I found myself in a discussion about historical materialism where I ended up saying something along the lines of “scientific progress helps us to build more ethical societies because it enables us to see through the injustices of race, religion, and capitalism.” I was kind of firing from the hip, but I couldn’t think of anything better to say. My conversation partner asked me if I thought you could do a scientific experiment or analysis on a moral problem, and I was frankly stumped.
I know we aren’t supposed to think in moral categories, but I sense every one of us thinks, and correct me if I’m wrong, that capitalism is wrong and communism is right morally speaking. With that in mind, as contradictions are resolved per historical materialism and as different peoples have socialist revolutions within their societies, do these societies become more moral in any sense?
Societies do not become more or less moral because morals are subjective. As with most other things, morals are heavily influenced by the ideology of the ruling class.
In my personal life, morals performs the role of a compass because in most day to day situations it is difficult to take into consideration every fine detail to make a decision. Being guided by morals is simpler and in most cases not a bad choice.
This is not entirely correct. Scientific progress can be a vehicle of catastrophic destruction too. Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the napalming of Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, the carpet bombing of Libya are exponentially more destructive in comparison to any atrocity that has occurred in the preceding millennia. On the other hand, there have always been people, even if they are a minority which is also the case today, to speak up about injustices and sometimes take radical action as well.
The reason I am a communist is pretty simple. I am someone from the working class and it is in my benefit if the working class is emancipated. I could profit from being a reactionary too. But seeing how we are headed into tumultuous times with the risks of climate catastrophe and nuclear warfare, it does not seem like a wise thing to do since we could be seeing the end of the world in our lifetimes.
This does not mean I do not have morals or don’t rely on them. My morals tell me to not be discriminatory for example. This does not mean it is wrong to not be discriminatory based on a moral standpoint. But upon deeper analysis, we usually see that discriminating against fellow workers and allies is something that benefits the ruling class. So there is a materialist basis to it.
Simply put I think it’s the smart thing to be a communist all things considered. It’s not that science cannot be subject to biases but because morals are inherently subjective they are good guiding cornerstones. Morals can be pretty whacky especially if you look at things like manifest destiny and the Israeli occupation of Palestine.