"Naturally, we will not take the trouble to inform our wise philosophers that when they subsume philosophy, theology, substance, and all that rubbish under 'self-consciousness', and when they have liberated 'Man' from the dominion of these phrases under which he was never enslaved, they have not advanced the 'liberation' of man a single step; that it is not possible to effect a genuine liberation apart from the real world and real means; that slavery cannot be eliminated without the steam engine and the mule-jenny, nor indentured service without improved agriculture; that man cannot be liberated at all as long as he is unable to provide himself with food and drink, housing and clothing, sufficient in both quantity and quality. 'Liberation' is an historical act, not an imaginary one, and it is achieved through historical conditions, the level of industry, commerce, agriculture, transportation [...] and subsequently, according to their various levels of development, the nonsense of Substance, Subject, Self-consciousness, and pure Criticism, just like the religious and theological nonsense, which they then eliminate again if they are sufficiently developed."
"Consciousness is thus from the very beginning a social product and remains so for as long as men exist."
No comments:
Post a Comment