Duan Dezhi: How We Conceived and Wrote "Research on Overseas Religious Infiltration and the Drastic Changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe"
The work on A Study of Overseas Religious Infiltration and the Drastic Changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe began in July 2009. After four years and four months of effort, the manuscript was completed in November 2013 and submitted to the People’s Publishing House. The book was formally published in May 2015. Both before and after its publication, the work received a degree of critical acclaim. For example, after the manuscript was submitted to the General Administration of Press and Publication, relevant experts affirmed that it "resists religious infiltration, holds a clear-cut banner, and clarifies the facts to the public." [1] Furthermore, after the book was published, renowned experts and scholars actively recommended its contents to readers.
I. Why must we study the "Drastic Changes" in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe?
In 2009, through intense competition with research teams from over ten universities, including Peking University, we secured a Major Research Grant Project in Philosophy and Social Sciences from the Ministry of Education, titled "A Study of Overseas Religious Infiltration and China’s Ideological Security Strategy." When designing the project, we not only listed the study of "Overseas Religious Infiltration and the Drastic Changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe" as a sub-topic but also designated it as a priority research direction. Judging by the project's title, our primary consideration should undoubtedly have been the infiltration carried out by overseas hostile forces against our country using religious power and religious concepts. Why, then, did we prioritize the Drastic Changes [2] in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe? There are two deep-seated reasons: first, concerning the topic of religious infiltration by overseas hostile forces into socialist states, the events in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe possess an irreplaceable typicality; second, within the contemporary international ideological discourse and the theoretical activity of criticizing the "End of Ideology" thesis, rational reflection on these changes possesses an irreplaceable and direct relevance.
First, regarding the infiltration of socialist countries by overseas hostile forces via religion, the case of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe is uniquely representative. In research concerning overseas religious infiltration, the most significant and difficult issue is undoubtedly the question of whether such infiltration actually exists. It is the most significant because if the problem did not exist, talking about socialist states resisting overseas religious infiltration to safeguard the security of socialist ideology would not only be baseless but would appear as a farce. In his masterpiece Don Quixote, the Spanish writer Cervantes designed a joke where Don Quixote, spear in hand, charges his horse toward windmills to do battle. Throughout our research, we had to strictly avoid such a ridiculous fate. Thus, the existence or non-existence of overseas religious infiltration is the first problem researchers must face head-on. It is the most difficult because such infiltration is a highly complex international political phenomenon; one must often peel away many false appearances and traverse many intermediate links before the truth is revealed. Moreover, it involves the social psychology of contemporary publics and scholars. If the fundamental defect of China’s theoretical and academic circles from 1957 to 1976 was "Better ‘Left’ than Right," then since 1977, an important malady has been "Better Right than ‘Left’." [3] That is to say, regarding matters like overseas religious infiltration, people today often prefer to believe it does not exist rather than believe it does. Under these circumstances, stating the case for overseas religious infiltration in a way that is irrefutable and convincing is no easy task. However, for our research team, this was a mission we had to undertake regardless of the difficulty. Marx once said that for theory "to become a material force," it must "grasp the masses," and to do so, it must "persuade people." [4] Yet, to "persuade people," we must first "persuade" ourselves; we must ensure that we do not merely acknowledge the historical fact of "overseas religious infiltration" verbally, but that in our hearts and deep within our consciousness, we hold an indubitable "conviction"—what Descartes called an indubitable "certainty." After examining and organizing numerous social phenomena related to overseas religious infiltration, we found one historical event that no one can deny: the existence of the "US-Vatican Holy Alliance" since the 1980s and its profound influence on the changes in Poland and the entire Soviet and Eastern European bloc. Furthermore, it is the existence of this "US-Vatican Holy Alliance" that reminds us of the "union" and alliance between "the Pope and the Czar" against the "specter of Communism" mentioned by Marx and Engels in the Communist Manifesto of 1848. Having found the theoretical starting point for our progress in the historical event of the "US-Vatican Holy Alliance"—and having obtained "conviction" in the historical fact of religious infiltration into socialist states by overseas hostile forces—our entire study of overseas religious infiltration should begin with the verification and study of this historical event. Consequently, the Drastic Changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe were naturally elevated to the primary position in our research.
Second, within the contemporary international ideological discourse and the critique of the "End of Ideology," rational reflection on these changes has an irreplaceable, direct relevance. We know that although the "End of Ideology" thesis began in the 1950s, traditional proponents such as Raymond Aron, Seymour Martin Lipset, and Daniel Bell—despite their anti-socialist leanings—at least claimed to signal the dual end of both socialist and capitalist ideologies. Contemporary proponents of the "End of Ideology," such as Nixon, Brzezinski, and Fukuyama, are different; they seek only the end of socialist ideology and its social system, and some even explicitly imbue their thesis with an "eschatological" character. This kind of "End of Ideology" thesis has become fashionably popular; the works of these individuals even triggered "panic buying." In the words of the famous French philosopher Jacques Derrida, people scrambled to buy these books as if they were hoarding "sugar" and "butter" upon hearing rumors of war. Therefore, refuting this kind of "End of Ideology" has become our primary task in safeguarding the security of socialist ideology. If we allow this thesis to deceive people’s minds—if we accept, as they say, that in our era socialist ideology has been replaced once and for all by capitalist ideology—then the issue of safeguarding socialist ideological security is essentially written off, and our research loses all meaning. To effectively refute the contemporary "End of Ideology," we must provide a deep theoretical analysis of the changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe to demonstrate that these changes are not only an interlude in the history of the international communist movement but also likely an interlude in the historical development of these specific nations. Only in this way can we strike back forcefully against the "End of Ideology" and provide a profound explanation for the necessity and possibility of safeguarding our socialist ideological security. For the so-called "historical evidence" for the contemporary "End of Ideology" is nothing other than the drastic changes that occurred in the former Soviet and Eastern European countries in the late 1980s and early 1990s—what they call the "wholesale collapse of communism."
II. What does this book primarily discuss?
This book is 386 pages long, contains 460,000 characters, and covers a wide range of content. However, it can be summarized into the following three aspects:
Specifically, the fundamental objective of this work is to verify and explain the political infiltration and political schemes carried out by overseas hostile forces against the Soviet and Eastern European countries by utilizing religion; to verify and explain the historical impact of overseas religious infiltration on the "Drastic Changes"; and to deduce and emphasize that resisting overseas religious infiltration is an absolute necessity for socialist states to maintain ideological and national security. Admittedly, the causes of the collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe are multifaceted; any attempt to explain these changes solely through the single cause of overseas religious infiltration would be contrary to historical fact, naive, and ill-advised. However, flatly denying the influence of overseas religious infiltration is equally contrary to historical fact, naive, and ill-advised. Therefore, in this book, we not only verify and explain the political infiltration of these countries by overseas hostile forces using religion—specifically providing a concrete and profound analysis of the historical impact of the "US-Vatican Holy Alliance"—but we also demonstrate that overseas religious infiltration was "one" important cause of the collapse, and further emphasize that active resistance to such infiltration is "one" vital guarantee for safeguarding ideological and national security.
Furthermore, another goal of this work is to conduct a comprehensive systematic review and summary of the experiences and lessons of the former Soviet and Eastern European countries in preventing and resisting overseas religious infiltration, serving as a reference for our own prevention and resistance efforts and the maintenance of China’s ideological and national security. The famous Chinese scholar Li Shenzhi [5], when discussing the contemporary philosopher Feng Youlan, once said that Mr. Feng "can be surpassed but not bypassed." This statement concerned "the Chinese people’s understanding, learning, and study of Chinese philosophy," implying that if contemporary Chinese people wish to understand and develop Chinese philosophy, they cannot ignore Feng Youlan’s "Neo-Lixue" [6]. Similarly, we can view the Drastic Changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe as an "interlude in the contemporary international communist movement that can and should be surpassed, but cannot and should not be bypassed." As we point out in this book, the reason these changes can and should be surpassed is that the international communist movement did not come to a screeching halt because of them; "it should, it will, and in fact it is currently surpassing the theoretical, institutional, and developmental models of Soviet socialism, and is forging a new type of socialist theoretical, institutional, and developmental model." The reason this interlude cannot and should not be bypassed is that while the causes of the collapse certainly existed in the theory and practice of the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries, they also exist to varying degrees in the theory and practice of other socialist countries. Thus, reflection on the causes of the collapse is, in a certain sense, "a form of self-reflection, self-education, and self-adjustment for the communists of all countries." Without this kind of self-reflection, "it is not only impossible to have a genuine and visceral understanding of the causes of the collapse, but it is also impossible to realize the self-transformation and self-surpassing of socialist states to fundamentally avoid the tragedy of the Soviet-bloc collapse," let alone advance the cause of international communism. This is what is meant by "making the past serve the present," "making foreign things serve China," and "not forgetting the past, but making it a guide for the future." [7]
Finally, this work has another objective: to provide a response and critique of the contemporary "end of ideology" thesis, grounded in historical facts and theoretical depth derived from the events of the disintegration of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, as well as the post-Soviet era. Within the international ideological discourse, the contemporary "end of ideology" thesis is not a peripheral issue but a matter of fundamental principle [8]. It is a "meta-issue" concerning the very existence of socialist ideology, a question that regulates and constrains all other problems within socialist ideology. As such, it is an issue to which every worker in the fields of philosophy and social sciences must not remain deaf. Furthermore, as mentioned above, proponents of the contemporary "end of ideology" thesis originally used the collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe as their primary evidence. As a work researching those very events, there is even less reason to evade the challenge posed by this thesis.
III
How, specifically, did we implement our plan?
First, in order to concretely confirm and explain the political penetration and schemes carried out by overseas hostile forces against the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries through the use of religion, and to verify and explain the historical impact of overseas religious penetration on the drastic changes in those nations, we focused on the following five areas:
First, we pointedly emphasized the inherent connection between overseas religious penetration and the collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, arguing and demonstrating that the "Holy Alliance between the United States and the Vatican and its political and religious penetration into Soviet and Eastern European countries" was a "central event in the disintegration of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe." (Cf. page 320 of my book).
Second, we revealed the political foundation and schemes of the U.S.–Vatican Holy Alliance. Regarding the political foundation, we did not only elaborate on the "U.S. strategy for religious penetration into Soviet and Eastern European countries" or emphasize the Reagan administration's anti-communist stance and its attempts to mobilize religious organizations to participate in an anti-communist "peace offensive." We also elaborated on Pope John Paul II’s "New Ostpolitik [9]," which marked a shift from his predecessors' "accommodating attitude" toward socialist countries to a "more proactive and offensive posture." (Cf. pp. 210–222). Regarding political schemes, we repeatedly demonstrated their political goal of "Westernizing Eastern Europe and dismantling the Soviet Empire" based on historical facts. We further stressed that the U.S.–Vatican Holy Alliance, led by the Reagan administration, aimed not only to "de-Sovietize" Eastern Europe and resolve the issue of "Soviet dominance in the region," but also to "collapse the Soviet Empire by Westernizing Eastern European countries, in order to realize the U.S. foreign policy goal of global hegemony." (Cf. p. 323).
Third, based on historical facts, we concretely revealed the overall strategic conception of the U.S.–Vatican Holy Alliance in orchestrating the collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. We pointed out that after the alliance was established in 1982, its first-step goal was to plan and manipulate the upheaval in Poland; its second-step goal was to use the Polish upheaval as a blueprint and breakthrough to plan and manipulate upheavals in the other seven Eastern European countries; and its third-step goal was the disintegration of the Soviet Union. As for how the U.S.–Vatican Holy Alliance and other Western countries specifically implemented this "three-step" strategic conception, one need only consult Chapter 7, Chapter 8, and Section 2 and 4 of Chapter 10 of my book to see it clearly.
Fourth, we emphasized through historical facts that the religious and political penetration of the U.S.–Vatican Holy Alliance into the former Soviet and Eastern European countries did not stop with their collapse. This is manifested, on one hand, in continued U.S. religious penetration in the former Eastern European countries and, on the other, in the implementation of "Color Revolutions" in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Although the U.S. successfully orchestrated the historical upheaval of the former Eastern European socialist countries, it did not let go. After the collapse, the U.S. continued overseas religious penetration and interference; even Poland, used as the breakthrough and laboratory for the upheaval, has been under close monitoring and serious interference by relevant U.S. agencies. (Cf. Chapter 9, Section 2, Subsection 2). Moreover, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the U.S. aggressively pursued "Color Revolutions" in several CIS countries. Since 2003, it planned the so-called "Rose Revolution," "Orange Revolution," and "Tulip Revolution" in Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan, respectively. Although the "Color Revolutions" planned for Belarus and Uzbekistan did not succeed, they caused significant tremors. This is not difficult to understand. The fundamental goal of Western countries led by the U.S. in conducting religious penetration against socialist countries is the total export of capitalist ideology and the comprehensive replication of capitalist society. As long as socialist ideology and its social system are not thoroughly eradicated in these countries, they will not let go.
Finally, although this book gives prominence to the profound influence of overseas religious penetration, it does not attribute the collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe entirely to it. Rather, as we have noted many times, we examine this influence within the broad perspective of the "theory of historical resultant forces" [10]. This theory was first explicitly proposed by Engels in a letter written in 1890. According to this theory, the ultimate result of history is produced not by a single will or force, but by a "resultant force" (合力) generated from "innumerable intersecting forces." (Selected Works of Marx and Engels, Vol. 4, People's Publishing House, 1995, p. 697). Based on this theory, we assert that the upheaval in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, as a historical phenomenon or "historical result," was undoubtedly formed by a "resultant force" generated from "innumerable intersecting forces." This resultant force included both domestic forces within those countries and foreign forces. Among the foreign forces were the anti-communist forces of Western nations led by the U.S. and the anti-communist forces within the Vatican. Among the domestic forces were various political forces influenced and manipulated by overseas hostile powers, as well as religious forces influenced and manipulated by the Vatican. Furthermore, there is no doubt that the various rightist and "leftist" errors committed by the ruling parties of the former Soviet and Eastern European countries during their tenure—including the rigid socialist theoretical models, institutional models, and developmental paths they pursued—were also important causes of the collapse. (Cf. Part 3, Sections 3 and 4). We believe this summary and explanation of the causes of the collapse are grounded in history and are relatively objective and fair.
So much for how we manifested the inherent connection and profound influence of overseas religious penetration. Next, let us discuss how we summarized and generalized the lessons learned by the former Soviet and Eastern European countries in preventing and resisting such penetration. On this issue, I want to address four main points:
First, we focused on revealing and criticizing the accommodating stance generally adopted by the ruling parties of the former Soviet and Eastern European countries in the face of overseas religious penetration. Nikolai Ryzhkov, who served for many years as the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, emphasized when discussing the tragedy of the Soviet collapse that "no one could do anything to our country using only external forces." Therefore, the fundamental reason the collapse occurred was that there was a "Fifth Column" within the Soviet Union that "actually and completely pursued the goals set by the enemies of the Soviet Union." (Nikolai Ivanovich Ryzhkov, The Tragedy of a Great Power: The Causes and Consequences of the Dissolution of the Soviet Union, trans. Xu Changhan et al., Xinhua Publishing House, 2010, p. 3). When Ryzhkov speaks of the "Fifth Column," his edge is clearly directed at Gorbachev as leader of the CPSU. While this assertion simplifies the problem, it is not without merit. As we emphasize in Chapters 3, 4, and 5, it was this very Gorbachev who not only obeyed U.S. President Reagan and British Prime Minister Thatcher, but also visited the Vatican to seek a "humanitarian consensus." It was this Gorbachev who caused the CPSU’s religious policy to turn sharply to the right, completely abandoning atheist education for the masses and the Soviet government’s lawful management of religious affairs. He blindly indulged the penetration and corruption of Party, government, and military departments by domestic and foreign hostile forces using religion, which catalyzed the increasingly serious politicization of religion within the Soviet Union. (Cf. pp. 129–133). It was also this Gorbachev who, while loudly singing the "Sinatra Doctrine" [11], constantly meddled in the affairs of Eastern European countries, acting as a lobbyist for Western nations. We say the Soviet Union was not only "disintegrated" from without but also "self-disintegrated"; we say the Eastern European countries "lost without a fight." The deep-seated reason lies in this numb attitude and accommodating stance taken by the ruling parties toward religious and political penetration. This lesson, written in blood, is undoubtedly one we must earnestly absorb.
Second, we did not only criticize this accommodating stance but also conducted a specific and in-depth analysis of its causes. In this book, we compared the leaders of the ruling parties in the 1980s with the fighters of the Paris Commune in the 1870s. We noted that the Parisian working class, at a time when the Prussian army was at the gates and the French bourgeois Government of National Defense had signed a surrender agreement and decided to suppress the workers, nonetheless launched an armed uprising with undaunted spirit, established the Paris Commune, and defended it with heroic courage. Many sacrificed their lives for the Commune, leading Marx to praise these "Parisians storming heaven" and these "martyrs" who would "forever be celebrated as the glorious pioneers of a new society." (Selected Works of Marx and Engels, Vol. 3, People's Publishing House, 1995, pp. 76, 81). However, in the collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, it seems difficult to find such martyrs. As we pointed out, whether it was Jaruzelski of the Polish United Workers' Party, Kádár of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, Jakeš or Urbánek of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, Zhivkov or Mladenov of the Bulgarian Communist Party, Honecker or Krenz of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, Šuvar or Pančevski of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, Ceaușescu of the Romanian Communist Party, or Gorbachev of the CPSU—none of them deserved the title of hero throughout the upheaval!! (Cf. pp. 332–334).
According to our analysis, a fundamental reason why these leaders did not deserve the title of hero was that they almost all lost without a fight. They did not fight not necessarily because they feared battle, but often because they could not identify their own target of struggle [12]; and they could not identify their target because they lacked an "East-West" consciousness and a sense of "the enemy's situation" (敌情). In his time, Deng Xiaoping clearly emphasized that there are two major issues in the world today: the "East-West" issue and the "North-South" issue. (Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping, Vol. 3, People's Publishing House, 2008, p. 344).
It is difficult to imagine that a leader of the ruling party in a socialist country could effectively lead that country in preventing and resisting religious and political infiltration by foreign hostile forces—effectively safeguarding socialist ideological security and national security—if they completely lacked "East-West" consciousness and socialist consciousness. As we have emphasized in this book, a major inspiration provided by the collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe is that in order to effectively prevent such infiltration and maintain ideological and national security, we must firmly establish an "East-West" consciousness. This bloody lesson is one we must take seriously. Admittedly, with the final curtain falling on the collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, we entered the so-called "post-Cold War era." In this era, although the East-West contradiction no longer constitutes the primary contradiction of the times—having receded to a secondary contradiction—a secondary contradiction is nonetheless still a contradiction. Moreover, since all socialist countries in the current era are either underdeveloped or developing countries, there inevitably exists an "overlapping relationship" or "subordinate relationship" between the "East-West" problem and the "North-South" problem. This gives the conflict between "Westernization" and "anti-Westernization" a character that concerns the overall international situation. In this sense, we might say that this historical lesson from the collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe retains its indelible value as a reference even today.
Third, in this work, we devoted considerable space to investigating the actions of Adam Schaff, a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, during the upheaval in Poland, emphasizing the necessity for scholars in socialist countries—especially those engaged in the philosophy and social sciences—to establish an "East-West" consciousness. One section of this book is titled "The Disorientation and Awakening of an Eastern European Communist," which discusses Schaff. The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch [13] states: "A confused previous thought is that of an ordinary person; a realized subsequent thought is that of a Buddha." Schaff’s disorientation and awakening similarly happened in an instant. That is to say, Schaff was "confused" during the early period of the Polish upheaval because he lacked "East-West" consciousness, but he "realized" during the later period because, in the face of bloody facts, he became aware of the "East-West" issue and gained the ability to think by taking into account both the "domestic" and "international" situations. See pages 334-343 of my book. This demonstrates that not only do leaders of socialist countries need to establish "East-West" consciousness, but even philosophy and social science workers in these countries must do the same, coordinating the two overall situations of domestic and international affairs. Schaff was a very famous scholar in former Eastern European countries, and some of his academic views influenced me personally. In my early book Philosophy of Death, I cited his perspectives. See Duan Dezhi, Philosophy of Death (Hubei People's Publishing House, 1991, pp. 17-18). Perhaps for this reason, I paid special attention to his performance when studying the collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. I believe Schaff’s disorientation and awakening during the Polish upheaval hold significant reference value for scholars like us.
Finally, this work comprehensively summarizes the experience and lessons of religious work in the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries, providing the generalization that "the 'Right' harms the country, and the 'Left' also harms the country." It emphasizes that religious work in socialist countries must persist in fighting on two fronts, taking the active guidance of religion to adapt to socialist society as the primary objective and standard. During the collapse, it was deeply distressing to see religions and religious organizations in some countries "defect" at the critical moment of the upheaval. While this was certainly related to religious and political infiltration by foreign hostile forces and the implementation of a Right-leaning line in religious work, it was also related to the long-term implementation of "Leftist" lines, principles, and policies. For example, the large-scale defection of religious believers during the dissolution of the Soviet Union was not unrelated to the long-term Leftist deviation, especially the "campaigns to eliminate religion" launched in the 1930s and 1950s. See pages 354-355 of my book. This also makes us realize that while religious work in socialist countries is multifaceted, the most fundamental task is to properly solve the problem of adapting religion to socialist society. Without this objective, our religious work is merely "flowery fist and fancy footwork" [14]—a superficial exercise.
Lastly, in responding to and critiquing the contemporary "End of Ideology" theory [15], we mainly focused on the following three areas:
First, based on the scholarly principle of "emerging from history to enter the Dao" [16] proposed by the Qing Dynasty figure Gong Zizhen (see Collected Works of Gong Zizhen, Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 1975, p. 81), we conducted a long-term historical investigation of the international communist movement. On this basis, we pointed out: "Despite the massive negative impact brought to the international communist movement by the collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe... from a long-term perspective, it is merely an interlude in the long history of the international communist movement. Just as the dissolution of the Communist League, the dissolution of the First International, and the bankruptcy of the Second International caused various losses but did not end the movement, while the collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe is a most serious setback, the international communist movement will similarly not terminate because of it. The revival or revitalization of the international communist movement is still to be expected in the near future." See pages 6-7 of my book. Those who preach that socialist ideology and its social system will completely vanish because of these events are either "people of Qi worrying about the sky" [17] or harbor ulterior motives!
Second, based on historical facts during and especially after the collapse, we demonstrated that even in former Soviet and Eastern European countries, although socialist ideology and political systems lost their dominant position, the soil for their existence and development remains. First, in the new state apparatus established after the upheaval, a considerable number of important government personnel stayed in their original units and departments; even after Lech Wałęsa, leader of Poland's Solidarity, was elected president, he retained a large number of so-called "personnel from the old regime." Second, while Communist parties in most of these countries were declared illegal during the collapse, it was not long after that they were not only able to carry out legal activities but also regained the trust of a significant portion of the masses. This phenomenon was particularly prominent in Russia. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation was banned by the authorities after the "August 19" incident in 1991, but was rebuilt in 1993. In the State Duma elections held that year, it received 12% of the vote and 45 seats, becoming the third-largest party; in the 1995 elections, it received 22% of the vote, becoming the largest party. Finally, views on pre-collapse Communist leaders have undergone change. For example, during the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Stalin was the target of unanimous verbal and written attacks by Russian media, but perceptions changed significantly afterward. According to statistics, the percentage of the Russian public who believed Stalin’s contributions outweighed his errors was 28% in 1996, and reached 42% by 2009. See pages 369-372 of my book.
Finally, this work analyzed and critiqued the contemporary "End of Ideology" theory from the perspectives of epistemology and methodology. In China, most scholars' critiques of this theory tend to focus on political science and international relations. Our innovation lies in further analyzing and critiquing it from epistemological and methodological standpoints. We believe that from these perspectives, the contemporary "End of Ideology" theory has two fundamental flaws: one is abstract logocentrism, and the other is narrow empiricism. By abstract logocentrism, we mean that proponents do not strictly proceed from historical facts, but from syllogistic deductions based on their own fabricated logical concepts or abstract axioms. Although their theories come in many varieties, their core proof is nothing more than this syllogism: "(1) (Major premise) Liberal democracy is the goal and end point of human historical development; (2) (Minor premise) The capitalist system is liberal democracy; (3) (Conclusion) The capitalist system is the goal and end point of human historical development." Whether it is Nixon’s "victory without war," Brzezinski’s "failure" thesis, or Fukuyama’s "End of History," they all play the same game; one might say "ten thousand changes without departing from the ancestral source" [18]. Long ago, Francis Bacon denounced such a means of argument as a "sophistical" "Idol of the Theatre" [19]. See pages 33-34 of my book. As for narrow empiricism, it refers to the fact that while the "End of Ideology" theorists do cite some empirical facts from the collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, they do not conduct a seek-truth-from-facts theoretical analysis. Instead, they "infinitely raise things to the level of principle" [20], abruptly and directly deriving the conclusion that capitalist ideology and its social system have already achieved final victory, and that socialist ideology and its social system have exited the stage of history. Francis Bacon called this method an "empirical" "Idol of the Theatre," noting the error lies in "jumping and flying from particular instances to remote axioms and almost the highest general principles" (see Philosophy of Western European Countries from the 16th to 18th Centuries, compiled by the Department of Philosophy, Peking University, Commercial Press, 1975, p. 24), thus committing the error of non sequitur. See pages 34-35 of my book. In this way, we have exposed the "idols" and disguises of the contemporary "End of Ideology" theory from the perspectives of methodology and epistemology, judging their assertions to be nothing more than "false propositions" and their theories a "pseudo-science."
(Author: Professor of Religious Studies, School of Philosophy, Wuhan University) Online Editor: Cai Hong Source: Science and Atheism, Issue 2, 2016