Javad wrote: >regarding your posting on contradiction, would you elaborate more on >the contradiction of being and thought from the prespective of Mao's >understanding of dialectics, especially where it touches upon the >"principle" and "secondary" components of the unity of these >opposites and how the "secondary" component "dies out" in the >process. If we want to understand anything, anything at all, we have to subject that thing to closer scrutiny. Lets take any ordinary everyday object from around us, lets say: a pencil. A pencil is comprised of two basic elements rather than a uniform substance, namely graphite and wood. Graphic is required for its softness - its ability to easily make marks on white paper. Wood on the other hand is required for its hardness - its ability to help protect the soft graphite from crumbling. We could say here that the graphite is principle because without it the empty wood would not possess the most important quality of a pencil - to make marks on paper. The wood plays a supportive role or we could say is the secondary quality of a pencil. This relationship between the graphite and the wood is not entirely cozy though - the two elements fight one another. As it wears away, the graphite demands that the wood be shaven down. In its shaving down the wood shapes the graphite back into a fine point. In this unity of opposites there exists struggle and which of the two is to have the final word? Will the graphite crumble first or will the wood refuse to be sharpened any more? It is only when this struggle within the unity of opposites is complete that the pencil dies away - time to buy a new pencil! Its exactly the same if we take the world as a whole - we find two elements - the imperial plunder of capital - but can we overlook the communist defense of labour? Although the two can appear to co-exist for a time, like graphite and wood, their differences sooner or later, must become apparent. Just as western NATO strives to assert its domination of the East - we see the countries of the East gather to form a collective defense policy. It is only when this struggle within the unity of opposites is complete that the capitalist epoch dies away - time to usher in the communist epoch! Bill
