Heinz Dieterich

ABSTRACT

This essay first describes the evolutionary logic of world socialism as an anti-chrematistic civilizatory paradigm. It briefly analyzes the two preeminent civilizatory projects or attractors of modernity— capitalism and socialism—as a result of the general law of the evolution of modern society since 1648/1789. The construction of twentieth-century socialism—the second attractor of modernity— by Lenin and Mao and the respective communist parties in Russia and China, is the topic of the following sections. The demise of the second attractor in Russia and the discussion of the transitional perspectives of China’s revolution close the analysis of “The Past and Present of World Socialism.” The second part, “The Future of World Socialism,” studies the inherent evolutionary logic of the world system and the potential for the appearance of collective transitional subjects, capable of achieving a transcapitalist phase change towards a non-chrematistic political economy and a participatory democracy. The third part examines the potential of China to become the new liberating socialist subject of mankind and the last one poses the question of whether a cyber-socialist evolution of Marx’s paradigm is necessary, due to the revolution of productive forces of the industrial age towards those of the twenty-first-century digital civilization.

KEYWORDS

October Revolution; world socialism; twenty-firstcentury socialism

From: International Critical Thought 2018 8(1)

Editor: Wang Yi