(ii) Materialism as a Rational and Democratic Outlook

If we ascribe, as the idealists do, events and actions to the will of God or to the ideas which people carry around in their heads, everything which happens is either a mystery or some kind of accidental “change of heart." To argue that events do not ultimately have material causes means, of course, that they cannot be scientifically examined or rationally understood.

This is why idealism is not only mystical but generally conservative and elitist in character. To look for the source of movement in the world solely to people's “ideas” or the power of their “will” is to ignore the practical experience of the mass of ordinary people as they go about their daily lives—the real force which moulds our thought. Differences in outlook appear for the idealist, not as particular reflections of a given set of material circumstances, but as the product of mystical forces which nothing can change. Plato, the ancient Greek idealist, believed that men viewed the world differently because they had been “made” differently—he likened them to different metals like brass, iron and gold—and these were “differences” which nothing could change. The men of “gold"—a philosophical elite—were naturally intended to rule over the cruder multitudes of brass and iron—the unfortunate many! Is it surprising that Plato's idealism has often found a sympathetic hearing among apartheid's supporters? Racist nonsense about the “genetic” differences which are supposed to make some “races” more intelligent than others is simply the logical product of the idealist's search for “causes” which lie beyond our control, and cannot be rationally understood.

For materialists, people are the product of their material circumstances and their “human nature," their outlook on life and their general psychology reflect the conditions under which they live and work. To change people you must change their circumstances. If, as the materialist argues, we draw our knowledge and character from our practical experience of the material world, then not only is everyone able to learn from life and play their part in running society (a democratic view which rejects the need for mystical “fuehrers” to govern the “dumb” masses), but changing our material conditions of life can rid society of poverty, crime, exploitation, war and all the other evils which conservatives blame on “human nature. Marx and Engels comment that if man is shaped by environment, his environment must be made human[1], and proceed to add that “the teaching of materialism” is “the teaching of real humanism and the logical basis of communism."[2] For materialism is the only philosophy today which can rationally explain the world of nature and society and thus enable people to control their own lives and rid mankind of the injustices, inequalities and exploitation of capitalism.

But how is such a philosophy of materialism to be developed? Before materialism can serve as “the logical basis of communism," it must solve the problem which I now wish to consider, the problem of [...click "Next"]