p The starting proposition in modern social thought is that in our age the development of social labour and of science afford an ample opportunity to produce an abundance of material and spiritual goods for all men on the globe. “Under the socialist system of economy, scientific and technical progress enables man to employ the riches and forces of nature most effectively in the interests of the people, to discover new forms of energy and to create new materials, to develop means of weather control, and to master outer space. Application of science in production becomes a decisive factor for the rapid growth of the productive forces of society,” says the CPSU Programme.  [258•1 

Never before has the development of the natural sciences run so closely with the development of social thought as it does today, when the question of realising and using for man’s benefit the vast achievements in the science of nature inevitably comes up against the question of the social conditions necessary for doing so, the question of capitalism, which slows down or distorts the use of such achievements. Bourgeois scientists pondering the use of scientific achievements in human life, 259 come up on every hand against obstacles thrown up by the capitalist system. On the other hand, any idea of the prospects of social development must now take account of the level of scientific and technological development, and the use of nuclear energy, remote control, automation and computers. This is one of the characteristic features of the development of social thought in our day. Close attention to the development of the natural sciences and the use of their achievements in human life is due not only to the vast prospects opening up before science in the atomic age, but also to the fact that ours is an age in which the great social energy of the masses is being revealed, incontestably showing that capitalism has become a drag on the development of human society and a barrier in the way of progress. There is now a new social organisation of society on the globe which ensures the solution of the great problem of mankind’s progressive development. The struggle between the forces of socialism and the forces of capitalism gives social thought its direction.