Juche

    The essential characteristic of social movement that is fundamentally different from the movement of nature is that there is no subject in natural movement but there is in social movement.

    General Secretary Kim Jong Il said.

    “…the social movement has its subject, whereas there is no such thing in the motion of nature. In nature the motion takes place spontaneously through the interaction of material elements which exist objectively. In contrast, the social movement is caused and developed by the volitional action and role of the subject.”

    The social movement is caused and developed by the volitional action and role of the subject.

    In the past, the term “subject” has been used meaning the agent of a movement in general. But the term “subject” in the Juche philosophy means the agent that causes and propels social movement in an active and purposeful way. In this context, there is no agent, the subject that causes and propels the natural movement in an active and purposeful way.

    In nature the motion takes place spontaneously through the interaction of material elements which exist objectively. But in society, there is the subject that causes and propels the movement in an active and purposeful way, which is none other than man, the popular masses.

    With the demand for independence to live and develop as masters of the world and their destiny, the people cause and propel social movement in an active and purposeful way in order to dominate and transform the surrounding world. Apart from the people, it is impossible to think of social movement to transform and change nature and society. Herein lies the essential characteristics of social movement that is fundamentally different from the movement of nature.

    That social movement is a movement of subject does not mean that social movement does not assume objective character or that social movement has no spontaneity. When certain socio-economic conditions are provided, social law inevitably governs the social movement and that law assumes objective character as the law of nature. And social movement cannot avoid spontaneity in the social system in which people’s level of independence, creativity and consciousness is relatively so low that they cannot be fully displayed.

    It is therefore necessary to establish the social system that can enhance the independence, creativity and consciousness of the people, the subject and fully display them, in order to decrease the scope of action of spontaneity and increase the scope of action of activeness, purposefulness and consciousness of the subject in social movement.