THE GEOGRAPHY OF HUMAN LIBERATION

The experience of communism, as it has turned out in practice, forces radicals to reconsider what we have in mind when we speak of “social revolution”. We can no longer evade the question “what do you mean by communism?” with the glib response that the nature of the future mode of social existence will be molded by revolutionary praxis. For revolutionary praxis is conducted by conscious people, and inevitably a part of this consciousness is a conception of the post-revolutionary society. If by “revolution” we indeed mean a complete restructuring of social existence, even a transformation in the nature of humans, we have to have a clear idea of our eventual social purpose and we have to make clear the possibilities and direction of human change. We also have to appeal to people on the basis of the justice of our purpose if we want their comradeship in the collective struggle against the existing mode of life. Yet this vision of the future communism is exactly the weakest component of the evolving Marxist science and politics. Silence allows people to assume that the existing forms of communism are what we intend, when for most of us they bear little resemblance to the alternative society we have in mind.