April 1922-August 1939, Vol. 1 of 2, pp. 19-20, Oxford University Press, 1942)
My wife and our two boys, now grown men, think so. Subject to debate, I suppose. Depends on who you speak with. Why? Are you trying to figure out whether or not to be civil? [grin]
Sorry, but trying to equate Hitler in any way, shape or form with Christianity is too much of a stretch for me. By the way, Stalin got all his formal education in the Tiflis theological seminary where he studied for the Orthodox priesthood. They said he was a great vocalist in the choir. I'd put the two of them in the same category. Before Hitler became psychotic he was all things to all men in the Weimar Republic - his way of getting the vote. If he needed the Jewish vote to close the margin he'd probably have said he only appeared anti-Semitic because he needed the racist vote - and Mein Kampf was taken out of context.
I'm not sure why you used the word equate, or what you were sorry for. Anyway, you wrote:
the fact is that Lenin himself wrote about Darwin's compatibility with the Marxist ideology.
Hitler did the same with Christianity, so you can't cite one in support of your argument, but discard the other.
Sorry (again) but I find whatever argument you're trying to articulate beyond the rational and intelligible.
When someone else puts forth that Hitler cites Christianity, it is beyond rational and intelligible.
The inconsistency of the two positions should be apparent now.
Good night and good luck.
LOLOL, YHAOS!
"If you don't see the connection that's been obvious to Soviet historians and philosophers so be it."
There is no connection between the science of evolution and the workings of Marxism. Soviet historians may have used the term *evolution* in some vague sense, but they never understood the way scientists actually understood it. And YOU certainly have shown no connection.
" By the way your understanding of Stalin's view is very wrong. If you want to inform yourself read about Stalin and Lysenko."
Are you saying that under Stalin(because of the influence of Lysenko) people supporting natural selection (and Mendelian genetics) were not persecuted, imprisoned, and at times killed? Please show where this did NOT happen.
"Cool. The globules, right?"
Yes, it's the globules.
When the quartz (I'm guessing) crystallized out of the molten mineral flux, it did so so rapidally that it created a local vacuum zone that the titanium-mix bubbled into -- I wonder if those globules are geode-like.
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