There is no such thing as different “truths” for different people. People’s experiences may be different, but the truth about all that is the same for everybody. Once more: Truth is...truth.

And it has to be plainly said that “direct experience” is not, in itself, the basis for grasping the truth. Experience is only the “threshold” of correct understanding. Especially when dealing with anything beyond the most simple phenomena, to get a true understanding of something it is necessary to penetrate beyond the threshold of experience and make a scientific analysis and synthesis: identify the larger reality that this experience is part of, and the patterns, and underlying and driving forces involved. This scientific method can be, and needs to be, applied by people generally—not only in terms of what people experience directly, but with regard to human experience more broadly.

To give a simple example, people who experience an illness may have a definite sense of the symptoms of that illness—but that is not the same thing as understanding the basic nature and cause of that illness, or the possible treatment, which once again requires a scientific approach (and, in this case, particularly the science of medicine).

Along with this, different groups in society (what is now commonly referred to as “identities”) will have significant experiences in common, but there is not one “uniform” view among them about their own experience (let alone things in general). So, the all-too-common notion that this or that “identity” should decide about things relating to them as an “identity,” ignores the fact that there are divisions among every “identity” (individual differences—and, more importantly, social and class divisions—and, along with this, many different ideas and views of things); and it ignores the decisive fact that, once again, truth does not flow directly from experience, but needs to be determined scientifically, and the ability to make that determination is not restricted to people of any particular “identity.”

To again use a simple example, a doctor who specializes in cancer (whatever the “identity” of that doctor) is in a much better position to determine whether some patients have cancer than the patients themselves who suffer symptoms of what might (or might not) be cancer.

This brings me to this crucial point: The most fundamental thing in seeking the truth about things—the most fundamental thing in the scientific method and approach—is the understanding that truth is objective. In other words, reality is what it actually is—it is not dependent on, or determined by, the ideas, notions, “interpretation,” etc., of anyone. To illustrate this with another simple example: The sun is what it is, regardless of what anyone thinks about it; and the sun is there whether we see it or not at any given time (or whether you are looking at it, at any given point).

Objectively existing material reality is the standard against which any ideas, etc., must be evaluated to determine if they are true, or not.

This is also the most fundamental element in communism as a scientific approach to understanding and transforming reality in a revolutionary way.

Once again, to get beyond the surface of things and grasp the deeper reality, it is necessary to analyze and synthesize what is encountered in objective reality—to identify the larger patterns and the underlying causes and driving forces in phenomena.

To use another simple example: If you are not familiar with the sport of football, when you look at it, on the surface, it may seem like a bunch of random violent actions; but, if you watch it more closely over time, and listen to those with knowledge of the game, you can come to see the patterns involved and the understand the basic dynamics and “rules” of the game (the same applies in basic terms to something like card games, or dominoes, or modern dance, ballet, and so on).

And to understand reality in the fullest possible sense, it is necessary to take part in actively changing reality.

But, with all that, the fact remains: Whether things are true, or not, depends on whether or not they are an essentially correct reflection of objectively existing material reality, whether or not they correspond to how material reality actually is.

Any attempt to deny or distort these standards and criteria—for example, claiming that truth is dependent on someone’s position in society, their “identity,” their “standpoint” or any “interpretation” of reality flowing out of partisanship to a particular group or cause—will only lead people away from really understanding the world and changing it in a positive way.

When this denial or distortion is carried out in the name of “communism,” that represents a fundamental departure from its actual scientific approach to understanding and transforming reality in a revolutionary way, and is bound to take things in very bad directions.

All this is why it is so important to insist on, and struggle fiercely for, a scientific approach to knowing and changing the world in a revolutionary, emancipating way. It is why I have devoted so much emphasis to this in developing the new communism.