in Esperanto
EPILOGUE
This is the end of our journey to find out true communism, not fake or self-proclaimed communism. It may seem like a short journey when written down, but it would become a long journey when put into practice.
On this point, Russian literary giant Dostoyevsky has the main character of his unique controversial work Notes from Underground say something like this. Humans like the process of accomplishing things, but they don't like achieving the goal. That's why the goal always remains a process and ends halfway.
If we look at communist society as a goal for human society, the process to reach it can be said to be a "path." If we roughly divide the paths to communism that have been proposed so far, they can be divided into the following three.
○Second path: from socialism to communism
This is the path that the former Soviet Union and the countries under its influence initially tried to follow, starting from a stage where capitalism was underdeveloped, passing through the stage of socialism/collectivism, where all means of production were concentrated in the state, and then reaching communism. Although it was advertised as leading to a new ideology, it failed mid-way and has now been completely abandoned. This path is considered completely failed, with the state itself having ceased to exist in its headquarters of the Soviet Union and its most loyal ally, East Germany.
○Third path: from socialism to communism (nominal)
This is the path pursued by Western European communist parties (particularly the Italian Communist Party), which broke with the second path, ran into the wall of the reality of advanced capitalist development, and effectively merged into capitalism through participation in the capitalist parliament. It was also called "Eurocommunism," but in reality it was abandonment midway and a way to nominal communism.
On the other hand, the Chinese Communist Party, which initially followed the Soviet Union's example and followed the second path, has achieved considerable results by steering toward embedding a market economy within socialism under the doctrine of a "socialist market economy." This can also be called "Chinocommunism," as it is tacitly meant to be the Chinese version of the third way that merges with capitalism, but in reality it is a shelving of communism.
○First path: From capitalism to communism
This is the path to communism originally proposed by Marx, in which the transition to a communist society begins when capitalism reaches its limits.
It may seem out of order to list the first path last, but in reality, this is the path that has literally never been tried anywhere in the world, and it is exactly the path that this series proposes. In that sense, I decided to bring this one last.
It can be said that the second path failed by taking a shortcut on the first path, and the third path avoided the first path and essentially merged with the path to capitalism. In that sense, the first path is the main road to communism. That is why it is the most difficult path, and precisely because it is so difficult, the temptation to take the second and third paths arose.
I must confess that I myself am by no means naively optimistic about the possibility of realizing a communist society. This is because the path to abolishing the monetary economy and state that humanity has built over thousands of years will not be a smooth one. To make this possible, we may need a new kind of "evolution" in the biological sense, rather than will or effort in the usual sense.
As with other living things, changes in the habitat are what promote this new evolution of humans. In order to adapt to the global environment, which is currently deteriorating, the path to communism is the only essential solution, rather than some small-minded technological "environmental countermeasures." When most people in the world realize this principle, the path to communism will be seriously pursued.
This series is a kind of blueprint in preparation for that moment, which the author predicts will arrive within half a century, and is not like a gospel. It is, after all, a blueprint that serves as a starting point for foreseeing the future communist society.
In the first place, communism cannot be a doctrine preached by a single guru; it is itself a communal project in which everyone works together to create the future. Doctrinal books like scriptures are not suitable for this.
As a writer who won't live for another half century, I very much hope that the next half century will see the birth of theories and movements that will use this series as a foundation, but will not water down or distort its contents, but will improve, update, and even surpass them.
