How can you refute Marxism?
I believe that this is an unhelpful way to look at it.
A rise in Marxism is a symptom of humanity’s pandemic of irrationality.
Consider this:
Since 500 CE, the Church has driven a belief in absolute truth (thank God). See quadrant 2 above. Notice that quadrant 3 also has a belief in absolute truth. Moreover, since the faithful are compelled to defer to God’s leadership on truth, they were conditioned to keep an open mind (i.e., that only God could know the absolute truth—absolute truth NOT ascertainable). This is Grace. This is also reason. The atheists (and really the rest of us) will rue the day humanity gave up their imaginary (as the atheists like to ignorantly refer to God) friend.
Unfortunately, the Church also prescribed some truths (Uh oh—the process of reason rejects this). I suppose this was fine so long as this list of revealed absolute truths was limited to the Ten Commandments. But, leaders of the Church misused the power and opportunity of absolute truth to control society (hypocritically I might add), and the people eventually revolted. In 1517 Martin Luther attempted to reform the Catholic Church (the Protestant Reformation). And thus began the end of a belief in absolute truth. Sigh. I suppose it was bound to happen.
With the ascendency of postmodernism, around 1960, absolute truth was fully rejected, and the people began their complete migration from quadrant 2 to quadrant 1. In quadrant 1, the Marxists, postmodernists, leftists, and otherwise irrational people find their homes.
The solution
The above is the cause of the pandemic of irrationality. Uncorrected, society will collapse, but only after first descending into human tyranny (remember the Roman EMPIRE).
Therefore, Marxism is not something to be refuted. Irrational people (the Marxists) will not understand you. To refute is to make an argument. People lost in their subjective truths do not accept the premise of absolute truth and that they cannot claim to KNOW it. In other words, irrational people are not trying to understand.
There are only 2 ways out of quadrant 1 (subjective irrationality and Marxism):
- Quadrant 2 with faith (for intergenerational morality) AND reason (liberty);
- Note also that quadrant 2 is where the tyrants live. Church leadership became tyrants too. Faith only works when revealed truth is minimized and only in the context of faith (see forms of truth below), or …
- Quadrant 3 with reason.
Forms of truth are:
- Absolute truth – The creator’s truth. No one can claim to know it, even though a person or group’s truth may be absolute truth. This is how we keep an open mind. Truths that are absolutely true must meet the sufficient condition.
- Immutable Truth (Faith) – A type of given truth required to be a member of that faith. These truths are ostensibly absolute truths. That is, this truth will not be subject to revision in the future for the faithful of that faith. EVER. If the faithful wish to remain rational, however, they must respect that they cannot know the creator’s absolute truth. Faith is different from absolute truth. Still, the faithful of a particular faith may be absolutely right. They just can never claim to be absolutely right.
- Objective Truth – A truth shared by ALL the stakeholders of a question. If any stakeholder proffers a conflicting truth, then what everyone else knows is effectively a shared subjective truth, even though a near-unanimous majority shares it. It is a hypothesis. Conflicting opinions are respected in this way so that reasoning (pursuit of truth) is always preserved. The good faith dissenter must always be encouraged/protected. So freedom of conscience is key to reason.
- Laws – Laws are subjectively true beliefs respected, though NOT ACCEPTED, as objectively true. Sometimes it is not practical to get to objective truth (agreement by all affected). For objective truth, only one belief (hypothesis) can remain. Testing ordinarily disproves false hypotheses. However, it is often impossible to all test beliefs without implementing a particular belief or “truth.” Thus for these pseudo-objectively true beliefs, a rigorous justice system must be in place (protected by a document preserving freedom of thought and speech) in order to keep laws rational and just. The individuals respecting (not accepting) these pseudo-objective-truths must be empowered to challenge them (the process of reason).
- Subjective truth – Held by an individual or not the entire group. It’s a hypothesis. Ideally, the individual (or subset group) has observations to support it (i.e. good faith). When an individual has a hypothesis that explains the observed, they can be said to have a truth or hypothesis that meets the necessary condition. A subjective truth must meet the necessary condition.
