The Juche Idea(Series 3)

The Juche-oriented View of the World

Series 3 deals with the view of the world newly clarified by the Juche philosophy.

The view of the world is an important component of the philosophical world outlook and constitutes one of its basic contents.

The view of the world means how the world is approached and explained. In other words, it is a view of what the world is and how it changes and develops.

As man lives in the world and shapes his destiny while transforming the world, it is very important for him to know what the world is. It is obvious that it is impossible to transform the world without knowing it.

Due to the limitations of philosophical thinking, however, a correct view of the world was not given in the past. Hence, there were many failures and turns and twists, in transforming the world and it was impossible to achieve greater success. in this work.

It is only in our times that a correct view of the world was clarified perfectly.

The Juche philosophy elucidated a new view of the world on the basis of a new philosophical clarification of man.

Let us consider it now.

1. What Is the World?

The question of what is the world is the clarification of the essence of the world.

The Juche philosophy gives a new scientific answer to this question by focussing on man.

The great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il said.

“That the world is dominated and reshaped by man is a new viewpoint on the world in relation to man.”

The appearance of the world underwent a fundamental change with the emergence of man, a special being, in a long process of the evolution of nature.

With the birth of man, there appeared the master of the world that became to play a decisive role in the change and development of the world.

Hence, the world should be considered by focussing on man in order to have a correct view of it. If man, who holds the position of master in the world and plays a decisive role in its change and development, is turned away and ignored, it is impossible at all to know what the world is.

Only when the world is considered by focussing on man, can it be said that the world is the object which is dominated and transformed by man.

△ The world is the object which is dominated by man.

Man is no more than a minute being when the infinite universe is considered. In the past the view that man is dependent on the world was prevalent. On the contrary, there was no such view that the world is dominated by man. Only the Juche philosophy elucidated the new view that the world is dominated by man.

Then, is it correct that the world is the object dominated by man?

The world where man lives consists of man and the surroundings. It largely consists of nature and society.

Let’s consider first the relation between man and nature.

Nature is a part of the surrounding world where people live. Man breathes, drinks and obtains all sorts of material means for his existence in nature. Apart from nature,　therefore, man can not live. Should one think for this reason that man is subordinated to nature and nature dominates man? At a first glance, one may think so. People sometimes suffer great misfortunes from unfavourable natural conditions such as volcano, earthquake, drought and heavy rain, but sometimes they live happily thanks to fine natural environment.

Living in such circumstances, people in the past thought that the good and evil in man’s life, i.e., the destiny of man is determined by Heaven. But this is a superficial view which exaggerates too much the influence of nature and a wrong view which advocates fatalism.

If the relation between man and nature is considered by focussing on man, there will be quite a contrary view that man is not subordinated to nature, but nature is dominated by man.

Man does not adapt himself to unfavourable natural conditions like animals, nor does he seek for favourable ones. People build cool houses in the tropical regions but warm ones in the arctic regions. They irrigate dry land and reclaim waste land to make it fertile. They make a good use of hydro, wind and nuclear power as heat and power resources with the help of scientific and technical means. Many examples can be taken to prove that people make nature serve them. Nature is infinite and the strength of nature is huge, but it is a part of the world which is dominated by man.

The same can be said of the relation between man and society. With the birth of man, a special sphere which is called “society” came into being to be included into the world.

Society, along with nature, is an important environment of man’s life. People live and develop in the social relationship by forming a social collective and uniting their strength and wisdom. Just as man can not live without nature, he can not exist apart from society.

Though society, unlike nature, is a world formed by man, he is influenced and restricted by it.

Man lives and conducts his activity in keeping with the given social system and material and mental conditions. In the feudal system farmers have to live on tenant farming and in the capitalist system workers have to live by selling their labour. That man is influenced and restricted by society finds its expression clearly and seriously in the fact that the working people in the exploiter society suffer harsh exploitation and oppression.

Since the appearance of the exploiter system in the history of humankind, millions and tens of millions of working people have been deprived of their dignity and value as human beings and overdriven like a beast of a burden. They had to live in hunger, poverty, hard labour and ill-treatment due to harsh exploitation and oppression. It is the reality of the exploiter society that the working people can never change their situation however they work their fingers to the bones.

Such phenomena show that man, free from the fetters of nature, is subordinated to the society built by himself. Some people deplore that man has become a slave of his product and some think that they can not escape from sufferings, hard labour, and slavery and , believe in religion to enjoy a happy and comfortable life in the next world.

Is this indeed the essential aspect of the relation between man and society? No.

Man is not at all a being subordinated to society. Man is not a passive being that is only influenced and restricted by society.

If one correctly sees through the reality of society, it can be said that it is not society that dominates man but vice versa.

Through their positive activities, people improve society continuously to meet their demand and interests by changing the outdated, contradictory and inhuman society in which money and goods are appreciated, into more progressive and rational one. Looking back upon history, human society has been replaced from the slave owing society to the feudal society, from the feudal society to the capitalist society, from the capitalist society to the socialist society, the cradle of life in which man was free from the social bondage, for the first time and became genuine master. Though such a change is accompanied by a complicated process, it clearly proves that man is the dominator of society and this can be said to be the truth of the relation between man and society.

As is seen, man is not subordinated to nature and society, but dominates them. Therefore, the world is, in fact, an object which is dominated by man.

The infinite world which humankind has thought so mysterious is no more than an object dominated by man.

There is something to which one must pay attention in understanding the view that the world is dominated by man.

This is that the view the world is dominated by man doesn’t mean that everything in the world is dominated by man actually.

Even from the point of view of today, to say nothing of ancient times, man does not dominate all spheres of the world. In other words, man is not yet free completely from the fetters of nature and society.

According to information, during the past 100 years 15 million people died in a hundred thousand cases of natural calamities. This means that man is not yet able to prevent all natural damages and reform natural environment to meet his desire for independence. The contradictory exploiter systems which trample down man’s independence still remain to a large degree in the social scope, too. Moreover man’s domination over society has not been fully realized because a land of bliss has not been built for the people to enjoy independence to the full.

Whether man actually dominates the whole world is not the same as that the world is dominated by man. The scope of man’s domination of the world in a certain stage of historical development and the question of whether man can dominate the world or not are different questions.

That the world is dominated by man does not mean that man actually dominates the whole world, but that the world is the object of man’s domination and that man dominates the world.

As history proves, in the early days of the birth of mankind. People were so frightened at natural phenomena such as thunder and lightening and used to pray to God, but they are now conquering the universe.

As history advances and man develops, the infinite world will be more and more under the control of man.

We have so far dealt with the question that the world is the object dominated by man. This is one of the aspects of the view of what the world is and how to understand the essence of the world.

Now let us consider another aspect of this view.

△ The world is the object which is transformed by man.

That the world is the object which is transformed by man means that the things and phenomena of the world are transformed into the world that serves man through his role. Man, while living in the world, shapes his destiny by transforming the world to meet his will and demand.

That the world is transformed by man is proved well by the process of the change and development of nature and society through his role.

Now, let’s see the change and development of nature brought about by man’s role.

Man’s huge creations such as factories, enterprises, towns and countrysides covering the surface of the earth are clear scenes of the transformation of nature by man.

People not only transform the surface of the material world but also change the inner structure of materials to create a lot of new substances which do not exist in nature. For example, they produce calcium hydroxide, carbide, vinalon and vinyl chloride with limestone and change genes to make new varieties of fauna and flora. People develop and use new fuel and power resources and make various kinds of technical means to replace man’s physical and mental labour. Mankind exploited coal and petroleum already a long time ago and changed them into fuel and raw materials. They made weaving, ploughing and loading and unloading machines to replace man’s physical labour. Today they make computers and intellectual robots to replace even man’s mental labour to a large extent.

The transformation of nature by man can be known clearly without further explanation and illustration.

The transformation of the world by man can also be clearly shown in the social sphere.

Society came into being together with man’s emergence and it is a part of the world that was formed by man. Therefore, in the social sphere, unlike in the natural sphere everything is transformed and developed by man. All material and spiritual wealth of society is created and developed by man and all kinds of social relationship are formed and changed by man. As a result, society is more and more changed into one better to live in for people.

As is seen, man is the transformer of the world and the world is the object of transformation by man.

There is one question that must be made clear in connection with that the world is transformed by man.

It is that the view that the world is transformed by man should not be understood as that all changes of the world are made by man.

There are innumerable changes and developments in the world, which are made independent of man. This is an undeniable fact in view of the long process of the evolution of the universe in the past and the present.

Needless to say, the movement and change of the sun, the planets, the galaxy and stars in the space, are not made by man, but which are the process of change of nature itself. It is also obvious that diastrophism and the motion of wind and ocean current on earth are the changes which have no connection with man. Hence, the transformation of the world by man neither includes all the changes of the world nor means the changes of the world in general.

Therefore, that the world is transformed by man does not mean that all the changes of the world are made by man, but that the world is ceaselessly transformed by man.

As man develops, more and more things and phenomena of the world are transformed by man and the extent of transformation of the world by man increases ceaselessly. Although there are objects and sphere in the world which have not yet been transformed by man in the world there are no objects or spheres that man can not transform.

The two aspects of the essence of the world, that is, that the world is dominated by man and that the world is transformed by man are inseparably connected with each other.

If man fails to transform the world and adapts himself to the given environments, he can not dominate the world, and if man fails to dominate the world and is subordinated to the given environments, he is unable to transform the world.

The increase of the extent of domination of the world by man and that of transformation of the world by man are also inseparably connected with each other. The extent of man’s domination of the world increases in accordance with the increase of the extent of man’s transformation of the world, and the former is the basis of the latter. In such relationship the world is all the more dominated and transformed by man.

△ Why is the world the object which is dominated and transformed by man?

The world is dominated and transformed by man, because, first of all, man is the most developed and powerful being in the world.

As we have seen above, man is the social being with independence, creativity and consciousness.

Because man is a being with independence, he does not tolerate any fetters and subjugation of the surrounding world, and transforms actively the surrounding world by his own efforts to be free from them. In the long run, he gets free from them and subordinates the surrounding world to him. Nevertheless animals, however developed they may be, can not resist the fetters of nature and will become extinct unless they adapt themselves to nature, because they have no independence. That is why animals are unable to separate themselves from nature and are subordinated to it.

Let us take an example to give a clear idea of it.

For they have only instinctive desire, cows and horses silently work for people to their last if only they are fed. Man, however, is a social being with independence, so he fights resolutely against being used as “talking instrument” and as the means for accumulation of wealth and becomes the master of society and his own destiny.

Man is a social being with creativity. Because he has creativity, man, in keeping with his own will and demand changes and transforms the world to be more useful and beneficial to him.

No other material beings except man have creativity and so they fail to transform and change the world in keeping with their desire.

It is a known fact that when a thick forest is burnt animals there move to other habitats. But people plant trees in the forest again to make it thicker and useful. Animals wander to look for water, but people dig a well or build irrigation works to secure water resources. This shows that only man with creativity transforms and change the world.

Man is a conscious being who understands the world and himself and regulates and controls his activity. Because he has consciousness, he dominates the objective world which is moving spontaneously, purposefully transforming and changing it .

Elephants and whales are most muscular in the natural world, but they are helpless before the caprice and mystery of nature and subordinated to it because they have no consciousness.

Consciousness is indeed the basic factor which makes the human being most developed and powerful.

Because man is a social being with independence, creativity and consciousness, the world is inevitably transformed and dominated by man.

Another reason why the world is dominated and transformed by man is that it consists of materials and that all things and phenomena in the world move according to a definite law.

The world is the material world which is made of materials. This means that the origin of the world is material.

Myriad of forms of things which exist in the world are all materials. There are no other beings in the world but material. Material can neither disappear nor come into being. It can only be converted from one shape to another one.

The world is integrated with materials. This means that there is only material world in the world. There cannot be the “world of spirits” or the “world of gods”. The “world of spirits” is nothing but the reflection of the material world in the brain of human being. The “world of gods” is a whooping lie fabricated by religious men. Although the world is everlasting and unlimited in terms of time and space, it is only the material world which is integrated with materials.

Because the world is made of and integrated with materials, man is able to dominate and transform it. If the world is mysterious, man can neither understand nor transform the world and accordingly he can not dominate it.

The world is interlinked in general and moves according to its own law.

All things and phenomena in the world are closely interrelated with each other. This means that they are dependent on and restricted to each other. There is not a single thing or a phenomenon in the world which is outside correlation and is isolated.

All things and phenomena in the world are interrelated with each other directly or indirectly, internally or externally and in terms of space or time.

The forms of their relation are various such as the relation between cause and effect, between possibility and reality, between form and content and etc.

Essential, inevitable and general among these relations is the law.

The world changes and develops continuously. There is not a single thing or phenomenon which is unchangeable and immutable for ever in the world.

The change and development of the world is not an accumulation of confusion and disorder; it is made according to a certain law. The change and development of nature is made according to the laws of physical, chemical and biological movement, whereas that of society is made according to the laws of social movement.

Since the things and phenomena in the world are closely linked with each other and ceaselessly change and develop according to a certain law, man can understand and make a use of them and transform the world in keeping with his own will and demand. Accordingly the world is transformed by man. If all the things and phenomena in the world are isolated from each other and are immutable or if they move in disorder not in conformity with a certain rule, man is not able to understand and transform any thing and phenomenon, and it is impossible for man to transform the world.

So far, we have considered that the world is the object which is dominated and transformed by man. In other words, the Juche-oriented view of the essence of the world has been considered.

Now let’s consider the principles and laws of the change and development of the world.

2. How Does the World Change and Develop?

The great leader Comrade Kim Jong Il said.

“It(the Juche idea) explicated …the law that governs the domination, transformation and development of the world by man.”

The world is dominated and transformed by man. This is done in accordance with certain principles and laws.

Only when man knows this, can he dominate and transform the world purposefully and consciously.

Then, what is the law of the domination, transformation and development of the world?

△ The world is transformed and developed by man’s positive activity.

By what factor is the world transformed and developed? Various factors influence the transformation and change of the world. They can largely be classified into the objective factor and the subjective factor. The objective factor is technical means or social relationship, and the subjective factor is the positive activity of people themselves.

The main factor amongst the two is always the positive activity of people. This is because it is only through people’s positive activity that the world is transformed and developed and the objective factor influencing on it is also created and used. Therefore, that the world is transformed and developed by man’s positive activity is the law which clarifies the main factor of the transformation and development of the world, we can say.

That the world is transformed and developed by man’s positive activity means that it is transformed and developed by the independent, creative and conscious activity of man.

Then, what is the reason, condition and inevitability of the world being transformed and developed by man’s positive activity?

They are, first of all, because man has the desire for independence and the ability to realize it.

The desire for independence of man who is desirous of living and developing independently as master of the world is his intrinsic demand. Therefore, it pushes man toward realizing it. Man has creative activity to realize his desire for independence. Man transforms and changes nature and society in keeping with his desire for independence by drawing on his creative ability.

They also lie in that the surrounding world is not transformed by itself to meet man’s demand for independence. The surrounding world does not bestow only favours on people at all. There are many cases when the surrounding world brings disasters to people. It is true that many people suffer from disasters and hardships due to natural calamities and social evils.

Because of such reason and condition, man conducts a positive activity to realize his independence and the world is ceaselessly transformed and developed thanks to his activity.

This shows that the transformation and development of the world by man’s positive activity is lawful.

Then how is the transformation and development of the world by man’s positive activity expressed?

It is clearly expressed through the transformation and development of nature and society.

The land where all kinds of cereals and fruits are abundant, the irrigation networks, modern and efficient technical means, magnificent buildings in towns and countryside. Were they made by mystery of nature itself? Or are they the creations of “God” as religious men say? No. They are the changes of nature by man’s positive activity. Even a little and trifle thing in the transformation and development of nature can not be made without man’s positive activity.

The change and development of society is all the more so. Since the dawn of history, society has been changed and developed from the primitive society to the socialist society through the slave-owning, feudal and capitalist societies.

Was this made naturally just as day comes after night and spring comes after winter? Or was this made spontaneously by the action of material conditions of society? Neither of them is true. That was possible only by man’s positive activity. In other words, it is the fruition and gains of people’s bloody struggle. Such historical facts show that it is the universal truth that the world is transformed and developed only by man’s positive activity.

Let’s consider now the other aspect of the law of the domination, transformation and development of the world by man.

△ The world is changed in the direction of serving man.

That the world is changed to serve man means that it develops in the direction of realizing man’s independence better. In other words, it means that the world develops in the direction of enhancing man’s position in the world. This is the law which clarifies the direction of the development of the world.

Then why is the world changed to serve man? What is the necessity?

Originally the world neither came into being to serve man nor develops towards that direction. The Bible says that “God” created man and created the world for man to live in. But nobody in modern times believes this.

The change of the world into one to serve man was possible only after the birth of man who conducts activity to transform and change it.

The basic aim of man’s activity to transform and change the world is to make the world serve him. The transformation and change of the world itself is not the aim of man’s activity. Man conducts activity to transform and change the world ceaselessly in order to create more favourable environment and conditions for his living.

Meanwhile, the demand and ability of people to live independently while dominating the world increase continuously through their life and practical activity. Therefore, people’s activity to make the world serve them continues from generation to generation. For such reason and condition, the world is inevitably changed in the direction of serving man better.

Then how does the world change and develop towards the direction of serving man?

First of all, the sphere dominated by man and the objects which serve man continue to increase.

In the early days of human society the sphere of the world dominated by people was very confined and the objects which served man were trifling. However, the sphere of domination by man has been increased continuously along with the advancement of human history. Today, the sphere is being extended to the heavenly bodies in the universe going beyond the bounds of the earth and the objects which serve man have increased accordingly. People have launched thousands of artificial satellites, sent explorers to Mars and Venus and landed on moon. Perhaps man-made factories and towns will be built in the space in the near future.

The change and development of the world is also made in the direction of the further increase of the extent of man’s domination of the world and of the continuous rise in the qualitative level of the objects which serve man.

At the dawn of human society, the level of man’s domination of the world was only visible and touchable and the qualitative state of the objects which served man was primitive.

The extent of the domination of nature by the primitives was such that they trimmed stones to make tools, used the leather of animals as their clothes and lived in caves. No big differences were found between them and natural things. However, in our times, passing through the ancient times and the mediaeval ages, stone tools were changed into computers and robots, clothes made of animals’ leather into those made of nylon, vinalon and other fabrics, and cave houses into magnificent sky scrapers. Man has developed nuclear physics and gene engineering to delve into the microscopic world and changed it into the world that serves man.

That the world is changed in the direction of serving man is the inevitability and main trend of history. This shows that the change of the world in the direction of serving man is the principle law of the domination, transformation and development of the world by man.

There is another important principle and law of the domination, transformation and development of the world by man.

△ The world is transformed and developed more quickly as man develops.

That the transformation and development of man is quickened with the development of man means that it is accelerated as man develops and his role enhances. In other words, it means that the process of the transformation and development of the world is more quick at present than in the past and that it will be faster in the future than at present.

Then why is this inevitable and lawful?

It has to do with the fact that the development of man, who transforms the world, is accelerated.

Man transforms and changes nature and society and, at the same time, he develops himself, too. The process of transforming and changing nature and society by man is the process of increasing his own independent ideological consciousness and creative ability.

Man not only acquires experience and lessons in each period and at each stage but also the progressive ideas and knowledge accumulated by humanity, thus considerably raising their independent ideological consciousness and creative ability. As social relations of cooperation become ever closer and extended and rely more and more on ever-increasing and improving scientific and technical means, the creative ability of people increases up precedentedly and very rapidly. Today, science and technology develop very fast beyond imagination. Along with the progress of history, the strength and wisdom of man develop at an exponential rate.

With the acceleration of human development, the creative role of man as the one who transforms the world considerably enhances and expands, and accordingly, the process of the transformation and development of the world is inevitably promoted more rapidly.

The process of the acceleration of transformation and development of the world along with human development is proved by historical facts.

The process of the transformation and development of nature has been accelerated historically along with human development.

The transition from stone tools, the first working instrument of humanity, to iron tools took hundreds of thousands of years. It took over a thousand years to change the hand mill with the steam-powered mill, but it took only decades to realize the automation of the production process since the invention of an automatic machine.

The process of the transformation and development of society has also been accelerated historically along with human development.

The primitive society developed very slowly and went over to the slave-owing society six thousand years ago. When the appearance of mankind is estimated to be several million years ago, the period of the existence of the primitive society was very long compared to the whole period of socio-historical development up to date since its fall. The slave-owing society existed for nearly about four thousand years and the feudal society for about a thousand or a thousand and five hundred years. The socialist society emerged in less than hundreds of years since the emergence of capitalist society. This tells that as society developed, the exploiter society became gradually more short-lived and the speed of the development of society became faster.

The speed of the development of the socialist society where people are masters of the state and society is incomparably faster than that of any other society. In the socialist society, miracles and innovations occur day after day, bringing about epoch-making changes, with the result that society develops unusually fast.

The acceleration of the transformation and development of the world along with the development of man is one of the important principles and laws of the domination, transformation and development of the world by man.

As we have seen, the Juche philosophy, by focussing on man, clarifies scientifically by what factors and in what direction and trend the world is transformed and developed.

△ What is the originality and advantage of the Juche oriented view of the laws of 　 the change and development of the world?

Marxism put forth the materialistic dialectic view of the laws of the change and development of the world. This view consists of three laws. They are the law of unity and conflict of the opposites, the law of transition from quantitative change to qualitative change and the law of negation of negation.

The law of unity and conflict of the opposites is that all things and phenomena in the world consist of the opposites and that they change and develop by the conflict of the opposites. The law of transition from quantitative change to qualitative change is that when the quantitative change of all things and phenomena is accumulated to reach a certain point, qualitative change is brought about. And the law of negation of negation is that all things and phenomena develop through the process of negation of negation from a lower stage to a higher stage.

Marxist materialistic dialectics has a certain significance in overcoming idealism and metaphysics, but it has serious limitation.

It considered the change and development of the world as the spontaneous process of history which takes place through the interaction of materials that exist objectively, not as the process of transformation and development by the volitional action of man. Therefore, it could not evade from onesidedness. It reflected mainly the historical reality of the exploiter society where class contradiction and conflict are the essence of the social relations. Hence some of its content do not fit with the reality of the socialist society where unity and co-operation of people are the essence of the social relations. In particular, this is true of the law of unity and conflict of the opposites, the core of Marxist materialistic dialectics.

Marxist materialistic dialectics fails to directly clarify the basic way of shaping man’s destiny. The truth that man is the master of his own destiny and that he must shape his destiny by his own efforts does not come from Marxist materialistic dialectics.

Its limitation was overcome by the laws of the change and development of the world elucidated by the Juche philosophy.

Then what is the originality and advantage of these laws clarified by the Juche philosophy?

The Juche philosophy newly clarified the laws of the domination transformation and development of the world by man which were not elucidated by Marxist materialistic dialectics. The view is original for it comes from the new philosophical principle that man is the master of everything and decides everything, not from the philosophical principle of the primacy of matter.

It is only thanks to the new clarification by the Juche philosophy, of the law of the domination, transformation and development of the world by man that a new view of the world has been newly developed and perfected, the premise capable of clarifying an absolutely correct viewpoint and attitude towards the world been shown and the most correct guideline that enables people to shape their destiny in a responsible way been provided.

The Juche-oriented view of the world helps people foresee the future. and be convinced of it. This means that they are convinced of the fact that the world changes more quickly into one for the good of man by their positive activity and that in this world they will enjoy a freer and happier life.