4. Errors in the Communist Theory of Art Seen from the Perspective of Unification Thought
What are the causes of the errors of socialist realism? First, socialist realism does not regard art as the “activity of creating beauty and joy for the whole (creation) as well as for oneself (appreciation) while respecting the individuality of the artist,” but as a means of educating the people, while conforming to Party policy. Artists should manifest their individuality in their work to the utmost degree. By so doing, they please God and other people. Socialist realism, however, has deprived artists of their individual expression and has standardized all works of art. Therefore, there is no way for true art to be born out of it.
Second, socialist realism denies God; therefore, it has lost the fundamental standard of artistic activity. It establishes, instead, arbitrary standards based on Party policy, forcing artists and writers to conform to them. Third, since beauty and love are as closely related as two sides of a coin, art and ethics must also be in an inseparable relationship. Yet, since Communism ignores this fact and denies the ethics of love, it has transformed art into art without love, or art as a tool of the Communist Party to rule the people.
Fourth, art is not a part of the superstructure. Nevertheless, socialist realism regards art as such and reduces it to the status of a servant of the economic system (the “base”). In reality, however, art is not determined by the economic system. Marx himself made the following confession in the latter part of his Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy:
The difficulty we are confronted with is not, however, that of understanding how Greek art and epic poetry are associated with certain forms of social development. The difficulty is that they still give us aesthetic pleasure and are in certain respects regarded as a standard and unattainable ideal. 32
According to the materialist conception of history, Greek culture (part of the superstructure) should have disappeared by the time of Marx without leaving a trace, and contemporary people should have felt no interest in it. But Marx felt difficulty in the fact that Greek art and epic poetry, such as The Iliad and The Odyssey, not only gave contemporary people joy, but had even become the models of art. This is nothing but Marx’s own testimony to the error of his theory of “basis and superstructure.”
Human beings have the fundamental desire to pursue the values of truth, goodness, and beauty. Even though fallen, all people possess it at all times and in all places. Therefore, if the values of truth, goodness, and beauty are expressed in a work of art, that work moves everyone’s heart. The fact that Greek art has continued to be enjoyed by people even until today means that it contains eternal values of truth, goodness, and beauty.
Finally, let us consider the writers Gorky and Tolstoy, both of whom, though totally different in style, in the same way and in almost the same period, condemned the corruption of Russian society prior to the Revolution. Gorky conformed with Communism, which sought to violently overthrow capitalism, and asserted that the mission of the artist lay in inspiring revolutions. Thus, he wrote works that glorified the revolutionary movement. Mother, by Gorky, has been regarded as a literary masterpiece of socialist realism. It depicts the image of a mother who, although she is an uneducated working woman, is strongly motivated by a desire to protect her only son, a son thrown into prison on charges of revolutionary activities, and becomes gradually awakened to the class nature of society. Finally, she herself becomes an active participant in the revolutionary movement. On the other hand, while condemning social evils, Tolstoy advocated that the way to resolve them lay in the recovery of true human nature through love. One of Tolstoy’s masterpieces is Resurrection. An aristocratic young man, appearing in court as a member of a jury, comes to learn that a young woman whom he seduced by mistake in his younger days has become degraded, and is being judged. He becomes conscience-stricken, repents, and decides to save her. Finally, she is rehabilitated, and the young man also starts a new life.
The way Gorky chose was the external way of social revolution, whereas that of Tolstoy was the internal way of spiritual revolution. Which was the correct way? The way of violent revolution, chosen by Gorky, was the wrong way, as the realities of the socialist countries following revolution―the oppression of human nature and the corruption of bureaucrats―indicates. On the other hand, the way Tolstoy chose was the true way, in that it was the way to recover human nature. It must be pointed out, however, that it still had its limits in saving society as a whole.
Unification Thought pursues the way for both humankind and society to be reformed into what they were originally intended to be. This becomes possible by understanding God correctly. In other words, by knowing correctly the attributes of God, who created humankind and the world, we can learn the ideal state of humankind and society as they were originally intended to be. All that must be done then is to begin to reform humankind and society in that direction. The new art advocated by Unification Thought is Unificationism, in which idealism and realism are unified, centering on God’s Heart (love). Unificationism seeks to reform reality toward the original ideal of humankind and society.