Dr. Sawraj Singh
Recently Xi jinPing, the Chinese President, seems to be admitting that the communist party of China was wrong in putting economics above Marxism and this situation should be corrected. China is moving towards traditional Eastern wisdom that ethics should be put above economics. Marx criticized capitalism for putting economics above ethics. In the Communist Manifesto, Marx said that capitalism has reduced human relations to only economic relations and it has made all previously well-respected professionals such as doctors and lawyers into merely money making machines.
Lenin changed the basic thrust of Marx and put economics above Marxism. However, he justified the change as a necessary step because of the concrete conditions of Russia at that time. Russia was completely surrounded and contained by the imperialist countries. Lenin had to break Russia’s isolation and come out of the economic strangulation caused by the imperialist countries.
The greatest tragedy of Marxism has been that what was started as a temporary tactic to deal with an adverse situation was raised to a permanent policy. Marxism degenerated into economism and lost its revolutionary spirit. It basically accepted the fundamental principle of capitalism that economics is above ethics. Competing with capitalist countries on their turf reduced Marxist countries to second-rated bureaucratic capitalist states. Eventually, this led to the downfall of the Soviet Union and the East European countries.
Mao tried to fuse Marxism with Chinese (Eastern) philosophy and tried to correct the wrong trend in Russia and the Eastern European countries of putting economics above ethics. He came up with the concept of a cultural revolution which should follow political and economic revolution. This will consolidate the rule of the proletariat and the other oppressed classes after overthrowing the capitalist class. Mao tried to radically reverse the capitalist principle of putting economics above ethics.
For traditional Marxists, culture was only a manifestation of economic infrastructure and it would automatically change when the economic infrastructure changed. However, Mao warned that not only this may not happen, but actually capitalist culture can change the economic infrastructure and bring the capitalist class into power.
Even though Cultural Revolution was a great idea, some extreme leftists and radical elements took it too far. They not only rejected all Western things as being products of the decadent Western capitalist system, but they also rejected all traditional Chinese things as being products of feudalism. They also saw contradictions between people as contradictions between people and their enemies. The result was that China was pushed to chaos bordering anarchy. There were calls to restore order in society.
This situation led to the rightward deviation in the party and the leadership again restored the capitalist principle of economics above ethics. No doubt China made tremendous progress, but it also inherited the decadent and degenerated elements of a Western capitalist society. Along with economic development, capitalism brings its negative aspects such as an increased gap between the rich and the poor, emergence of a lumpen class of prostitutes, drug addicts, criminals and homeless people; as well as alienated, depressed and mentally sick people. Ultimately, capitalism is bound to disintegrate the family and lead to social instability, chaos and anarchy. No matter what Western capitalists say, capitalism is destined to doom. Capitalism will prove to be the shortest period in human history. We have only seen two centuries of Western capitalism and it is already facing the deepest crisis and probable demise.
In the twenty-first century, the Western capitalist system is bound to collapse. The traditional Eastern wisdom of putting ethics above economics will prevail. It is sad that India, the seat of Eastern thought, was not the first to revive this fundamental Eastern concept. China has taken the lead to put Eastern wisdom above the superficial Western capitalist ideology. Marxism has been fused with Chinese wisdom. However, we have been unable to Indianize Marxism so far.
