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Systems-based Marxism
Hinting at a New Philosophy for both Science and Politics
There will be many who vigorously reject how the last
essay in this important series ended, with Lenin standing
on the rostrum of the All Russia Congress of Soviets,
declaring “We shall now construct The Socialist Order!”
I’m sure this radical and polemical tone will put many off
what I have to say about Science.
Lenin has always been a divisive figure, but he had long
understood the real universal significance of Dialectical
Materialism - the most remarkable and indeed
revolutionary contribution of Karl Marx. For, though
Marx had never taken the crucial step of congenitally
extending his profound philosophcial contributions into
The Sciences, Lenin, did indeed know better!
For, very much earlier in the 20th century than the
Russian Revolution, Lenin had himself, via his own
brilliant book Materialism and Empirio Criticism, taken
on the crucial task of debunking the contributions of
Henri Poincare and Ernst Mach, the physicists who
had insisted in their own version of Positivism, in
which all the aspects of Physics which relied solely upon
empirical evidence alone, with NO associated attempts
at Explanation, should be given the Exact Same Weight
and Status as the very different Causally Explained Laws,
which always included full associated Explanations!
And, it was this undoubted major retreat, that finally
“opened the door” to both Relativity and Quantum
Theory, which were clearly “legitimised” if the claims of
the positivists, were right!
When I arrived at University as a first year Physics
student in 1958, I was immediately totally aghast, at
literally everything my Physics Lecturers “taught”, who
never made any attempt to Explain Anything: they
merely gave empirical evidence and coupled it with the
New clearly Positivist Stance, along with sophisticated
Mathematics, which to them was wholly sufficient. But
it wasn’t enough for me!
At school I had always been branded “the gifted
mathematician”, who could “do it all” in that discipline.
I had obtained 4 different “A” Levels in Mathematics,
along with 3 others at the same Level. I had always found
Mathematics very easy, and I was similarly successful
in all of my subsequent three years of Mathematics at
University! BUT, I had chosen Physics as my main subject
there - because, it alone had always attempted to Explain
Reality! I had eagerly looked forward to the much higher
standard of Explanation that I thought I would get at
University: but it turned out to be abysmal.
I endeavoured to get explanations, but the lecturers were
never available - there were, after all, almost 100 students
in my year, so such individual attention was NEVER
available. We did, however, have access to post graduate
Demonstrators, but they just dismissed my questions
with “Is the Mathematics too difficult for you?”. And, at
my insistence that it wasn’t that I couldn’d “do the math”,
so, could they show me the required Explanations for
why the Mathematics worked: they soon got angry, and,
of course, always had the support of the other students
present!
So, I took to long periods in the excellent University
Library, but there was nothing available in the Physics
Section that could give me answers. So I switched to
Philosophy instead, and there I very quickly found
Lenin’s aforementioned book on Physics.
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I thought I had found the answer, but nobody on
my Physics course wanted to know! So, I joined the
Communist Party to try and find out more about Lenin’s
work. But even there, I never found a single person who
would even discuss it with me. So, I continued to seek
more answers in Marxist literature, but Lenin’s Book was
all I found there!
And all the other self-proclained Marxist tendencies were
no better. Politics and Science, it seemed, were mutually
incompatible (or taken together, appeared to be beyond
any single consistent understanding).
But clearly, in the way that such Marxists seemed to
argue, they always insisted that they were being “very
scientific!” Clearly, what was being called “scientific”
in their “Reasoning” was definitely something else! It
appeared to involve only the Mathematical Rationality
of the Greeks, along with most modern scientists, that
is, of course, not-at-all Holistic, but definitely merely
Pluralistic, involving exclusively Fixed Laws, due to
the artificially imposed restrictions upon ALL of their
studied Situations.
Literally all such “reasoning” was erroneous, as Marx’s
criticisms of most reasoning tried hard to dispel - but,
with Marx himself being an Historian and Philosopher,
he did not comprehensively identify and codemn the
still-remaining Plurality, as such, so he too was unaware
of the still involved and numerous False Bases still used
almost universally in most Consequent Reasoning.
Lenin’s crucial lesson, in his valuable book, was NOT
yet integrated, as it should have been by then, into an
appropriately revised Modern Dialectical Materialism.
He had been on his own in genuinely developing Marx’s
work. It was, therefore, no surprise, on many subsequent
key occasions, that Lenin, wholly alone, managed to
correctly interpret dynamic situations, as were regularly
proved correct by subsequent actual developments!
Just telling everyone Newly Discerned Truths is never
enough: they have, also, to realise why they usually got
things wrong! Lenin, himself, always had his finger upon
the true pulse of the Developing Revolution, and within
the White Heat of constant, incipient Change, he was
effectively forced to insist upon his arrived at analyses -
there was no time for Education Classes!
But Lenin was no dictator: his credentials were always
being confirmed by Events. While, far inferior leaders,
like Stalin, also insisted upon their required conclusions!
They seemed on the face of it to be like Lenin’s style of
conclusions, but, in fact, they never ever were! And, with
Lenin’s tragic and premature death, the most valuable
link to the most developed Marxism was lost!
In a long career in Revolutionary Poltics, I rapidly
achieved leadership positions, but was never, at
that time, really educated into appreciating Lenin’s
Developments in Marxism: so, I too suffered from the
usual inadequacies. Indeed, only in retirement did I
have the time to study Lenin’s methods properly. And,
without the vital revelations of Modern Systems Theory
I would not have cracked it yet!
For, so-called Science still was wholly restricted to
the Bottom-Up Approach, which was supposed to
reductively explain All Causality - but instead it was only
by what happened at the Atomic and Molecular Level
(initially only dealt with in Chemistry, but, thereafter,
presumed to determine everything in all other Higher
Levels too), and nothing created above that Level was
considered to be Causally important, at all. But, that was
obviously wholly incorrect, and many Levels both above
and below the one in question are always causally-active
- though involving Bottom-Up Causalities, actually
only occurring within the Levels, BUT then delivering
consequent Top-Down Causalities which were active
Between the Levels!
And, such an Approach necessarily omitted all
the significant Changes occurring in transforming
Development, which are, therefore, NEVER predictable
in advance of them actually happening (a vital aspect
of all Bottom-Up Causality): for they alone deliver the
Wholly New - such as Life, Man, Thinking and even
Social Revolutions.
As they didn’t even exist before: they are clearly created
for the very first time, along with and within the Wholly
New Development!
You can see the difficulty here for Holistic Politicians - for
they can never promise beforehand, all the anticipated
and fought-for Revolutionary Gains! What they actually
deliver, are always solely the consequences of the effective
creative actions, which more than anything else equips
Mankind to make the future, even though all they can
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say is that it will be better than the the System before.
Now, all the teaching I encountered in all of my own
Education, as well as in every single post I obtained,
as an educator myself, whether in Schools, Colleges or
Universities, had everything generally still clinging to the
established Pluralist Stance, in all the scientific subjects
I had to teach.
And, of course, no developmental conceptions were even
possible: for that stance could never actually explain any
Real Qualitative Change! So, there was no such thing
as the Emergence of the Wholly New; all Laws were
necessarily Fixed, and, to ensure this, all experiments
had to be severely restricted and rigidly controlled, so
that the Laws - thereby revealed - would conform to the
unavoidably involved agenda!
The Real Laws of Reality-as-is were never addressed,
during six decades spent in Science Education!
Now, let us be crystal clear in this assessment, Plurality
works very well for many things, which is why it is rarely
if ever questioned - it works perfectly for Technology and
seemlessly for Production, because we can rigidly control
all of the Systems involved.
BUT, surely the crucial purpose of Science is not to
merely make things but to Understand the Natural
World, Understand the many Systems we don’t or can’t
control, and to Understand Real World Causality. With
Plurality that was impossible to ever achieve!
So, a Theoretical Explanation of exactly WHY things
happened as they did could never be revealed by the
usual scientific methods! And, of course, there were
consequences for this dominant Philosophical Stance
throughout the other major areas of Study too, such as
History, Philosophy and, of course, Politics.
For, everything undoubtedy evolves, and the dynamics of
all their changes are unobtainable with the usual Pluralist
prejudices severely distorting All Real Qualitative
Development!
And we need to Understand how Natural Systems evolve
now, more than ever. We need to Understand how and
why they fail... by far and away the most devastating
avalanches of so-called Natural Crises, are now, all over
the place, due increasingly to the many decisions that
are attempts to solve other problems we don’t really
understand, but actually only accelerate the speed of
Natural Threats that, instead of being under our control,
are now swooping headlong towards unstoppable
disaster.
The most obvious of these problems is Climate Change
- which is already very close to terminally undermining
many of the Actively Balanced Systems of importantly
maintained and life-preserving Stabilities, on which the
Level of Human Civilization relies.
While, elsewhere the urgent push for ever higher profits,
in order to allay possible economic collapse, is also
simultaneously undermining the need for the better
safety measures needed to deal with Climate Changes’s
many damaging affects - such as flooding and pollution.
Attempts to balance the economic system without a
working Systems Theory causes unforeseen problems
at all different Social Levels. For example, over-zealous
cuts in safety-measures within Maternity Hospitals in
Shropshire, led to delays in essential Ceasarian Sections
in problem Births, and the avoidable deaths of several
babies.
And, of course, let us not forget the Covid Pandemic
- which was very badly handled by pro Capitalist
Governments the world over, and which inevitably
led to thousands of deaths of old and infirm people!
But you see, doing what was right for the majority of
People was no good for Profits and an Economic System
reliant on perpetual growth - so that largely determined
Government policies including a rush to return to
maximal profit making - much too soon. And the effect
upon the Care Systems for the old, infirm and disabled
not only made it widely inadequate, but also drove many
of the very best carers to despair, and an increasing
number of exits from that profession, into less upsetting
and exploitative alternatives.
This is just one example of the many labour shortages
caused by criminal mismanagement of the economic
system during this period.
Sadly modern Marxists have no answers to any of these
problems either. It is vital that we now take a Holistic
and Materialist Systems Approach to both Science
and Politics, before it is too late, and these life support
systems collapse for good.