The Key to the Economic and Socio-Political Fallacies of Marxism

Abstract

After the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union and a radical return to capitalism (which was unprecedented for the human history), and wild capitalism at that, the global social and political sciences found themselves in the position of French historians of the Restoration epoch who sought to identify the true causes of the Great French Revolution and of subsequent events. Since the struggle for communism for the world over was launched under the banner of Marxism, the defeat of the global system of socialism on the global scale posed the following cardinal question for social and political scientists: if Marx's doctrine is true, why was the end of the global socialism so inglorious? If, however, the doctrine was not true, why wasn't it refuted so fundamentally as to rule out any objections on the part of Marxist-Leninists? Twenty two years have passed after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the global system of socialism and the end of the Cold War, feelings have calmed down and it seems like it is high time to tackle this question in a calm and impartial fashion without unnecessary emotions. Generally speaking, failure of any scientific or scholarly theory can be an outcome of two main causes, viz. of the theory itself or of its practical application being fallacious or of the combination of both. That mistakes, including serious ones, were made in the process of application of Marxism is not denied even by present-day Communists. Suffice it to say that communist rulers were not, in fact, communists in terms of their cast of mind and of way of life. Marxism for them was a cash cow, which was supposed to provide them with power and the life of privilege, including magnificent apartments and summer houses, luxury cars, special supply centers, etc. Now new communists, the likes of Zyuganov, Ampilov, Chavez, etc. promise to correct mistakes of the past and again urge people to launch struggle this time for genuine Socialism and Communism. Thus, the ground is being forged for revanche, and first gains are present already. Venezuela embarked recently on the communist road, followed by Nepal. A communist was elected as a President of Cyprus. China's might is rapidly growing. China has become the second largest economy of the world and has been pursuing NEP (New Economic Policy) in Lenin's style--in earnest and for a long period of time. It is expected that the NEP will pave the way to mighty socialist China. The global community, and first of all the US, already perceive the growing global threat posed by China as it will result in unpredictable shift in the balance of power in the world. The threat of Marxist socialist ideas becomes even more serious with the growth of anti-capitalist sentiment in the West following the recent financial crisis that triggered a significant increase in unemployment and the protest movement "Occupy Wall Street." Western media report that Marx's Das Kapital enjoys considerable popularity as its sales have tripled. It follows then that despite its retreat, Communism still has huge ideological and military-political resources, as communist govern twenty percent of the global population. The international rating of founder of the "scientific communism" Karl Marx is still very high. In the 1999 internet-based public opinion poll conducted by BBC, Marx was named the greatest thinker of the second millennium, as he topped the list of the humanity's ten men of genius. At present, the Communist theoreticians and leaders defend Marxism by contending that its subsequent failures and downfall can be accounted for by mistakes made in the course of its practical implementation. They take advantage of the fact that Marxism was not refuted fundamentally. Therefore the following questions: "Practical mistakes cannot be disregarded but are they the only problem? Doesn't the Marxist theory itself have fundamental fallacies?" becomes crucially significant. …