The Juche idea clarifies a new man-centered viewpoint of the world on the basis of philosophical principles that man is the master of everything and decides everything.
General Secretary Kim Jong Il said.
“That the world is dominated and reshaped by man is a new viewpoint on the world in relation to man.”
A new man-centered viewpoint of the world includes the questions of what is the world in the relation with man and what is the law of development of the world by man.
Therefore, in order to understand the Juche-viewpoint of the world clarified in the relations with man, first of all, we should know what is the world in essence in the relations with man and next, what is the law of the process in which the world is dominated and reshaped by man.
That the world is dominated and reshaped by man means that the world is a material being which is dominated and reshaped by man.
In a word, this means that nature that subjugates man’s independence and society that subjugates the people socially and politically are turned into the world for man, into the material and sociopolitical conditions that serve man’s independent life by man’s creative activity.
Nature is, first of all, dominated and reshaped by man.
This is expressed in that things and phenomena of nature which hamper man’s existence and development are turned to material conditions that serve man by man’s creative cognitive activity and practical activity.
Rivers and seas may cause flood damage to people, but their destructive actions are eliminated when man builds banks and dams and thus are turned to natural conditions which contribute to man’s independent life. The destructive actions of thunder are eliminated by lightning rod made by man and also diseases such as hepatitis, tuberculosis, diabetes and AIDS are prevented by medicine. That is not all.
That nature is dominated and reshaped by man finds its expression in that things and phenomena of nature that had not served directly man’s existence and development are turned into the means of production.
Wild animals and plants can serve man’s life when they are turned into domestic animals, crops and industrial crops by man. While ores and fossil fuels are deposited underground, they do not give any help to the people. But they become useful to man’s life since they are developed and turned into productive means and life means.
All life materials and all productive means from cultivated land to modern machines are used by man.
Domination and transformation of nature by man finds its expression in that blind strength of nature that had hampered man’s life and development is used by man.
Different forms of energy in nature that had acted blindly help man’s limited physical strength or increase the strength thousands and tens of thousands of times, serving as power resources necessary to provide man’s life means and conditions. The great strength of nature like gravity of the earth that subjugates man’s activity to conquer the universe is surmounted by the development and usage of other powerful energy which could surmount gravity. And large amount of energy in nature is turned into any necessary forms, serving man.
This shows that nature is dominated and reshaped by man.
Next, society is dominated and reshaped by man.
That society is dominated and reshaped by man finds its expression in that social relations which violate man’s independence are changed into social relations of ensuring man’s independence by active struggles of the working popular masses.
This is demonstrated by the fact that slave-holder society turned to feudal society, feudal society to capitalist society and capitalist society to socialist society.
Domination and transformation of society by man finds its expression in that man becomes a genuine master of every field of social life including politics and the economy, ideology and culture.
Even ruling classes in the exploiting society can not submit the change and development of social life to their will. This is well proved by the phenomena such as periodical economic stagnation, crisis and the increase of unemployment in the modern capitalist society.
But the broad working masses including the working class take state sovereignty and productive means and develop every field of social life including politics and the economy, ideology and culture by liquidating the exploiting system and establishing socialist system.
This shows that the world is dominated and transformed by man.
Domination and transformation of the world by man is the objective fact and stark reality. It is necessary to make one thing clear in understanding that the world is dominated and transformed by man.
The world is dominated by man. This does not mean that the whole world is totally dominated by man at present. This seems paradoxical but not so.
There are a lot of things that are still unknown or uncontrolled by man in the world.
There are 150 billions of planets in our galaxy and the diameter from one end of galaxy to the other end is hundred thousand light years (one light year is the distance light travels for one year). Putting aside such enormous universe, there are still many unconquered things in the earth.
Then, one may doubt the meaning that the world is dominated by man. But this doubt comes from confusion of the question of whether the world can be dominated by man or not and the question of to what extent the world is dominated by man at present.
There is limit in the scope that every generation of mankind dominates the world but no limit in the whole human historical view. There are many scopes that people yet do not dominate in the world, but people will ceaselessly increase their scope of domination over the world in conformity with the development of science and society.
Next, that the world is transformed by man does not mean that all the changes in the world are made by man.
For instance, all things in the world change and develop according to a certain law by their causes. The earth rotates once a day and travels around the sun once a year and the season changes. Only when people understand and use such laws of movement of things and phenomena, will they be able to reshape the world as their desire. In the long run, that the world is dominated and transformed by man does not mean that all movement and change in the world are formed by man, but that man plays an active role in the transformation and development of the world than any other factors.
Now we study the reason why the world is dominated and transformed by man.
The world is dominated and transformed by man, because he is the most powerful and developed being in the world.
Man is a being with independence, creativity and consciousness.
Man actively transforms the surrounding world with his own strength in order to free himself from fetters and subjugation of the world as he has independence. But animals, however developed they are, do not resist the subordination of nature and thus become extinct when they are not adapted themselves to it as they do not have independence. So animals do not separate themselves from nature but are subjugated by nature. This shows that only man with independence lives and conducts activity as the dominator of the world.
As man has creativity, he develops the world into more useful one for him by transforming it in conformity with his will and demand.
People sometimes find the fact that animals move their places to other mountains if their forests are burned. But people replant on that mountains, care, make dense forest and use them. Animals move to find water but people find water sources and live by digging wells and building reservoirs. This shows that only man with creativity lives and conducts activity as the transformer and changer of the world.
As man has consciousness, he dominates blindly moving objective world by transforming and developing it purposefully and consciously. Animals such as elephants, whales, lions and tigers are big and strong but they are helpless in the change of nature and are subordinated in nature as they do not have consciousness. Indeed, consciousness is the main factor for man to become the most developed and powerful being in the world.
As man is a social being with independence, creativity and consciousness which are not available in any material beings, the world is dominated and transformed by man.
Another reason is that the world consists of matters and changes and develops in conformity with certain laws.
If the world consists of mysterious beings as idealism insists, one can not draw the conclusion that the world is dominated by man, and if the world is fixed and immutable as metaphysics insists, one can not draw the conclusion that the world is transformed by man. If the surrounding world does not consist of matters and moves at random without law, man can not know the things and phenomena of the world and the law of their movement, thus failing to dominate and transform the world according to his demand.
In old times, a rich man was told that he could harvest many watermelons if he gave much manure. So he planted a few watermelons and gave manure to them everyday but at last seeds of the watermelons rotted before sprouting. This story ironically tells the incompetence of the idling man. This shows that without knowing the principles of growing plants, one can not properly cultivate even watermelons.
In fact, it is impossible to launch missiles without knowing the law of action and reaction, the 3rd law of Newton and to generate the electricity by using water-power without knowing the law of conservation and transition of energy.
As the world consists of matters and moves according to certain laws, man can conduct activities to transform it according to his interests.
