Communication Systems

In his theory of history, Karl Marx concludes that revolutions take place when economic forces have come to a point of contradiction. But Marx does not ignore the psychological factor of human consciousness, because in the end it is the people who make a revolution. As he says in the Theses on Feuerbach: "The materialist doctrine that men are products of circumstances and upbringing, and that, therefore, changed men are products of changed circumstances and changed upbringing, forgets that it is men who change circumstances ...[which] can be conceived and rationally understood only as revolutionary practice."

Communication is central to the revolutionary practice because, as Marx explains, "the essence of man is no abstraction inherent in each single individual. In reality, it is the ensemble of the social relations." The more efficient and effective the communication, the more efficient and effective the "ensemble of social relations."

In his day, Lenin saw the newspaper as the most efficient and effective communication system. Hence, he made a priority of revolutionary newspapers in his great strategic document for revolution, What is to be done.

Today we have the Internet which makes possible revolutionary communication on a scale beyond anything Lenin could have dreamed of. As Fidel Castro has written recently in a 1998 speech: "Humankind today reaches the figure of 6 billion people, and, as I was saying this morning, many millions know how to read and write, and there are a lot of media to disseminate ideas. Given the struggle of ideas at a world level, oftentimes there is no access to the mass media controlled by the big transnationals, or there is no access to the large television or information chains. But there is always a way to make the message reach the world, there is always a possibility, and the more communications develop, the more this will be possible."

Fidel continues: "Well, a device with such a small volume and so relatively inexpensive - when I say relatively I'm thinking of someone with very little resources - a computer connected to Internet is now a possibility to make a message, a thought, reach millions of people in the world. As they say, and it's true, and they are calculating how many people have it now, I understand that around 100 million people are signing up or can connect with Internet, and this process will continue. We have to speak to the peoples, we have to speak to everyone, we have to speak mainly to those who can influence others, and if instead of one there are 100 transmitting this way, and if instead of 100 there are 1,000, and if instead of 1,000 there are one million, then, if the ideas are just and they're solid, there will always be the possibility, even for the most modest economists or scientists, to transmit their message, that message that has to be the fruit of the intelligence of so many. If we want to win over people's opinion, this is indispensable."

Modern communication systems such as the Internet not only strengthen the communication systems of revolution, but also they strengthen the communication systems of the capitalists. At first thought, one might think that these two historical developments cancel each other out. But such an analysis fails to recognize dialectics and the fact that the world changes rapidly. In fact, one can even argue that historical change is happening faster and faster as a result of the great increase in human communication.

The communication systems of the capitalists, in particular their propaganda machines in the commercial media, have a reached a point of crisis as more and more people come to see the contradictions of capitalism and realize that the commercial media are not telling the truth. Internet gives people the option of searching elsewhere for the truth.

In calling for a "global movement for a culture of peace," the UN General Assembly also called for "sharing of information among actors on their initiatives in this regard." (paragraph A6 and A7). Keeping in mind the dialectical principle that "the interdependence and the closest and indissoluble connection between all aspects of any phenomenon," any sharing of information on the culture of peace contributes to the overall struggle of the culture of peace versus the culture of war.

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