Ideal social thought of utopian socialism

Socialism has experienced a development process from fantasy to science.

Why does utopian socialism become utopia?

During this period, the capitalist mode of production and the consequent opposition between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat are still very underdeveloped. Britain's newly emerging big industry is still unknown in France. However, on the one hand, only large-scale industries can develop conflicts that make the transformation of production methods absolutely inevitable-not only conflicts between various classes of large-scale industrial production, but also conflicts between productive forces and exchange forms themselves; On the other hand, it is through these huge productive forces that large industries have developed means to solve these conflicts. Therefore, if the conflicts arising from the new social system have just begun to form around 1800, then the means to solve these conflicts are even more so. Although the people without property in Paris once gained the right to rule for a moment in the era of terror, it only proved that their rule was impossible under the conditions at that time. At that time, the proletariat, like the embryo of the new class, was separated from these people who had no property and could not take independent political action at all. It manifests itself as an oppressed and suffering class, which cannot help itself, but can only get help from the outside and at most from above.

This historical situation also determines the views of the founders of socialism. Immature theory is applicable to immature capitalist production and immature class conditions. Solutions to social problems are still hidden in underdeveloped economic relations, so they only come from the mind. What society shows is only ills, and eliminating these ills is a rational task of thinking.

All these utopian socialists have a common basic feature. They focus on the principles and clear activities of the model society they designed. However, they have never seriously considered how these model societies will replace the existing society. They vaguely expect help from rich or powerful sponsors. For example, Saint-Simon tried to win the support of the Pope and Louis Stanislas Xavier. Fourier used to sit in his room at noon every day, waiting for people to respond to his appeal for support in the newspaper, waiting for 12 years in vain. In other words, utopian socialists are not revolutionaries. Although they have plans for social change, they do not expect or intend to achieve social change through proletarian uprising. Of course, they didn't think from the perspective of revolution or class struggle. In fact, they hardly thought about how their carefully designed blueprints could be put into practice. It is for this reason that they are called utopian socialists. In addition, none of them appeared as a representative of proletarian interests in the history at that time. They, like enlightenment scholars, do not want to liberate a certain class, but all mankind. Like enlightenment scholars, they want to build a kingdom of rationality and eternal justice; But their kingdom is very different from that of enlightenment scholars. The bourgeois world established according to the principles of these enlightened scholars is also unreasonable and unfair, and should be thrown into the garbage like the feudal system and all earlier social systems. Realistic rationality and justice have not yet ruled the world, just because they have not been correctly recognized by people. What is missing is only a few talented people, who are present now and already know the truth; As for the genius that appears now, the truth has been realized now, which is not an inevitable thing in the process of historical development, but a purely accidental phenomenon. This kind of genius could have been born 500 years ago, allowing him to save mankind from 500 years of mistakes, struggles and pains. Therefore, it is necessary to invent a new and more perfect social system and impose it on the society from the outside through propaganda and possible typical demonstrations. This new social system is doomed to be an illusion from the beginning. The more detailed and thorough, the more you will fall into pure fantasy.

This view is essentially the view of all socialists in Britain and France and the first batch of German socialists including Vitlin. For all these people, socialism is the expression of absolute truth, reason and justice. As long as it is discovered, it can conquer the world by its own strength. Because absolute truth is independent of the development of time, space and human history, when and where it was discovered was purely accidental. At the same time, absolute truth, rationality and justice are different among the founders of various schools; Because in the founders of various schools, the unique forms of absolute truth, reason and justice are determined by their subjective intellectuality, their living conditions, their knowledge level and thinking training level, and the only way to solve this conflict of absolute truth is for them to kill each other. This can only lead to a compromise neither fish nor fowl socialism, which actually dominates the thoughts of most socialist workers in France and Britain until today. This is an extremely complex mixture, including moderate critical remarks, economic principles and the views of the founders of various schools on the future society. The more each component of this mixture polishes its sharp edges and corners in the torrent of debate, the easier it is to form this mixture. To turn socialism into science, we must first put it on the basis of reality.

We have seen that utopians are utopians precisely because they can only be like this in an era when capitalist production is still underdeveloped. They have to conceive the elements of the new society from their minds, because these elements have not been universally and clearly expressed in the old society itself; They can only turn to reason to conceive the basic features of their new buildings, because they can't turn to contemporary history.

An outstanding representative of utopian socialism

Saint-Simon

In the Geneva Letters, Saint-Simon put forward an argument that "everyone should work".

In the same book, he pointed out that the rule of terror is the rule of the masses without property. He said, "Look, what happened there when your partner ruled France? They caused famine! "

Saint-Simon realized that the French Revolution was a class struggle among aristocrats, bourgeoisie and bourgeoisie, which was a very genius discovery of 1802. 18 16, Saint-Simon declared that politics is the science of production, and predicted that politics would be completely integrated into economy. Although the understanding that the economic situation is the basis of the political system is still in the primary stage here, it has clearly expressed the idea that people's political rule should be to manage things and lead the production process, that is, to abolish the idea of the state.

Equally brilliant than his contemporaries, just after the allied forces entered Paris in 18 14, and then during the Hundred Days War in 18 15, he claimed that the alliance between France and Britain, and then the alliance between these two countries and Germany, was the only guarantee of prosperity and peace in Europe.

Saint-Simon had great genius vision, and almost all the economic thoughts of later socialists were influenced by Saint-Simon.

Fourier

Fourier's works contain his humorous criticism of the existing social system, which is really French, but it doesn't seem profound.

In Fourier's works, almost every page exudes a spark of irony and criticism of the poverty caused by highly praised civilization. Fourier captured the words of the bourgeoisie, the words of their fanatical prophets before the revolution and the words of the flatterers who were bought after the revolution. He mercilessly exposed the material and spiritual poverty of the bourgeois world. He not only compared this kind of poverty with the seductive promise of enlightenment scholars about a society ruled only by reason, about a civilization that gives happiness to all people, and about the infinite perfection of mankind, but also compared this kind of poverty with the gorgeous rhetoric of bourgeois thinkers at that time. He pointed out that the most pitiful reality corresponds to the loudest words everywhere, and he bitterly ridiculed the irreparable bankruptcy of this kind of words.

Fourier is not only a critic, but also a satirist, and one of the greatest satirists since ancient times. In a clever and humorous style, he described the speculation and fraud that prevailed with the decline of the Great Revolution, as well as the common hawker habits in French commerce at that time.

Fourier subtly criticized the bourgeois sexual relations and women's position in bourgeois society. He was the first to express the view that in any society, the degree of women's liberation is the natural measure of universal liberation.

The greatest thing about Fourier lies in his view of social history. He divided the whole social and historical process into four stages: ignorance, patriarchal clan system, barbarism and civilization. The last stage is equivalent to the so-called bourgeois society, he pointed out:

"This civilized system makes every evil committed in a simple way in the barbaric era take a complex, ambiguous, double-sided and hypocritical form of existence";

Civilization moves forward in a "vicious circle" and in a constantly recreated and insurmountable contradiction. So the result it achieves is always the opposite of what it hopes to achieve or pretends to hope to achieve. So, for example, "in civilized times, poverty is produced by surplus itself."

Fourier skillfully mastered dialectics. He opposes empty talk about the infinite perfection of human beings, but he also dialectically asserts that every historical stage has its ups and downs. He applied this view to the future of mankind as a whole, and introduced the view that mankind will perish in the future into historical research.

Robert Owen

When the storm of the French Revolution swept through France, Britain was undergoing a relatively calm transformation, but it did not seem to lack strength.

Steam and new machine tools have turned the workshop handicraft industry into a modern big industry, thus completely changing the whole foundation of bourgeois society. The slow development of workshop handicraft industry era has become a real wild period in production. Society is increasingly divided into big capitalists and proletarians with nothing. What is sandwiched between them now is not the previously stable middle class, but unstable craftsmen and small businessmen. They lead a turbulent life and are the most mobile part of the population. The capitalist mode of production is still in the initial stage of rising, but it has produced obvious social ills: homeless people squeeze into slums in big cities; All traditional consanguinity, patriarchal clan system and family relations have disintegrated; Working hours, especially those of female and child workers, have been extended to a terrible extent; The working class suddenly thrown into the new environment has greatly decreased.

At this time, a 29-year-old factory owner appeared as a reformer. He has a simple and noble personality like a child, and he is also a rare natural leader.

Robert owen accepted the theory of materialist enlightenment scholars: human character is the product of innate organization and the product of the environment in which people live, especially in the process of development. Most people with the same social status as Owen think that the industrial revolution is just a mess to make a fortune by fishing in troubled waters. Owen believes that the industrial revolution is a good opportunity to use his theory of love to turn chaos into order. When he led a factory with more than 500 workers in Manchester, he tried this theory and achieved results. From 1800 to 1829, he managed the Scottish new lanark cotton mill as a shareholder and manager in the same spirit, but he acted more freely and achieved the effect of making him famous all over Europe.

The population of new lanark has gradually increased to 2500. The composition of these people turned out to be extremely complicated, and most of them were extremely degenerate elements. However, Owen turned this place into a perfect model immigrant area, where alcoholism, police, criminal courts, lawsuits, poverty alleviation and charity disappeared. And he can do this only because he allows people to live in an environment more in line with human dignity, especially for the growing generation to receive careful education. He first invented and founded a kindergarten here. Children enter kindergarten at the age of one; They live so happily there that their parents can hardly recover it. Owen's competitors force workers to work 13 to 14 hours a day, while in new lanark, workers only work 18 and a half hours. When the cotton textile crisis forced the factory to stop working for four months, the workers who stopped working continued to receive full wages. Nevertheless, the value of this enterprise has more than doubled, and it has always brought rich profits to the business owners until the end.

Owen is not satisfied with all this. The living conditions he created for workers, in his view, are far from human dignity; He said, "These people are my slaves"; The relatively good environment he arranged for them is far from enough to make people's personality and wisdom develop comprehensively and reasonably, let alone allow free life activities. "However, less than half a century ago, 600,000 talents produced the real wealth that 2,500 people engaged in labor gave to society. I asked myself: What is the difference between the wealth consumed by these 2,500 people and the wealth that 600,000 people should have consumed before? " The answer is clear. The difference fell into the hands of business owners, who earned a profit of more than 300,000 pounds (6 million marks) in addition to the 5% interest on the basic investment. This is still the case in new lanark, not to mention all other factories in Britain. "Without the new wealth created by these machines, it is impossible to wage war to overthrow Napoleon and safeguard the social principles of the nobility. This new force was created by the working class. " Therefore, the fruit should also belong to the working class. In Owen's view, the new powerful productive forces that only made individuals rich and enslaved the masses in the past provided the basis for transforming society. As our common property, we should only serve our common welfare.

Irving's * * * productism is produced through this pure commercial way as the fruit of so-called commercial calculation. It has always maintained this practicality. 1823, Owen put forward the method of eliminating poverty in Ireland through * * * productive immigrant areas, and attached a detailed calculation of preparation cost, annual expenditure and expected income. In his final plan for the future, he made a very professional plan for various technical details.

Owen's most important works are The Marriage System in the New Moral World, The Book of the New Moral World and The Revolution of Human Thought and Practice on Marriage and Capitalism. Owen's book The New Moral World expresses the most explicit capitalism. This book not only advocates equal labor obligations and equal rights to obtain products, but also puts forward what to do for the future capitalist commune.

Owen not only advocated "clear * * * productism", but also practiced * * * productism for five years in "Harmony House" in Hampshire (in the late 1930s and early 1940s), where * * * productism was impeccable in terms of its clarity. Turning to productism was a turning point in Owen's life. When he was just a philanthropist, all he got was wealth, praise, respect and honor. He is the most famous figure in Europe. Not only people of his social status, but also dignitaries and princes nodded to listen to his speech. However, when he put forward the theory of productism, the situation changed completely. In his view, there are three obstacles to social reform: private ownership, religion and the current form of marriage. He knew that he would attack these obstacles and what was waiting for him: the general exclusion of officialdom society and the loss of his whole social status. However, he did not flinch. He made a desperate attack on these obstacles, and what he expected really happened.

He was expelled from the official society, and the press silently resisted. Because the * * * experiment of "Harmony Building" failed, he became penniless, so he turned directly to the working class, where he worked for another 30 years. At that time, all social movements and practical progress in Britain that were beneficial to workers were linked to Owen's name.

For example, after five years of hard work, he passed the first law restricting the labor of women and children in factories in 18 19. He presided over the first congress of British trade unions, at which all the trade unions in the country United into a general trade union. At the same time, as a measure to transition to a completely capitalist social system, on the one hand, he organized cooperatives (consumer cooperatives and production cooperatives); On the other hand, he organized a labor market, that is, an institution that exchanged labor products with labor certificates on the basis of working hours.

[Edit this paragraph] New Harmonious Commune

1824, Owen sold all his possessions, took four sons, a group of friends and more than 100 like-minded people, set out from England, crossed the Atlantic and came to the United States.

When he arrived in Indiana, he immediately went to find the best place for him to build a new society. As a result, he bought 30 thousand mu of land with 200 thousand. As a result, a brand-new "Xanadu"-"New Harmonious Commune" began to be built brick by brick.

The village is located in a hilly area with long running water. On the hills and valleys outside the village, there are vineyards and strings of purple grapes hanging in the shade, making the surrounding villages and towns more beautiful. In the distance, on the green grassland connected with the sky, the shepherd wears a wide-brimmed straw hat and strolls leisurely with the snow-white sheep. In the orchard behind the village, apple trees, peach trees and plum trees are arranged in rows, like the emerald barrier of the village. Walking into the village, I saw poplars, mulberry trees and beautiful golden rain trees on both sides of the street. Further inside, there is a factory not far away, including a flour mill, a shoes and hats factory, a brewery, a flax factory, a restaurant and a dyehouse. In the center of the village, you can see brand-new clean houses and various public buildings, as well as conference halls, reading rooms, schools, hospitals and reception rooms, and occasionally you can see wooden houses as temporary houses. Around these houses, there are some small gardens connected together. The breeze blew, and the fragrance of flowers and plants floated everywhere in the village.

Isn't this "heaven"? Yes, this is indeed an ideal "Xanadu". However, it did exist in this world for four years. Its address is on the Wabash River in southern Indiana, and its name is "New Harmony Commune" (or "New Harmony Village").

This is in stark contrast to the society under the decadent rule of bloody capitalism.

Owen led all commune members to work together and enjoy the fruits of their labor. They stipulate that all commune members should do all kinds of useful work according to their age. All children between the ages of 5 and 7 attend school unconditionally. Lang Lang's reading voice gives all members a kind of comfort and pride. They seem to see the future hope of the "new harmonious commune" and the future of all mankind. Children aged 8 to 10. Besides studying, you should also take part in various beneficial activities and necessary labor in the commune, such as gardening and housework, so as to master the knowledge that can't be learned in textbooks. /kloc-Teenagers over 0/2 years old must learn some manual skills in factories and workshops while learning knowledge to prepare for future work.

Young people between the ages of 20 and 25 are the main force in commune construction. Because of the different division of labor, some work in factories, some take part in farm work in farmland, or take part in certain mental work. The future development of the commune depends entirely on the main force of this age group. People between the ages of 25 and 30 only need to take part in two hours of productive labor every day, and the rest are engaged in the security work of the commune and the distribution of products, and some people are engaged in mental work such as scientific research and artistic work.

People aged 30 to 40 are responsible for managing, organizing and leading the production of various departments. People aged 40-60 preside over foreign exchanges. Receive guests or exchange products. Older people over the age of 60 form an elderly collective, which is responsible for defending the Constitution, safeguarding its dignity and supervising its implementation.

In this way, all members of the "new harmonious commune" perform their duties, do their best and live in harmony.

The establishment of the "New Harmonious Commune" attracted the attention of the whole world, and people came from all over the world. I want to see how this commune is "harmonious", especially the oppressed and exploited workers come in with surprise, envy and hope. They also hope to have their own place in this commune.

Even famous scientists at that time, such as william maclure, president of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences, and josiah warren, an economist and naturalist, came to participate in the construction of a harmonious commune.

The establishment of the "New Harmonious Commune" is so attractive that not only the supporters praised it, but even the opponents sighed in unison.

However, the "new harmonious commune" is not isolated. It is surrounded by the whole capitalism. And the people who come to the commune are varied, with various purposes and ideas. Therefore, the contradiction between members soon appeared and became less "harmonious" than expected.

What's more, its chief designer Owen's construction theory also has a fatal weakness. According to Owen's theory, the purpose of commune members' activities is only to meet the needs of their own members, which leads to the lack of finished products, less production and more consumption in the commune, resulting in contradictions. Due to the different levels of consciousness of members, the number of mental workers is increasing, while the number of manual workers is decreasing, so that skilled workers and ordinary workers are scarce. Factories and workshops often stop production and close down, and even the most advanced machines at that time should be idle. For example, a dye house in a commune can be compared with the most perfect dye house in the United States at that time, but it is nothing. A textile mill can produce 400 pounds of cotton yarn every day and a flour mill can produce 60 barrels of flour every day, so it must be done from time to time. There are 3,600 acres of wheat fields, and the income is meager because there is not enough labor to farm. This situation makes Owen no longer have the money to subsidize the daily losses of the commune. Four years later, the "New Harmony Commune" finally declared bankruptcy. Although the "new harmonious commune" failed, the thinkers represented by Owen made a meaningful attempt in the ideal society where everyone is equal under the rule of capitalism. This attempt and its thought played an important role in the emergence of Marxism later.

The following is the discussion of utopian socialism in the Manifesto of the Producer Party. We don't talk about literature (works by Francois Noe l Babeyf and others) that expresses proletarian demands in all modern revolutions.

The initial attempt of the proletariat to directly realize its class interests in the era of general excitement and the period of overthrowing feudal society inevitably failed, because the proletariat itself was not developed enough at that time, because the material conditions for its liberation were not yet available, and these conditions were only the product of the bourgeois era. The revolutionary literature that accompanied these early proletarian movements, in terms of its content, is bound to be reactionary. This kind of literature advocates universal asceticism and vulgar egalitarianism.

Saint-Simon, Fourier, Owen and others' initial system of socialism and * * * productism appeared at the early stage before the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie developed. We have described this period (see bourgeoisie and proletariat).

It is true that the inventors of these systems saw the role of class opposition and disintegration factors that ruled the society itself. However, they can't see any historical initiative of the proletariat, nor can they see any unique political movement of the proletariat. Because the development of class opposition is synchronous with the development of industry, these inventors can't see the material conditions of proletarian liberation, so they explore some social sciences and social laws in order to create these conditions. Social activities should be replaced by their personal invention activities, the historical conditions of liberation should be replaced by imaginary conditions, and the proletariat gradually organized into classes should be replaced by specially designed social organizations. In their view, the future world history is nothing more than propaganda and implementation of their social plans.

It is true that they also realize that their plan mainly represents the interests of the working class who are most affected. In their minds, the proletariat is only one of the most suffering classes.

However, because class struggle does not develop and because of their own living conditions, they think they are above this class opposition. They hope to improve the living conditions of all members of society, even the richest members. So they always appeal to the whole society indiscriminately, and mainly to the ruling class. They think that as long as people understand their system, they will admit that this system is the best solution for the best society.

Therefore, they reject all political actions, especially all revolutionary actions; They want to achieve their goals through peaceful means and try to open the way for new social gospel through some small, of course unsuccessful experiments and demonstrations.

This fantasy description of the future society accords with the initial instinctive desire of the proletariat to transform the society generally when it is still underdeveloped and its understanding of its status is based on fantasy.

However, these socialist and productive works also contain critical elements. These works attack all the foundations of the existing society. Therefore, they provide extremely valuable materials for inspiring workers. Their positive ideas about the future society, such as eliminating the opposition between urban and rural areas, eliminating families, eliminating private profits, eliminating wage labor, advocating social harmony, and turning the country into a pure production and management institution, all show that class opposition has just begun to develop at that time, and all they know is the early, inconspicuous and uncertain form of this opposition. Therefore, these claims themselves have the nature of pure fantasy.

The significance of criticizing utopian socialism and capitalism is inversely proportional to the development of history. The more class struggle develops, the more it takes shape. The illusion of transcending class struggle and the illusion of opposing class struggle lose any practical significance and theoretical basis. Therefore, although the founders of these systems are revolutionary in many ways, their followers will always form some reactionary sects. These believers ignore the historical progress of the proletariat and stick to the old views of teachers. So they have been trying to weaken class struggle and reconcile opposites. They always dream of realizing their social fantasies through experiments, establishing a single Fallenstein, establishing domestic immigrant areas, and creating a small Igalia, a pocket-sized version of the new Jerusalem-and in order to build all these castles in the air, they have to turn to the kindness and generosity of the bourgeoisie. They gradually degenerated into the reactionary or conservative socialists mentioned above. The only difference is that they show off their knowledge more systematically and are crazy about their extraordinary achievements in social sciences.

Therefore, they strongly opposed the political movement of all workers, thinking that this movement only happened because of blind unbelief in the New Gospel.

In Britain, there are Erwinists who oppose chartists, and in France, there are Fourier-ists who oppose reformists.