1. The historical status of capitalism

In the long history of the development of human society, capitalism has had its glorious years. But every progress it makes contains its own opposite, and ultimately it cannot escape the historical fate of being replaced by a higher social form.

(1) Capitalism played a huge revolutionary role for the first time in history

The replacement of the feudal system by the capitalist system was a great leap in social development. It comprehensively destroyed the social relations and ideology of feudalism and caused a series of revolutionary changes in all areas of social life. Mainly manifested in: The establishment of the capitalist system. The productive forces break through the shackles of feudal production relations, and the rapid growth of social wealth is like a flood that breaks through the gate. "The productive forces created by the bourgeoisie in its less than a hundred years of class rule are more numerous and greater than the total productive forces created by all previous ages. The conquest of natural forces, the introduction of machinery, the role of chemistry in industry and agriculture The application of water, the movement of ships, the passage of railways, the use of telegraphs, the reclamation of the entire continent, the navigation of rivers, etc., all of this is incomparable to the past era.

Capitalism not only eliminated feudal separatism and established a country unified by factories, but also eliminated ancient national industries. Many countries have realized industrialization and commercialization and socialization of production, and opened up the world market. Capitalism has turned the world into an open world, making the production and consumption of all countries global, and creating a new pattern of interdependence, penetration and competition among the economies of various countries.

This is true for material production, and this is true for spiritual production of electricity. The capitalist system has brought an unprecedented new situation to the development of science, education, and culture. In the ideological field, bourgeois thinkers started from the bourgeois theory of "human nature", held high the banner of rational principles, and ruthlessly criticized the feudal autocratic system and the religious theology that maintained it. Using the slogans of "freedom, equality, fraternity" and "natural human rights", they broke through the spiritual shackles of feudal autocracy since the Middle Ages, thus bringing a great spiritual liberation to mankind.

The reason why capitalism is The fundamental reason why it can play a revolutionary role in history is that it complies with the objective laws of historical development, breaks the decadent feudal ownership production relations that restrict the development of productive forces, establishes capitalist production relations, and opens up a broad path for the development of productive forces.

(2) Every progress of capitalism contains its opposite.

The establishment of capitalist production relations meets the needs of the development of productive forces, but it is replaced by a kind of private ownership. Another kind of private ownership replaces another kind of exploitation system with one kind of exploitation system. Capitalist private ownership and the wage labor system based on it are the root of all the negative aspects of the capitalist system. It liberated the productive forces and promoted the development and progress of the factory productivity. However, the progress of the productive forces was accompanied by the deepening of the exploitation and oppression of the working people. It became a means and material force for the bourgeoisie to exploit workers and make themselves rich. The opposition between the progress of capitalism and the conservative private ownership system of capitalism, and the opposition between the development of capitalism and the working class that develops with it, is obvious. This opposition contains elements of negation of capitalism and the bourgeoisie. Production relations and social relations are constantly being adjusted, but in the final analysis this adjustment is to keep the basis of its existence unchanged, which is the wage labor system based on capitalist private ownership and the developing productive forces. , the contradiction between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat is insurmountable by the capitalist system itself.

Capitalism provides material conditions for benefiting and liberating mankind, but it uses these material conditions to destroy mankind. The further liberation has pushed mankind into the abyss of disaster.

Capitalism has created huge wealth, but at the same time it has brought about huge waste and destruction of social wealth.

Capitalism. The country's science, culture, and education have made great progress, but at the same time, the social atmosphere has been corrupted, the spiritual morality has been decadent, and social security has deteriorated. This forms a clear contrast.

In short, after the prosperity and progress of capitalism, there is an increasingly deepening inevitability of social capitalism transforming into a higher social form.

2. The historical inevitability of replacing capitalism with socialism

The founders of scientific socialism, Marx and Engels, wrote in the "Communist Manifesto" more than 100 years ago , clearly put forward an important conclusion: capitalism must perish and communism must win. The main destruction of this truth they revealed was not due to their hatred of capitalism and their yearning for socialism, but based on the scientific analysis of capitalist economic movements. The basic contradiction in capitalist society is the contradiction between the socialization of production and the capitalist private ownership of the means of production. The characteristic of capitalist productivity is the socialization of production. Since socialized production no longer has the nature of individual private production, it denies the basis for private ownership of the means of production and labor products. The socialization of production requires changes in capitalist production relations based on private ownership of the means of production. This is because productivity determines production relations, and production relations must conform to the laws of productivity, and are not subject to human will.

In factories under the capitalist system, the means of production used jointly by the vast majority of workers belong to the private possession of capitalists; although the production process has become a social action of many workers jointly and collaboratively, the organization and It is the capitalists and their agents who manage this socialization of production; the social products jointly created by many workers are also privately owned by the capitalists. This creates an irreconcilable contradiction between capitalist private ownership and socialized large-scale production. This contradiction mainly manifests itself as: in terms of production, it manifests as the contradiction between the organized production of individual enterprises and the anarchy of the production of the entire society; in terms of the relationship between production and consumption, it manifests as the tendency of capitalists to expand unlimited production in pursuit of surplus value. The contradiction between the demand of millions of working people and their ability to pay is relatively reduced; in terms of class relations, it is manifested as the contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. The contradiction between the socialization of production and capitalist private appropriation is the general source of all contradictions and conflicts in capitalist society, and determines the historical destiny of capitalism's inevitable demise.

As the degree of socialization of capitalist production continues to increase, the contradiction between it and capitalist private ownership has become increasingly acute, and the various social contradictions arising from this contradiction have also become increasingly acute. . Capitalism breeds revolution. This revolution is based on the law that production relations must adapt to the conditions of productive forces. Socialist public ownership of the means of production replaces the private ownership of capitalist means of production. The capitalist system transforms into a higher social form - socialism. This is the inevitable result of the development of the basic contradictions of capitalism, and the socialization of production is the revolutionary factor that determines this transformation. This is because, with the development of socialization of production, the shell of capitalist ownership relations has gradually become unable to accommodate it, so the development of productive forces has been directed at the capitalist system, and this shell is about to be blown up.

The development of capitalism not only created the material and technical force that destroyed capitalist production relations - socialized large-scale production, but also with the development of capitalism, the ranks of the working class continued to expand and their quality improved day by day.

In capitalist society, the proletariat is at the bottom of society. It has nothing but selling its labor power. It suffers cruel economic exploitation, is deeply oppressed politically, and has no rights of its own. What needs to be protected, its class interests are consistent with the historical trend of capitalist development - the replacement of capitalism by socialism, compared with other working classes. The most revolutionary thoroughness and firmness. The proletariat is also the representative of advanced productive forces. It is connected with large machine industry and has strict organization, discipline and unity spirit. Socialized human production makes the proletariat increasingly become an organic whole. The proletariat has the same fundamental interests as other working classes in capitalist society. Therefore, it can unite the working people and form a mighty revolutionary army, which can smash the old capitalist world and create a new socialist world. world.

The social status and class characteristics of the proletariat determine that the historical mission of the proletariat is to overthrow capitalism and build socialism. The proletariat is the gravedigger of capitalism and the social force that realizes the transition from capitalism to socialism. The inevitability of the transition from capitalism to socialism is achieved through the conscious actions of the proletariat.

To sum up, the transformation from capitalism to socialism is the inevitable result of the contradictory movement of productive forces and production relations in capitalist society, and the inevitable outcome of the development of class struggle between the two antagonistic classes in capitalist society. .