A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

Science however was not just production; it was above all a different
vision of life and society – it was reason. The societies of the World had
evolved under strict religious or obscurantist dogmas, with rules and
codes that not only decided human, household or societal behaviours
and functioning’s, but also of governance systems. These were often
based on strict authorities, based on religious texts or edicts, and subservience
to these authorities could be undermined at the risk of death.
Science and reason secularized not only the civil society, but more importantly
jurisprudence and governance systems. Arguments based on
reason rather than on religious or similar dogmas, evidence, logical thinking
were aspects that truly transformed many societies. Science was
therefore seen not only as the force behind machines, more importantly
it was perceived as the harbinger of a different social structure and discourse,
firmly anchored in democracy. And that is how ‘progress’ was
defined. Science was therefore not supposed to mean merely adding
more scientific knowledge, techniques and machines; it was seen as
the true source of human progress.
The Marxist thinkers of science saw great opportunity in achieving such
progress under the socialist state. They argued that under capitalism,
personal profit rather than the progress of the masses had become the
agenda of the scientific endeavour. Therefore the potential benefit of
science to humanity at large would unravel only under socialist practices.
Even someone as influential and big as Einstein underlined this in his
essay, ‘Why Socialism?’. Since in the 1940s there was no socialist state
except the Soviet Union, but many countries were on the threshold of
gaining freedom from colonial rule, proponents of socialist science like
Bernal, Haldane, Joliot-Curie amongst others particularly stressed on the
need for state planning for science, rather than it being left to industry
and other capitalist interests.
In a sense they cannot be faulted. The achievements of science and its
impacts on society in the twentieth century were simply spectacular.
Airplanes, ships, fast automobiles and trains, radio and television, films,
CDs and DVDs and other entertainment technologies, nylon and other
314