Part 7
It will be noted that in this sketch
we have taken a few examples from past history to show how our theory of
historical development fits the facts. But it equally applies to the
history of our own times. For, manifold though the changes are that
economic development has brought into being, the foundation of human
society is still an economic one; only man’s way of dealing with the
fact has changed. The production and distribution of wealth is still of
primary importance to human society.
Hence the changes that have occurred
in recent years in the means of wealth production and distribution can
be said to be the underlying cause of many modern historical events. The
late European War is one outstanding example. Unlike the small,
self-supporting nations of feudal times, the leading nations of to-day
are more or less politically and economically interwoven with each
other. Particularly all countries are more economically interdependent
than, say, a hundred years ago. Thus a general economic development in
one country will make its effects felt nearly the world over. So vast
had been the economic development of Germany from the time of the
Franco-Prussian War of 1871, up to a few years prior to 1914, that the
German ruling class becoming a standing menace to the interests of the
ruling class of this and other countries. The war was the direct
outcome.
Of course, the usual “lofty ideals” were paraded by the rival
groups of capitalists as one means of urging the workers on to the
slaughter. But whilst Great Britain entered the war on the plea of “ the
defence of small nations,” the real reason for her entry was the desire
to crush a serious commercial rival, and thus retain for herself a
large control of the world’s markets. And similar motives actuated all
the countries who participated in that “holiest of holy wars.” That the
underlying cause of the war was an economic one, and not the so-called
racial differences as was said during the war is now more or less openly
admitted by all.
In conclusion.
Some years ago Marx’s son-in-law Paul
Lafargue, in explaining the “Historical Method of Marx,” well said, that
in formulating that method Marx had placed at our disposal a “tool,”
“an instrument of research.” The need for the use of that tool still
awaits recognition by the great bulk of the working class, for it is in
the hands of the workers that it will prove most useful for the progress
of human society. In other words, besides being an instrument of
historical research it is an instrument of their emancipation from wage
slavery.
Besides providing them with the understanding of the rise of
mankind from their low beginnings in savagery up to our own
civilisation, the rise of class society, slavery and the State, our view
of historical development provides an understanding of the basis and
movement of modern society. The conditions engendered in capitalist
society already indicate the form of the society of the future. Social
ownership and control of the resources of wealth production and
distribution is pointed to as the next stage in social evolution. Let
the workers then grasp a knowledge of the materialist conception of
history.
They will then use that knowledge in harmony with that economic
development that has, in the main, made possible their freedom from
capitalist domination. They will change the form of society in harmony
with their requirements by establishing Socialism. With that
accomplished the economic forces of society “which have hitherto ruled
man ” will become more and more consciously under the control of
mankind. “Only from that time,” says Engels, “will man himself more and
more consciously make his own history—only from that time will the
social causes set in movement by him have in the main and in a
constantly growing measure, the results intended by him. It is the
ascent of man from the kingdom of necessity to the kingdom of freedom.”
Robert Reynolds
(Conclusion.)
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