Essay:What Juche Explains About the Spiritual Life of Humanity

As it turns out, the spiritual life of humans is the decisive factor in whether socialism can combat bourgeois interference, and therefore sustain itself. In order to demonstrate the connection between "spirituality" (for lack of a better phrase) and Marxism and Juche, I'll reference On some problems of the ideological foundation of socialism by Kim Jong Il, and also Fundamental Principles of Philosophy by Georges Politzer, and a few observations by Stalin.

Further, if nature, being, the material world, is primary, and consciousness, thought, is secondary, derivative; if the material world represents objective reality existing independently of the consciousness of men, while consciousness is a reflection of this objective reality, it follows that the material life of society, its being, is also primary, and its spiritual life secondary, derivative, and that the material life of society is an objective reality existing independently of the will of men, while the spiritual life of society is a reflection of this objective reality, a reflection of being.

Hence, the source of formation of the spiritual life of society, the origin of social ideas, social theories, political views and political institutions, should not be sought for in the ideas, theories, views and political institutions themselves, but in the conditions of the material life of society, in social being, of which these ideas, theories, views, etc., are the reflection.

Hence, if in different periods of the history of society different social ideas, theories, views and political institutions are to be observed; if under the slave system we encounter certain social ideas, theories, views and political institutions, under feudalism others, and under capitalism others still, this is not to be explained by the "nature," the "properties" of the ideas, theories, views and political institutions themselves but by the different conditions of the material life of society at different periods of social development.

(...) It does not follow from Marx's words, however, that social ideas, theories, political views and political institutions are of no significance in the life of society, that they do not reciprocally affect social being, the development of the material conditions of the life of society. We have been speaking so far of the origin of social ideas, theories, views and political institutions, of the way they arise, of the fact that the spiritual life of society is a reflection of the conditions of its material life. As regards the significance of social ideas, theories, views and political institutions, as regards their role in history, historical materialism, far from denying them, stresses the important role and significance of these factors in the life of society, in its history.

- J.V. Stalin

First, basically Marxism mainly explains the universe in terms of material conditions, class relations, and the economic base or means of production, which Juche agrees with. In the realm of the technical sciences it is the most advanced methodology. Spirituality shares and is enhanced by this methodology, but it explains the other side of the universe, best summarized as the spiritual life of man. So Marxism is one side of the stick, and spirituality is the other side of the stick. The Juche idea is the only established idea that explains the relationship well, because it gives such an importance to what we could consider to be "spirituality", so my interpretation of Juche would be something like the following.

When socialism is established, there are still remnants of the old society, bourgeois ideology in the form of spiritual dogmatism or religion still reigns, along with the old technology and culture marked by vestiges of capitalism. These vestiges of the old society, which is to say the religious vestiges, the dogmatic vestiges, the society will go through a certain period of still being affected by these things. But the people - because they'll have socialism - they'll have the ability to achieve unprecedented transformations in these areas. In socialism, the society will be organized in such a way that it's possible to have these massive transformations of the whole society, to spiritually cultivate themselves, to become spiritually liberated.

So Juche demonstrated to the world that the revolution must be carried on not only within the the realm of the physical and the material and the bodily and the economic and so on, but also the revolution must be carried out in the spiritual, the ideological, technological and cultural side of things. The DPRK has the opinion (it's just their own opinion) that theirs is the best kind of socialism, because they take such importance to this side of things, because whereas the other socialist societies are still impacted by the attempted invasions of bourgeois ideology & influence, the DPRK asserts that they have triumphed over bourgeois infiltrations, and mastered protection of their culture, Meanwhile, the other countries struggle harder than they would otherwise, if there was a real "revolution" (they literally call it a revolution) in the "spiritual life of man" (as Stalin phrased it). And this type of revolution isn't in any way comparable to the Cultural Revolution, of course. So I think what they're saying is, all of these other countries have achieved socialism, they have survived the the capitalist encirclement, they have survived, but still the task remains to cultivate the spiritual wisdom that is needed to maintain that socialism.

So that's what I see them, taking notice of a realizing and they say that Marxism did not pay due attention to the question of improving the creative ability and role of the masses because they considered the development of society to be a natural historical process which follows the objective laws mainly the law of development of the material and economic conditions attaching decisive importance to material production and the social and economic relations and the activities of the social man needless to say man draws on the objective laws in transforming nature in society but he does not merely adapt himself to these laws he recognizes and makes use of them on his own initiative he has inexhaustible creativity creative ability to transform nature and society to meet his demand for independence by drawing on the objective laws man's ability to transform the world is limited in a particular. However this creative ability and role of man is being continuously enhanced the development of society is attained in the long run with the improvement of the masses creative ability and role the working class party must pay deep attention to understanding the objective laws and making good use of them by improving man's creativity and his role they say our socialism gives the fullest play to the consciousness of man a conscious social being consciousness is an important attribute of man and it guarantees independence and creativity throughout history that there have been sharp arguments between the progressive and the reactionary on the issue of man's consciousness idealists made the spirit absolute and Mystic as if it was an entity that exists independently of the material being materialists in opposition to idealism insisted that the spirit is a reflection of the material world the theory that reflection was and the theory that a reflection was in advance in opposing the mystification of spirits but it could not be a scientific clarification of the role of consciousness marx made it clear that social consciousness is determined by social beings and the former actively reacts to a letter but he failed to clarify the decisive role of ideological consciousness advance activities so the Jewish idea clarified for the first time that ideological consciousness plays the decisive role in the activities of man man's activities are conducted under certain material conditions and consciousness reflects the material world but the role of consciousness is not confined to reflecting upon reflecting on the material world and reacting to it consciousness determines all activities of man ideological consciousness is the basis of all thinking and activities of man it plays the decisive role in man's cognitive activities and practice man has the consciousness of independence and for this reason he volitionally understands the objective world and performance creative activities the role of ideological consciousness is determined by his character and content the ideological consciousness of Independence the Revolutionary Ideological consciousness defends independence and propels the revolutionary struggle to transform nature and society on revolutionary lines whereas the reactionary ideological consciousness infringes upon the independence of the masses and holds back social progress the decisive factor of victory and success in the revolutionary struggle is the organized efforts of the masses who are equipped with revolutionary ideological consciousness OK just substitute that for spirituality the mass is equipped with a real spirituality and so the historical fact that revolutionary revolution emerged victorious in those countries in which the objective material and economic conditions were less mature proves that the decisive force that propels the revolution is the revolutionary ideological consciousness of the masses the role of man's ideological consciousness is further improved in social society where the masses have become the masters of society and they say very explicitly that the driving force of the revolution can be incomparably strengthened and the cause of socialism and communism will be achieved with success when all members of society are freed from subjugation of all hues of outdated breed dogmatic or religious ideology and fully ready to become communist revolutionaries through the ideological revolution and so basically like think how important spirituality is I see them setting the framework where the groundwork of it being important like of of it being like a necessary thing to focus on in the society and I mean language barrier but I would say that what I understand is like at least in their society you know they've they've done experimentation on like you know ways to you know make make things good right so art is a huge thing for them like art and creativity they try to equip the masses of people with as much you know creative ability as possible and you know so depending on how you interpret things I mean when I hear you say like socialism is like a good start to things but it's not like sufficient and I think that's true because I think that I think that at least the DPRK is noticing that that that's true like that there is this necessity of of not just making sure that food is on the table but also making sure that the people's you know spirit is said and that spiritual wisdom or maybe among Escobar is like really important for the the survival of socialism like they can get to the point of revolution but but in order to truly be like self sufficient all of these things are needed and so several countries have carried out their socialist revolutions conducted socialist construction and gained various experiences the experience is acquired through building socialism in several countries incorporate not only successes but also lessons in failure they also include excellent achievements as well as mistakes all of these experiences and lessons when analyzed to some summed up and generalized are the basis for completing the revolutionary theory on communism which is an incomplete theory and so I think as experiences are accrued then it it will become I think more apparent to people the necessity of that the spiritual cultivation and just you know As for the mistakes revealed in the socialist construction in some countries their parties which allow dogmatism and revisionism not Marxism Londonism and its founders are to blame for them the people who were said to have been building socialism guided by Marxism Leninism in the past failed to put forward new revolutionary theories and step with the changed historical conditions as they have applied Marxism Leninism dogmatically but this to be clear this does not mean that there's that there needs to be some kind of middle ground between capitalism and socialism no no no that would be the abstract theft is in socialism to just the level of ideas what those are are they're not idea they're not mere ideas the task at hand for socialist countries is to have the ideological and spiritual rounding to be able to have socialism you know unleashed it's full potential which can only be done by empowering the the masses of people