The Naked Communist by W. Cleon Skousen Read Free Book Online Page A

and Engels answered all of these questions with their three laws of matter:
     
    The Law of Opposites -- Marx and Engels started with the observation that everything in existence is a combination or unity of opposites. 2 Electricity is characterized by a positive and negative charge. Atoms consist of protons and electrons which are unified but contradictory forces. Each organic body has qualities of attraction and repulsion. Even human beings find through introspection that they are a unity of opposite qualities -- selfishness and altruism, courage and cowardice, social traits and anti-social traits, humbleness and pride, masculinity and femininity. The Communist conclusion is that everything in existence "contains two mutually incompatible and exclusive but nevertheless equally essential and indispensable parts or aspects." 3
     
    Now the Communist concept is that this unity of opposites in nature is the thing which makes each entity auto-dynamic and provides the constant motivation for movement and change. This idea was borrowed from Georg Wilhelm Hegel (1770-1831) who said: "Contradiction (in nature) is the root of all motion and of all life." 4
     
    This, then, introduces us to the first basic observation of Communist dialectics. The word "dialectics" has a very special meaning to Communists. It represents the idea of conflict in nature. The beginning student of Communist philosophy can better understand the meaning of dialectics if he substitutes the word "conflict" each time "dialectics" appears.
     
    So at this point the student is expected to understand that each thing in the universe is in a state of motion because it is a parcel made up of opposite forces which are struggling within it. This brings us to the second law of matter.
     
    The Law of Negation -- Having accounted for the origin of motion and energy in the universe, the Communist writers then set about to account for the tendency in nature to constantly increase the numerical quantity of all things. They decided that each entity tends to negate itself in order to reproduce itself in greater quantity. Engels cited the case of the barley seed which, in its natural state, germinates and out of its own death or negation produces a plant. The plant in turn grows to maturity and is itself negated after bearing many barley seeds. Thus, all nature is constantly expanding through dying. The elements of opposition which produce conflict in each thing and give it motion also tend to negate the thing itself; but out of this dynamic process of dying the energy is released to expand and produce many more entities of the same kind. 5
     
    Having accounted for numerical increase in the universe, the Communist philosophers then set about to account for all the different creations in nature.
     
    The Law of Transformation -- This law states that a continuous quantitative development by a particular class often results in a "leap" in nature whereby a completely new form or entity is produced. 6 Consider, for example, the case of the paraffin hydrocarbons:
     
    "Chemistry testifies to the fact that methane is composed of one atom of carbon and four atoms of hydrogen. Now, if we add to methane another atom of carbon and two more atoms of hydrogen (a mere quantitative increase since these are the elements already composing the methane) we get an entirely new chemical substance called ethane . If we add another atom of carbon and two more atoms of hydrogen to the ethane, we get propane , an entirely different chemical substance. Another quantitative addition of an atom of carbon and two atoms of hydrogen results in a fourth chemical substance, butane . And still another quantitative addition of an atom of carbon and two more atoms of hydrogen results in a fifth chemical substance, pentane ." 7
     
    The Marxist philosophers immediately concluded that this is the clue to the "Creative Power" in nature. Matter is not only auto-dynamic and inclined to increase itself numerically, but