Alexandr Bogdanov > Quotes

“Your love is like murder.”
― Alexander Bogdanov

“Life's monumental progress and humanity's energies are always accompanied with the massive expansion of social contrasts and contradictions.
It is not hard to understand just how great the significance is of anything that brings a bit of order into this chaos, anything that introduces some organization or contains this disharmony - in other words, the significance of anything that acts as a coercive norm. This is why social creativity in this sphere unfolds with immense energy and gives rise to an immense wealth of forms. It is a result of the harsh necessities of life.”
― Alexander Bogdanov

“Why did you deceive me?” “Would you have listened to me if I had told you the truth straightaway? I did not have time to convince you. It was necessary to distort the truth for the sake of plausibility. Without this transitional stage you would”
― Alexandr Bogdanov, Red Star: The First Bolshevik Utopia

“Scientific and technical rules are one typical example of pragmatic norms. These rules do not coerce anyone to do anything. They only point out more useful ways to reach a specific goal. Their imperative is contingent and hypothetical. Externally coercive norms impose on a person his very goals, or, at the very least, the limits of these goals. Pragmatic norms offer a choice.”
― Alexander Bogdanov

“One must act in a certain way!' ... This imperative not only contains the desire to preserve a prehistoric given form of vital connections but also presupposes a possibility that his form could be disrupted. It expresses the struggle of two forces - the inner contradiction of life. Both sides of a custom find objective expression when its 'norm' is disturbed: this is when 'coercion' enters the scene and puts an end to the disturbance. 'Custom' manifests itself as a coercive norm with a specific sanction.
This opens a whole new sphere of human development.”
― Alexander Bogdanov

“A human enemy does not push us toward the path of progress nearly as forcefully and accurately as our other great and mysteriously enchanted adversary - nature.
The internal social struggle that the individualist takes as the only possible and unquestionably necessary engine of progress in reality appears rather as its barrier. It wastes energy and dissipates the creative attention of men.
Man's struggle with nature - the main and universal engine of progress - is entirely devoid of such detrimental side effects.
Progress may be accomplished with the greatest speed and energy, the greatest versatility and harmony, only in a society that would have comradely cooperation as its form and the whole of humanity as its limit. There the forces of development will become infinite.”
― Alexander Bogdanov

“Undoubtedly, externally coercive norms are necessary for the preservation of life among the contradictions of spontaneous development; however, they accomplish this preservation at the cost of constraining this very development - at the cost of stunting and delaying it. On the other hand, by replacing external crude conflicts with inner contradictions that are born out of coercion, they direct human consciousness toward the production of new forms of life and development all the more strongly - toward forms that would be free from spontaneity, from contradictions and coercion.”
― Alexander Bogdanov

“The struggles between people, competition, and rivalry are all only derivative stimuli for development, concealing the primary stimuli. The latter appear when man meets nature face to face, and when in direct struggle with it he acts as a productive, creative force.”
― Alexander Bogdanov

“While for a philosopher every encounter with a new phenomenon or idea may cause resonant changes and even transform the entirety of his worldview, a philistine files every new discovery into one of many drawers in his brain and then proceeds to lock it, remaining indifferent to the notion that other drawers contain thoughts and facts that are deeply contradictory or, on the contrary, particularly harmonious with the one that he has just compartmentalized.”
― Alexander Bogdanov

“Well then, let’s go. From this moment on, I am your prisoner.” “You are my comrade!” answered Menni.”
― Alexandr Bogdanov, Red Star: The First Bolshevik Utopia

“In contemporary society, a large capitalist enterprise, considered from the point of view of its labor technology, can serve as an example of a highly organized, rich-in-content, and plastic living environment. In this limited sphere, processes of development unfold rather harmoniously. For instance, the introduction of a new technological invention significantly reduces the expenditure of labor power in some given aspect of this production. A series of further changes follow immediately.
This matter appears in an entirely different light when we consider this company in connection with others. The capitalist system is characterized overall by anarchy.”
― Alexander Bogdanov

“Just how much more vivid, bright, and deep must the consciousness of the collective goal be in a society wherein this goal becomes apparent not only in exceptional circumstances, but instead permeates the entirety of social life and becomes directly embodied in the organized system of collective labor.”
― Alexander Bogdanov