MARXISM AND NATURE
THE VIEWS OF ENGELS
Of all world political ideologies few have had such a toxic and disastrous track record on environmental matters as Marxism. A key part of the problem is the delusion of Marxism that man will somehow conquer nature rather be a part of nature and under the control of its laws. See also our report on Mao and Nature.
"Anarchy in social production is replaced by conscious organization on a planned basis. The struggle for individual existence comes to an end ... the conditions of existence forming man's environment, which up to now have dominated man, at this point pass under the dominion and control of man, who now, for the first time becomes the real conscious master of nature, and because in so far as he has become master of his own social organization ... the objective external forces which have hitherto dominated history will then pass under the control of men themselves. It is only from this point that men, with full consciousness, will fashion their own history; it is only from this point that the social causes set in motion by men will have, predominantly and in constantly increasing measure, the effects willed by men. It is humanity's leap from the realm of necessity into the realm of freedom."
Friedrich Engels, Anti-Dühring. Reproduced in Emile Burns, ed., A Handbook of Marxism (New York: Random House,1935), pp. 279.
"Freedom consists in the control over ourselves and over external nature which is founded on knowledge of natural necessity."
Friedrich Engels, Anti-Dühring. Reproduced in Emile Burns, ed., A Handbook of Marxism (New York: Random House,1935), p. 255.