“Dialectics” and “Identity”
Study Questions
Dialectics
1. What is meant by the phrase “every determination is a limitation, and every limitation is a determination”?
2. Why does Newton claim that, in a post-capitalist world, “whether we like it or not, dialectics would make it necessary to have a universal identity”?
3. What are the preconditions for humans to “begin to do what we want— to manipulate phenomena”? How does this relate to the mission of the Black Panther Party?
4. Explain how capitalism lays the grounds for its own irrelevance as conceptualized in this chapter. Who are the major players in the sharpening of contradictions and tipping point of the dialectic forces?
5. What does the leap from reactionary to revolutionary intercommunalism look like? What contradictions does it resolve immediately and what contradictions will take more time to solve?
Identity
1. Unpack what is meant by “love and hate are not opposites; they are on the same pole, and the opposite of both love and hate is indifference.” How can we understand this concept dialectically?
2. What is the relationship between violence and materialism/ non-violence and idealism?
3. Explain the role of violence in the strategy of the Black Panther Party.
4. What is the point Newton is making when he says “it is only because people lack knowledge and technology that their natural drive for control has been distorted into a desire for power over people rather than a desire for power over things”? What does this say about the role of humans in nature and its implications in the struggle against capitalism?
5. Explore the dialectic meaning of the statement “one of our chief drives is to free the man as we bring him into the human community.” How do we liberate ourselves from the psychological afflictions imposed by capitalism, and how do we become more free as individuals through the realization of intercommunalism?
6. How do the Black Panthers conceptualize the role of reformist kinds of programs in a revolutionary organization?
7. What do you make of the kinds of questions being asked throughout these chapters? What does the nature of the questions reveal about society and ideology under capitalism?