Dr. Stone - Why Science is Communism
The core ideological conflict at the center of Dr. Stone is one of the greatest and most interesting in recent memory. On one hand, Tsukasa who wants to tear down the old world to build a new one and on the other Senku who wants to save ever last person and rocket us back into the modern era. However as the show progresses, we start understanding the nuance of these two positions and that’s when I realized: Senku is a communist and not only that, he believes science is key to communism.
But first lets talk about Tsukasa and his empire of Might, the other side of the coin. This is a world where inherently powerful individuals hold all the power and weakness is not allowed. In other words, Tsukasa has unintentionally created a somewhat capitalist society. Now granted there isn’t actual capital, but there is upward mobility on a totem pole of power as Yo, the cop, points out when he says he wants to gain more of this power.
Now you may noticed I said Tsukasa “unintentionally” created a capitalist society. If you know anything about Tsukasa’s backstory he HATED capitalism and one of the reason he didn’t want to revive the older generation was because he wanted “a natural world owned by no one”. But of course this is why Tsukasa is the villain of the story: he doesn’t understand that the full ramifications of the world run by might that he’s creating while Senku does.
Now onto the Kingdom of Science. While convincing Magma to join him, Senku drops a major revelation: “The twigs controlled the muscles in my world? Obviously not. We’re just divvying up the work.” In this way, Senku is restating the first part of Marx’s famous quote "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs". Note that even when Senku requires lots of manual labor, he makes leaps of human technology to encourage that work, as opposed to requiring it and he quickly uses that same technology to eliminate the need for the hard manual labor. In the end, he believes everyone should do what they’re good at and enjoy.
And of course Senku believes in using science to help fulfill people’s needs. Multiple times in the show Senku reinvents technology for the sole purpose of helping the disenfranchised. We can see this over and over again with the glasses he makes for Suika, the medicine he makes for Ruri, and naturally the revival fluid to save mankind. One interesting note here is that its not like he does this totally out of the kindness of his heart. Instead, he often helps people incidentally as he’s making other things (he only makes glasses because we already needed glass lab equipment after all). Rather than being a knock against Senku, I think this is the writers intentionally telling us that science just naturally helps people isolated of anything else. After all, its not just Senku who is communist, the writers believe that science itself is the key to communism.
Not only is science the key to communism, it is the key to destroying capitalism. If the Tsukasa empire represents a rule by those who are the most powerful, Senku’s science is designed to subvert that power. We see this over and over again with the search for gunpowder, the steam engine, the flash bomb, and even Chrome’s use of lens in the Grand Bout against Magma. Science is the key to subverting natural born power. Senku calls science “the great equalizer”.
But much like Tsukasa there are deep flaws in Senku’s viewpoints. In fact, the amazing irony of the whole conflict is how both Tsukasa AND Senku want to create a communist paradise but end up creating a capitalist one. In Senku’s case this is because as we all know science is not just an equalizer, it is also something that can be monopolized, bought and sold. The modern utopia Senku wants to return to isn’t actually a world that supports his theories. I really want to see the show take on this subject head on, because while they’ve tackled Tsukasa’s contradictions they haven’t tackled Senku’s. Note that even in the flash backs to modern life, Yo the cop is portrayed as a lone bad actor who correctly gets punished by the system. Now granted, there are two obvious ideological reasons why the world is portrayed this way:
Part of Dr. Stone’s message is about taking modern convinces for granted. Its hard to deny that even though many people still suffer under capitalism that science hasn’t improved lives.
Senku never just wants to reach where we are now in human civilization, he wants to surpass it. He and the story believe that the continued application of science naturally pushes us closer and closer to an ideal world.
And so, while I personally am not sure if technological exceptionalism is a good ideology, Dr. Stone has put forth a compelling narrative driven by the ideological differences between communism and capitalism. What makes this even more compelling is how both of these systems are distorted through the lens of science and naturalism respectively creating both contradictions and some genuinely good points. This thematic framework is truly unparalleled in the current anime landscape and I’m extremely excited to see how the finale of the Stone Wars arc plays out because of it!
