We have seen that a new quality must be introduced for transformation to begin. Yet even this process of transformation has its own motion which revolutionaries must understand. This process is called the leap.
A leap is the motion of change from one quality to another. It is not a single event, but a series of changes wherein one quality is replaced quantitatively, or stage by stage, with another quality. What is single and sudden is the break in continuity. It is highly chaotic and immensely unstable. It is the process of the old quality being destroyed and the struggle to reorganize around the new quality.
Implications for Today
Today we can see this process in society unfolding before our eyes. The introduction of the new quality – electronics – into production has begun a leap in the economy. These new productive forces are increasingly coming into conflict with the productive relations of society, laying the basis for a leap in society and expressed as a social revolution. Institutions, ideas, and relationships that once organized and gave meaning to society are disrupted and torn from their moorings. The struggle to reorganize society around the new productive forces is fought out within this social revolution.
The thinking of the masses of people -- if not necessarily each individual person -- reflect the material conditions. Change these material conditions and the masses of people become open to new ideas that conform to the emerging new conditions. The direction and outcome of the leap is decided by what people think and what they do about what they think.
Under these conditions, the subjective aspects become decisive. Therefore, the task of revolutionaries is to guarantee that an intellectual leap takes place as a reflection of the leap in the objective sphere. Revolutionary activity in the spontaneous movement is no longer an end to itself. The practical movement becomes the battleground for the struggle between the old and new ideas. Our understanding of the quantitative development of the leap shows us the necessity and the rhythm of preparing the masses of people, step by step, for revolution.
Discussion Questions and Readings
1. What is the leap?
2. Discuss the two ideas of transformation addressed in the readings. What are the political implications of the concept that change occurs by "degrees"? What are some examples of this thinking? What are the political implications of the concept that change occurs through a break in continuity, or leaps?
Readings
- O. Kuusinen, "What is a leap?" Fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism. http://www.scienceofsociety.org/philo/texts/leap.html
- G. Plekhanov, "The Materialist Dialectic as Method," Fundamental Problems of Marxism. http://www.scienceofsociety.org/philo/texts/plekhanov2.html
- F. Engels, "Natural Philosophy. The Organic World," Anti-Duhring. ("Despite all the gradualness" to "Hegel who has to correct Herr Duhring.") http://www.marx2mao.org/M&E/AD78i.html#s2 (pp. 82-83)
- Supplemental: J. Madeleine Nash, "When Life Exploded," Time, December 4, 1995. (This article is available for purchase from the Time web site at address below. It costs $2.50.)
3. How is the leap we are in today different from other leaps in history? Compare "The End of Value" with the selection from The Communist Manifesto and the excerpt from Capital. What similarities do you see?
Readings
4. Describe the "law system" of revolutionary work during the period of capitalist stability. Discuss this in terms of quantitative development and qualitative transformation.
5. Discuss the concept of stages of development of the leap. How does it help us understand the process of the leap from one quality to another? What does it tell us about how revolutionaries must approach their work?
6. Discuss the following: "Our task is to guarantee that an intellectual leap takes place as a reflection of the leap in the objective sphere."
Readings
