“PROLETARIAN SCIENCE”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26774, 18 May 1948, Page 6

“PROLETARIAN SCIENCE”

Sir,—lt has been said that whatever man failed to understand in nature he either turned in into an object of awe and worshipped it or condemned it. Proof pf the truth of this aphorism is to be found in the statement by Monsignor Fulton J. Sheen, which is meant to be an indictment of Communism. As one can only deal briefly with the article in question I will commence by saying that Christianity originated as the first expression of the idea of freedom, which idea has existed ever since man enslaved his fellow man. It was the first revolutionary attempt at the organisation of the oppressed proletariat within the Roman Empire for the purpose of overthrowing its oppressors. The question why Christianity, as the first revolutionary movement, failed, is to be, discovered by all who care to seek. ...... Again, the idea of “ freedom,” which is as old as Catholicism itself, is fully expressed to-day in scientific Socialism or Communism, as expounded by Marx and Engels. Socialism is a science and so, like all the rest of the known sciences, it is capable’ of being applied practically in our every-day life; and I would add here that it is this fact alone which fully explains what links together Socialist thinkers the world over. The understanding of scientific Socialism, or better still, “ Proletarian, science,” enables one to do his or her own thinking on ail social questions, independent of Moscow or Timbuktu—l am, etc.,. Greg.