Opinion

Along with the birth of mankind, many ideas related to human destiny had existed on the earth. However, all of them had historical limitations.

The Juche idea provided original and scientific answers to the question of man’s destiny.

What kind of being is man?

In the past, man had taken his destiny as predestined. The oppressed people had thought being subjected to exploitation and oppression of the ruling class as their fate and the law of human life. As they had been totally ignorant of themselves, they submitted to tragic fate.

Historically, there has been a sharp philosophical controversy between the progressive forces and the reactionary ones over the problem of essence of man, i.e. what man is. The reactionary ruling classes had regarded man as either purely spiritual being or a merely material being. As they were unscientific assertions distorting the essence of man, they inflicted only disasters and misfortune on people. The theme of servile submission and Protestantism has been used as materials for many pieces of art including the modern Chinese novel An Authorized Life of Ah-Q.

In the course of leading social life by forming society, people came to have independence, creativity and consciousness, inherent essential natures no other material beings can have.

The Juche idea clarified for the first time in history that man is a social being with independence, creativity and consciousness.

Independence is an attribute of social man who is desirous of living and developing in an independent way as master of the world and his own destiny, while creativity is an attribute of social man who transforms the world and shapes his destiny purposefully and consciously. Consciousness is an attribute of social man, which determines all his endeavours to understand and reshape the world and himself.

There is comparatively little difference between man of 5 000 years ago, when mankind started to step into a civilized world, and the one of the present times in physical structure and biological characteristics, but an enormous difference in the development level of independence, creativity and consciousness. The level of the present-day man’s independence, creativity and consciousness is the achievement made by mankind through centuries-long joint efforts after forming society.

What can man do?

In the past, people groped for a road to shape their destiny by pinning their hope on natural environment for their low level of independence, creativity and consciousness. According to an old concept that natural environment decides the destiny of man, people’s consciousness and social systems are decided by territorial size and climate and soil conditions. And it says that those living in hot weather condition are “lazy” and “obedient” by birth and give birth to many children.

However, man is not a being only dependent on the interaction of environment. He shapes his own destiny by dint of active actions and role to design favourable conditions and environment and translate the design into reality.

The current reality, where the masses of the people have emerged as masters of history and their destiny though they were forced to adapt their destiny to environment through a long historical period, proves that man is just the master of his destiny and the world who changes social environment into a more favourable and effective one for him, far from accepting it as something inevitable.

The Juche idea clarified for the first time in history that man is master of his destiny and has the power to hew out his destiny. This principle tells man what and how to do to shape his destiny.

The Juche idea was created by President Kim Il Sung.

Chairman Kim Jong Il crystallized the idea and published the immortal classic work “On the Juche Idea”.

Divided into five systems including the origin of the Juche idea, its philosophical, socio-historical and guiding principles and its historical significance, the work was made public on March 31 1982.