DIALECTICAL PHYSICS
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The title above is a pun between dialect as an esoteric language of a particular profession and a language professing to be logical and/or argumentive. The word dialectical means of or characterized by a dialect. The word dialect means (1) a variety of speech distinguished from the standard or literary language by variations of idiom, vocabulary, phonology, and morphology peculiar to a particular geographic location, (2) a manner of speech adopted by the members of a class, trade, or profession, (3) an imperfect use of the standard lauguage by those to whom another language is native, or (4) a language developed from a root language, retaining recognizable elements of the parent but having distinctive vocabulary, pronunciation, forms, and idioms. The word dialectic means (1) dialectical, (2) pertaining to dialectics; logical; argumentive.
The old Soviet Union (USSR) was founded on the principles of dialectical materialism. According to Lewis S. Feuer, Professor of Philosophy, University of Vermont, dialectical materialism is a philosophy, formulated by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, and was especially the basis for their economic and historical theories. According to this standpoint, the evolution of all social systems conforms to the so-called laws of dialectic - the unity and struggle of opposites, the transformation of quantity to quality, and the negation of negation. The terminology of the dialectic was borrowed from Georg Hegel, though Marx said that he had purged it of its mystifying side and isolated its rational kernel.
In ordinary language, what Marx's dialectic affirms is that every society is a system of inter-active forces which evolves abruptly at some critical point of society's development into a qualitatively new system, the laws of which are the contraries of the previously existent social laws. Marx's analysis of capitalism was his supreme example of the dialectical method. The basic contradictions of capitalism, he held, derive from the disequilibrium between production and consumption which necessarily arises in a system motivated by the pursuit of profit. The class struggle between working men and capitalists grows more intense as the economy declines until, finally, the revolutionary movement of the proletariat [the working class] transforms the society into a socialistic one.
As a philosophy, dialectical materialism holds that nature is the sole reality, that the material world exists independently of our perceptions, and that the properties of living and thinking organisms are novel qualities of highly complex material systems. It regards the idealism of Bishop George Berkeley as refuted by experience and industry, and it holds that the agnosticism of David Hume and Thomas Henry Huxley is a shamefaced way of accepting materialism in practice without avowing it in theory. V. I. Lenin especially emphasized this aspect of dialectical materialism in his Materialism and Empirio-Criticism.
The theory of historical materialism, as found in Engel's more mature writings, affirmed that economic forces are in the last analysis the determining factor of history. Although this theory is logically independent of the philosophy of dialectical materialism, the two are often linked together.
In the hands of Soviet spokesmen, dialectical materialism has been interpreted as authorizing a new Soviet science which negates the assumptions of "Western" science. Soviet writers therefore have derided the genetics of Gregor Mendel, the finite universe of Albert Einstein, the physical principles of indeterminacy, and Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis as "idealistic" and "undialectical".
Critics of dialectical materialism have above all emphasized that there are processes in nature which are gradual, and that science seeks universal laws which do not undergo dialectical change. They have tried to show that the laws of dialectic lose all logical significance when they are transformed into slogan words for discrediting advances made in accordance with scientific method.
Russia was once a land where royalty ruled, along with a class of landowners. Serfs (the proletariat) were the workmen. It was a feudalistic society. During the first Russian revolution, most of the more intelligent Russians were executed with the rest of the royalty and the landowners. Eventually, through the philosophy of dialectical materialism and socialism, what became the Communist party ascended to power and Russian socialism was the result. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was formed, often by means of conquest. A large percentage of each conquered people were relocated to places within the USSR where they could not form a nucleus for revolt. Other people were relocated to the conquered territory so that no specific group remained numerous enough to successfully revolt.
The socialist society became one in which there were lines formed by those who were attempting to find needed commodities. The bureaucracy could not function as well as the law of supply an demand does in a capitalistic society. Long lines led to less time for people to enjoy what quality of life that they had. Often, desired commodities were not even available. Yet, the USSR survived under what amounts to dictatorship. This survival was largely the result of the particular dialect of dialectical materialism.
The people of the USSR endured severe censorship, isolation from the rest of the world, a relatively poor standard of living, and severe punishment for any unlawful speech or writing. To maintain a flawed philosophy and an inferior economic system in the face of reality, it was necessary to maintain a language devoid of any philosophy, facts, or concepts other than those found in dialectical materialism. The "iron curtain" was created to keep the people of the USSR in and the rest of the world out. This prevented the people from discovering that in the west there was freedom of speech; freedom to be educated in the field of one's own choice; freedom to find jobs more to one's liking; freedom to accumulate wealth according to one's abilities, quality of education, choice of education, and inclination to work; freedom to relocate without government interference; and even freedom to have a religion of one's own choice. Under Russian Communism at that time, the people could not discover that in the West there was an abundance of food, clothing, and other necessities without any need for long lines, that private property was a reality, that fear of the government was minimal, that conflict between management and labor was mediated, and that labor unions were allowed to organize strikes if conditions were too harsh for the workers.
In other words, there were things in the West that had not been foreseen by Marx and Engel in their oversimplified philosophy of dialectical materialism. Yet the people of the USSR were taught when very young to hear only the words of dialectical materialism or Marxism. Words such as labor union, strike, capitulation by management, stock options, small business, freedom of speech, freedom to worship, bill of rights, and the like were unkown by the average Soviet. After a few generations, most of the Soviets believed that their way of life was the best in world, even with its suppressions, isolations, and punishments.
After World War II, there were East Germans who were forced to become part of the USSR and who sometimes told others things that were considered too disquieting for the ears of Soviets. Even before that, radio broadcasts had begun to educate the Soviet citizens who had illegal radio receivers. The language of dialectical materialism was being adulterated with concepts that created doubt. The force employed to keep the Soviet Union intact, the force employed to maintain the iron curtain and the Berlin wall, the force employed to catch those who listened to sources outside the USSR, the censorship of books and speech, and the harsh penalties meted out to those who transgressed - all of this spoke of the USSR as being a prison camp for its citizens, and the citizens began to realize this.
Some believe that it was the economy that caused the second Russian revolution, but that was only the straw that broke the camel's back. It had been the language of dialectical materialism that had enslaved the minds of the people for so long, and when the mind is enslaved, so is the body and the soul. It was the erosion of the language of dialectical materialism, allowing people to think in other ways, that was the root cause of the second revolution. Language is a root cause of mode of thought. Without certain words, certain concepts cannot be taught. With certain words, certain concepts can be kept as tradition even though they are wrong. These words of tradition become second-nature when taught from birth or even when taught later to the exclusion of words more suited to describe reality.
For over about one hundred years, we have been taught that space is emptiness, that no form of ether exists. Many theories have evolved from this politically-motivated concept. Words have been coined and band-aids created to maintain a science with a faulty foundation. Brainwashing with each new generation has led to many theoretical physicists who actually believe what they preach. Anyone who protests may be punished by loss of degree, loss of tenure, or loss of his or her job. There are bureaucratic rules to prevent new ideas from being published in science magazines. There are editors who adhere to these rules and to their own readers, many of whom are the brainwashed fascists who want only the standard line to be published. So the only difference between the methods of the old Russian Communist Party and those of our theoretical physics community today is that of degree. This is not to say that everyone in physics community is to blame, but the effect is the same.
The key to it all is a language which does not allow any theory that is "not in the box" to surface. It is an esoteric language known only by the initiates of the temple (those who major in physics). The internet today functions much as radio did from the West to the old USSR. The internet allows normal language with new thought to be introduced into physics, language that is easily understood by the majority, and language that is pertinent to reality. The introduction of normal language tends to eliminate the adverse effects of the language of the old paradigm, which did not allow the public to understand the true nature of the fantasies being foisted upon it.
On occasion, I have been asked in a round-about manner, why I did not use the existing accepted language in physics to explain nether theory and thus enlist the aid of those who are part of the theoretical physics community. This is a practical impossibility and were it not, I would still be sacrificing my principles were I to attempt to do so. This addition to the website has been written to show that the tactics of the physics community in the United States and a large portion of the world is comparable to the the tactics of the old USSR, and to explain clearly the reasons that I prefer to use language in nether theory that is known as "plain English" and is not necessarily part of existing accepted theories in physics. Were I to be foolish enough to attempt to translate my work into the language of the accepted theories today, I would be
(1) attempting to use a language that is most appropriate only for outmoded theory,
(2) encouraging the use of an outmoded, politically derived, and politically sustained paradigm, and
(3) preventing anyone from having a clear explanation of what I believe to be the truth in physics.
Therefore, I intend to continue to attempt to make nether theory accessible to interested people of all walks of life by using English that is easily understood and appropriate for the theory that it explains. In this manner, it is possible that the dialectical physics of the twentieth century will be overthrown by a more enlightened physics of the twenty-first century.
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