(On 23/04/16, 03:17:20: Anoop Nobert wrote: "Sir,in Your discussion with Mr Ajay Kabir dated ,15 th April You have stated that hero worship ,individual worship & choosing & fostering one's own icon is an attribute of Feudalism. But sir can the idea of an independent individual not depending on society ( individualism) generate in human consciousness without the advent of Capitalist mode of production? So isn't individualism an offshoot of Capitalism rather than of Feudalism?")
Dear Anup,
To understand the complexity of individual thought process and ideas in present day Indian society, you need to understand the dialectics of human-consciousness and social-consciousness, and the dialectical relationship between the two.
Human consciousness is to be seen as a set of information stored in the brain which is being processed and modified continuously through a complex phenomenon of intermixing of information already available within and being received from environment. The processing and modifications of information are done through transfer of electro-chemical signals between neurons, nerves and sensory organs; in three separate but closely interlinked areas, subconscious and conscious on two ends and intellect in between.
Though the neurons are fixed in numbers and locations, the number of paths of communication between neurons - synaptic gaps - is not fixed but is varying all the time which makes the neural network far more complex than the internet networks which we all are familiar with, paths of which are fixed.
Further, presence of three separate areas of processing, sub-conscious, conscious and intellect, makes human consciousness qualitatively different from animal awareness. In animal awareness the communication of information is back and forth, one dimensional exchange of information, between two nodal areas, sub-conscious and conscious. In human consciousness, the presence of three nodal areas and varying routes between them makes exchange of information multidimensional, far more complex and qualitatively different.
Because of the presence of intellect, human consciousness is capable of creating varied ideas with the same set of information, which endows it with the capability of conceiving things which it has not perceived or in other words imagine things which are not yet in existence, and then it can transform the existing information into new ideas and material things on the basis of imagination and flexing of muscles and limbs.
This capability of imagining and creating something new made it possible for humans to express ideas through spoken words, thus creating spoken and written languages, which no other animal could do. The biological instinct of humans for production of material life collectively with labour, and exchange of information through language, developed a new living organism - 'Society', a living organism without any physical form of its own but having consciousness and characteristics of living human beings. Thus society is not a biological physical formation but is purely ideological formation which resides only in the thought process and ideas of humans. Being a collective thought process of humans, the society also has three tier consciousness - the material-social-consciousness in the form of culture or the way of life of people depending upon their production-distribution relations, the ideological-social-consciousness or the creative ideological activities in the form of art, music, literature etc., and the intellect or logical thought process creating ideologies affecting the political-economy, revealing secrets of nature and developing scientific knowledge and creating technologies, and transforming the socio-economic structure.
Humans with their individual activities, affect the society through the combined effect of their individual and collective efforts, and the society affects humans individually through the result of the organised activity. A group is to be seen as the manifestation of collective consciousness of its members who are bound by the idea of a common goal and activities to achieve that goal. In view of complexity of society, there are multiple organisations with diverse goals, with separate and overlapping interests. Therefore there will be different sets of people acting as carriers of social consciousness of different ideological formations, with lot of segregation, cross-linking and overlapping. Every individual acts as an entity, housing individual consciousness and social consciousness of multiple groups simultaneously. Another thing also has to be kept in mind is that the rate of change and development of social consciousness is far slower compared to the rate of that of individuals. Thus a person may appear to be having many progressive and retrograde ideas at the same time.
Feudal mode of production depends on division of labour on the basis of skill. A producer of a product, who needs various products for consumption, depends on products of others' specialised labour. He sees others' labour as more valuable than his own. Since production is at a very small scale and the product is owned by the labourer, communication between various producers is at personal level and people tend to be more cooperative. Raw material and natural resources are the property of individual lords and kings who are seen as representatives of God. Workers and peasants see rich people as special and superior to themselves. This is the root for hero-worship and icons.
In capitalist mode of production, the skill is transferred to machines and the worker has to provide simple uniform labour power to run and control the machine. He is no more owner of instruments of production and does not own any product. Only thing which he owns is the money which he gets as wages from the capitalist. He does not see others' labour different from his own. He sees that everything is available in the market and there is no discrimination between purchasers. Anyone can buy anything depending upon the money one has.
Religion as an organised ideological product originates from the feudal mode of production, but continues to be an integral part of social consciousness even under capitalist mode of production, though in a modified form, because capitalism also finds it useful in providing credence to the myth that profit is not produced by human labour.
I do not see any mystery that humans who amalgamate into society through empathy, disintegrate into family and then monads, as mode of production transforms from tribal to feudal and then to capitalist mode of production.
Suresh Srivastava
3 May, 2016
Dear Anup,
To understand the complexity of individual thought process and ideas in present day Indian society, you need to understand the dialectics of human-consciousness and social-consciousness, and the dialectical relationship between the two.
Human consciousness is to be seen as a set of information stored in the brain which is being processed and modified continuously through a complex phenomenon of intermixing of information already available within and being received from environment. The processing and modifications of information are done through transfer of electro-chemical signals between neurons, nerves and sensory organs; in three separate but closely interlinked areas, subconscious and conscious on two ends and intellect in between.
Though the neurons are fixed in numbers and locations, the number of paths of communication between neurons - synaptic gaps - is not fixed but is varying all the time which makes the neural network far more complex than the internet networks which we all are familiar with, paths of which are fixed.
Further, presence of three separate areas of processing, sub-conscious, conscious and intellect, makes human consciousness qualitatively different from animal awareness. In animal awareness the communication of information is back and forth, one dimensional exchange of information, between two nodal areas, sub-conscious and conscious. In human consciousness, the presence of three nodal areas and varying routes between them makes exchange of information multidimensional, far more complex and qualitatively different.
Because of the presence of intellect, human consciousness is capable of creating varied ideas with the same set of information, which endows it with the capability of conceiving things which it has not perceived or in other words imagine things which are not yet in existence, and then it can transform the existing information into new ideas and material things on the basis of imagination and flexing of muscles and limbs.
This capability of imagining and creating something new made it possible for humans to express ideas through spoken words, thus creating spoken and written languages, which no other animal could do. The biological instinct of humans for production of material life collectively with labour, and exchange of information through language, developed a new living organism - 'Society', a living organism without any physical form of its own but having consciousness and characteristics of living human beings. Thus society is not a biological physical formation but is purely ideological formation which resides only in the thought process and ideas of humans. Being a collective thought process of humans, the society also has three tier consciousness - the material-social-consciousness in the form of culture or the way of life of people depending upon their production-distribution relations, the ideological-social-consciousness or the creative ideological activities in the form of art, music, literature etc., and the intellect or logical thought process creating ideologies affecting the political-economy, revealing secrets of nature and developing scientific knowledge and creating technologies, and transforming the socio-economic structure.
Humans with their individual activities, affect the society through the combined effect of their individual and collective efforts, and the society affects humans individually through the result of the organised activity. A group is to be seen as the manifestation of collective consciousness of its members who are bound by the idea of a common goal and activities to achieve that goal. In view of complexity of society, there are multiple organisations with diverse goals, with separate and overlapping interests. Therefore there will be different sets of people acting as carriers of social consciousness of different ideological formations, with lot of segregation, cross-linking and overlapping. Every individual acts as an entity, housing individual consciousness and social consciousness of multiple groups simultaneously. Another thing also has to be kept in mind is that the rate of change and development of social consciousness is far slower compared to the rate of that of individuals. Thus a person may appear to be having many progressive and retrograde ideas at the same time.
Feudal mode of production depends on division of labour on the basis of skill. A producer of a product, who needs various products for consumption, depends on products of others' specialised labour. He sees others' labour as more valuable than his own. Since production is at a very small scale and the product is owned by the labourer, communication between various producers is at personal level and people tend to be more cooperative. Raw material and natural resources are the property of individual lords and kings who are seen as representatives of God. Workers and peasants see rich people as special and superior to themselves. This is the root for hero-worship and icons.
In capitalist mode of production, the skill is transferred to machines and the worker has to provide simple uniform labour power to run and control the machine. He is no more owner of instruments of production and does not own any product. Only thing which he owns is the money which he gets as wages from the capitalist. He does not see others' labour different from his own. He sees that everything is available in the market and there is no discrimination between purchasers. Anyone can buy anything depending upon the money one has.
Religion as an organised ideological product originates from the feudal mode of production, but continues to be an integral part of social consciousness even under capitalist mode of production, though in a modified form, because capitalism also finds it useful in providing credence to the myth that profit is not produced by human labour.
I do not see any mystery that humans who amalgamate into society through empathy, disintegrate into family and then monads, as mode of production transforms from tribal to feudal and then to capitalist mode of production.
Suresh Srivastava
3 May, 2016
