p The idea that the socialist and the bourgeois ideologies were incompatible was expressed by Lenin in 1902, when he said that “the only choice is—either bourgeois or socialist ideology. There -> -is no middle course.”  [28•1 

p Today, with the enemies of socialism trying hard to rebut 29 this thesis, with bourgeois scientists actively advocating “ deideologisation” and the reformists and revisionists suggesting an “integration of ideologies”, “emancipation of science from ideology”, etc., it is especially important to consider the objective principles underlying the incompatibility of the socialist and the bourgeois ideologies. They are incompatible because of: 1) the nature of ideology as a social phenomenon; 2) the qualitative features of each of the two ideologies; 3) their distinct attitude to social practice and, accordingly, the different laws of their development; 4) the basically distinct attitude of each ideology to revolutionary struggle; and 5) their essentially opposite content.

p “Let us consider these five points in greater detail.

p 1. The socialist and the bourgeois ideologies are incompatible because of the very nature of ideology as a social phenomenon, which is permeated with the party spirit. What is ideology in general? It is a definite level of social consciousness, or to be more precise, a theoretically systematised and generalised reflection of social relations and social practice through the prism of class interests in the form of political, legal, ethical, aesthetic and philosophic conceptions and views.

p The scientific Marxist conclusion that consciousness reflects being—and social consciousness, social being—inexorably leads to the conclusion that in a world divided into antagonistic systems and antagonistic classes, there can be no common ideology for all. Consequently, it is not a whim but an objective fact that both the bourgeois and the socialist ideologies are permeated with the party spirit, and that is what Lenin had in mind when he wrote that “in a society torn by class antagonisms there can never be a non-class or an above-class ideology. . .”-  [29•1  Consequently, the bourgeois and the socialist ideologies are incompatible and irreconcilable above all because of class divisions, of the objective impossibility of reconciling class interests which are irreconcilable and hostile to each other. In objective reality, the interests of the exploiters and of the exploited never blend; the society based on private capitalist enterprise, and the society based on social property can never be united and brought into a single whole; ideas which are opposed to each other in class substance, content and purpose can never peacefully 30 coexist or be “integrated”. All ideological tricks, like the much-vaunted theory of convergence, which claims that that is possible, always turn out to be—and this will be demonstrated in detail later—nothing but a more or less subtle advocacy of the interests of capitalism, whose postulate is not at all a synthesis but a submergence of the opposite system.

p But that is not the whole point.

p 2. While both contending systems of ideas existing in the modern world have a class basis they are far from being equivalent, just as their class roots are inequivalent.

p The ideology of the working class, while undoubtedly being a party ideology, is simultaneously a profoundly scientific one, giving an objectively true picture of the world, and providing a reliable beacon in practical activity. Lenin wrote that while being the ideology of the proletariat’s class struggle, socialist ideology is simultaneously “founded on the sum-total of human knowledge, presupposes a high level of scientific development, demands scientific work”.  [30•1 

p The conjunction of the scientific view of the world with the scientific programme for its transformation, setting out the scientific ways and means of doing so, led to the discovery of the role of the working class in world history as the grave-digger of capitalism and the builder of socialism. The scientific cognition of social development and of its objective laws coincided with the class purpose of the proletariat in realising the objectively-based historical law, which does not of course operate spontaneously or automatically, but only with the conscious and active participation of the working class. That is precisely why the working class has a vital interest in an adequate, true and scientific reflection of the world and of its objective laws. Truth and science must necessarily be the ideological weapons of the class giving a lead in the struggle for mankind’s radiant future. The world can be transformed only on the basis of a knowledge of its objective laws, and that is why the party interests of the working class imply and require an objective, scientific penetration into the substance of social reality.

p The diametrically opposite class interests impel the bourgeois consciousness to give a distorted reflection of reality. The objective laws of history undermine the bourgeois 31 system and confirm its inevitable destruction, which is why the party spirit of bourgeois ideology goes hand in hand with unscientific social thought.

p Socialist ideology is scientific to the same extent that the Marxist-Leninist social science is ideological, is an organic connection between socialist ideology and science which Lenin emphasised in his call to “carry on propaganda for the proletarian ideology—the theory of scientific socialism, viz., Marxism”.  [31•1  He added: “Marxism is the theory of the proletarian movement for emancipation.”  [31•2 

p At the same time, the Marxist-Leninist doctrine is the highest level in the development of social science, bringing together such of its fundamentals as philosophy, political economy and scientific communism. The party spirit of socialist ideology and the objective nature of scientific knowledge coincide.

p 3. Socialist and bourgeois ideologies develop according to different laws. Socialist ideology, indissolubly connected with the socio-historical practice, quite naturally serves the cause of social progress and is itself constantly and creatively developed, summing up historical experience in the changing objective conditions. The blend of theory and practice in Marxism-Leninism provides an objective basis for the lawgoverned creative development of socialist theory, which is constantly enriched, giving a scientific reflection of the development of reality itself.

p Bourgeois ideology, which by its class essence is hostile to the main line of mankind’s socio-historical practice, is incapable of being enriched or developed or of providing an adequate reflection of this practice. The law underlying the development of bourgeois ideology is adaptation to the changing situation in the world, adaptation in the light of the class interests of the bourgeoisie.

p 4. Socialist and bourgeois ideologies are incompatible also because of their fundamentally distinct attitudes to revolutionary struggle. Lenin stressed that Marxist theory was revolutionary “completely and unconditionally”,  [31•3  for it “combines the quality of being strictly and supremely scientific (being the last word in social science) with that of being 32 revolutionary . . .[and] does so intrinsically and inseparatably”.  [32•1  This is not surprising because socialist scientific ideology “directly sets itself the task of disclosing all the forms of antagonism and exploitation in modern society, tracing their evolution, demonstrating their transitory character. . . and thus serving the proletariat as a means of ending all exploitation as quickly and easily as possible”.  [32•2 

p A basic feature of socialist ideology is the connection between revolutionary theory and revolutionary policy. Lenin wrote: “The Marxian doctrine has fused the theory and practice of the class struggle into one inseparable whole.”  [32•3  Lenin warned that unless Marxism was a combination of revolutionary theory and revolutionary policy, it ceased to be Marxism and “becomes Brentanoism, Struvism and Sombartism”.  [32•4 

p The connection between bourgeois ideology and bourgeois policies means above all that its main edge is directed against the socialist revolution, against socialism. Bourgeois social science has been turning out a succession of new concepts aimed against communism and in defence of capitalism, in an effort if not to frustrate altogether (something it cannot do) then, at any rate, to slow down the revolutionary transformation of the world.

5. The fundamental distinction of class essence and the resultant features of bourgeois and socialist ideologies inevitably make these systems of ideas antithetical, and consequently incompatible in virtue of their whole content. Considerations of any acute and important question of the present day (for instance, the role of the working class in the modern world, the relation between the national and the international, the assessment of the practice of social construction and the prospects for socialist development and other important questions) ultimately always reveal diametrically opposite class attitudes and assessments, which are just as irreconcilable as are science and pseudo-science, truth and falsehood, progress and reaction. It is, of course, not right to say that bourgeois ideology always appears as blatant defence of imperialist reaction. Its class interests are 33 usually very thoroughly covered up with references to scientific “impartiality”, fine talk about humanism, freedom, the interests of the individual, the loftier spiritual values, etc. That is why the struggle against bourgeois ideology necessarily implies an ability to expose it “regardless of the fashionable and striking garb in which it may drape itself”.  [33•1