The Party as Borg Superorganism

Igor Shafarevich on Socialism and State Capitalism

Today, in preparation for my next full post, I bring you, dear readers, an excerpt from Chapter 7 of Igor Shafarevich’s classic book, The Socialist Phenomenon, first published in 1975 (English translation published 1980). This will be followed by another such excerpt, then my post inspired by them.

Some background: In Part 1 of the book, Shafarevich presents a general history of socialist ideas, from Plato to the philosophers of the Enlightenment. Part 2 looks at historical examples of state socialism in South America, the Ancient Near East, and ancient China (the so-called archaic states I discussed briefly here). He ferrets out the core features shared by all, and implemented to greater or lesser degrees in actual socialist states: abolition of private property, abolition of the family, abolition of religion, and communality/equality.

Chapter 7, in Part 3, compares the results of his survey in the first two parts with popular conceptions of socialism, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses, e.g., as a phase in history and a scientific theory, a revolutionary means of seizing power, a social structure of compulsory labor, state capitalism, a quest for social justice, a special religion, and the consequence of atheism. I am reproducing number 5 here, socialism as state capitalism. Next I will reproduce number 6, socialism as social justice.

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Socialism as such does not exist. That which is called socialism is one of the lines of development of capitalism—state capitalism.

The evident defect of this point of view is that it applies only to the socialist states of the twentieth century, without any effort to ascertain the place of these states within the millennia-long tradition of socialism. But it would be interesting to determine to what degree this view is applicable even to this admittedly short period of history.

Wittfogel believes that the concept of state capitalism is not pertinent to contemporary socialist states. From the point of view of economics, he asserts, it is impossible to consider capitalist a society in which there are neither private means of production nor any open market for goods and manpower.

The inadequacy of this approach is even more apparent when one takes into consideration the basic point that socialism, unlike capitalism, is not merely an economic formation but is also, and perhaps first of all, an ideology. Indeed, we have never heard of “capitalist parties” or “capitalist doctrines.” The ideological character of socialism is a basic factor in the activities of the socialist states. Their policy is far from being determined only by economic factors or by state interests. History provided a clear-cut experiment a few years ago, when the governments of two countries in the same socialist camp simultaneously permitted themselves to deviate from group policy. The deviation of one of these states was purely ideological, while the other state preserved a complete ideological conformity but demonstratively asserted the independence of its foreign policy. As a result, drastic measures were taken against the first state, while the other only benefited from its policy. Another example of political action motivated by ideological principles is the support given by the socialist states to revolutionary socialist movements and newly formed socialist states. And this in spite of considerable experience which shows that this is the way to create the most dangerous rivals, aggressive and armed with more radical ideology.

We shall point out only one more crucial peculiarity of socialist states, something that has no analogy in capitalist society: all socialist states are based on a “new type” of parity. We have here a phenomenon that is completely different, despite its name, from the political parties of bourgeois society. Members of liberal or radical parties are united by a desire to realize definite political or economic ends, without circumscribing their conduct or views in other areas. In this sense, they are guided by the same kind of principles as trade unions or animal protection societies. The “new type” of party, however, not only demands that its members subordinate all aspects of their lives to it, but also develops in them an outlook according to which life outside the party seems in general unthinkable. The spirit of the special relationship that exists between the individual and the party may be gleaned from the following three examples.

A German essayist, W. Schlamm, relates that in 1919, at the age of fifteen, he became a “fellow traveler” of the Communists but never managed to penetrate into the narrow circle of the party functionaries (104). Twenty years later, one of these functionaries, who had broken with the party, explained to Schlamm the reason why. When Schlamm was invited to join the party, he had said: “I’m ready to give the party everything but the two evenings of the week when I listen to Mozart.” This answer proved fatal! A man who has interests he does not wish to subordinate to the party does not fit.

Another aspect of the relationship between party and individual is revealed by Trotsky’s last speech at a Party Congress. He had already been defeated by his opponents. He said: “I know that it is impossible to be right against the party. It is possible to be right only with the party, for history has created no other road for the realization of what is right.” (105: p. 167)

Finally, here is how Piatakov, already expelled from the party and in disgrace, described his view of the party to his former party comrade Valentinov. Piatakov reminded him of Lenin’s statement that the “dictatorship of the proletariat is a regime implemented by the party, which relies on violence and is not bound by any law.” (From the article “The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky.”) Piatakov explained that the central idea here was not “violence” but the fact of being “unbound by any law.” He says:

Everything that bears the imprint of human will must not and cannot be considered inviolable or tied to any insuperable law. A law is a limit, a ban, a definition of one phenomenon admissible and another inadmissible, one action possible and the other impossible. When thought holds to violence in principle and is psychologically free, unbound by any laws, limits or obstacles, then the field of possible action expands to gigantic proportions and the field of the impossible contracts to the point of zero. … Bolshevism is a party whose idea is to bring into life that which is considered impossible, not realizable and inadmissible. … For the honor and happiness of being in its ranks we must sacrifice our pride and self-esteem and everything else. Returning to the party, we put out of our heads all convictions condemned by it, even though we defended them while in opposition. … I agree that non-Bolsheviks and the category of ordinary people in general cannot make any instantaneous change, any reversal or amputation of their convictions. … We are a party of men who make the impossible possible. Steeped in the idea of violence, we direct it against ourselves, and if the party demands it and if it is necessary and important for the party, we can by an act of will put out of our heads in twenty-four hours ideas that we have cherished for years. In suppressing one’s convictions or tossing them aside, it is necessary to reorient oneself in the shortest possible time in such a way as to agree, inwardly, with one’s whole mind. … Is it easy to put out of mind things that only yesterday you considered to be right and which today you must consider to be false in order to be in full accord with the party? Of course not. Nevertheless, through violence directed against oneself, the necessary result is achieved. Giving up life, shooting oneself through the head, are mere trifles compared with this other manifestation of will. … This sort of violence against the self is acutely painful, but such violence with the aim of breaking oneself so as to be in full accord with the party constitutes the essence of a truly principled Bolshevik Communist. I am familiar with objections of the following kind. The party may be absolutely mistaken, it is said, it might call black something that is clearly and indisputably white. To all those who try to foist this example on me, I say: Yes, I shall consider black something that I felt and considered to be white, since outside the party, outside accord with it, there is no life for me. (106: p. 148)

Some entomologists (see, for example, 107: pp. 110-115) believe that the functioning of a beehive can only be understood in terms of a superorganism having its own metabolism and respiration and capable of reproduction and of the kind of action quite impossible for individual bees (for instance, holding the temperature within to the necessary narrow range around 34°C.). The existence of each bee has meaning only to the extent that it is involved with the life of the entire hive. We are no less justified in considering the parties of the socialist states to be similar superorganisms capable of performing actions impossible and unthinkable for its individual human cells. Their life has meaning only when they are carrying out the aims of the superorganism without which they cannot exist.

This enables us to understand the enigmatic psychology, described so precisely by Solzhenitsyn, of the “orthodox” true believer who even in a concentration camp continues to glorify Stalin and the party.

Any such world view is, of course, utterly alien to rational capitalism. It is not among the Tories and Whigs that the forerunners of the “new type” of party must be sought, but in the Society of Jesus or among the medieval sects, with whom they also have some common organizational traits.

The presence of such a party seems to be a necessary condition for the existence of all socialist states of the twentieth century, while in capitalist countries it serves as one of the main instruments of destruction. This points to cardinal differences between the two social structures.

Sources

• 104. W. S. Schlamm. Die jungen Herren der alten Erde (Vom neuen Stil der Macht). Stuttgart, 1962.

• 105. XIII s’’ezd RKP(b) (The Thirteenth Congress of the Russian Communist Party). Moscow, 1924.

• 106. N. Valentinov. “Piatakov i bol’shevizm” (“Piatakov and Bolshevism,” in Russian). In: Novyi zhurnal (New York), no. 52, 1958.

• 107. R. Chauvin. De l’abeille au gorille. (Quotations refer to Russian translation, Ot pchely do gorilly, Moscow, 1965.)

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