Book review Under capitalism, science is turned into a microcosm of inequity

In the very readable The Disordered Cosmos, A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred (2021), author Chanda Prescod-Weinstein gives a wonderful introduction to the great questions of how the universe works. How does time work? Why are there so many different quarks that make up matter? What can dark matter be that prevents spiral galaxies from collapsing on themselves?
The book is an even greater history and analysis on the insidious effects that racism and sexism have on science under capitalism. The author’s mother is from the Caribbean, her father Jewish, and the author grew up in East Los Angeles. Following education at Harvard, she faced teachers and students along the way who openly declared her mentally incapable of majoring in particle physics. In a field dominated by white men from bourgeois and petty bourgeois backgrounds, Chanda, a non-white working-class woman, was told she could never be equal - a dismissal so many workers face under a capitalist education system that deems intellect as solely for a select few. Under communism, education will be rid of its elitist chains and knowledge will come from and be for the working-class.
Science is political
Physics is not “pure science” untouched by capitalism, but an embodiment of the individualist, racist and sexist social relations of capitalism. Under capitalism, the field of physics itself has long been stripped of its halo and ceased asking “the big questions” about the nature of the universe that Chanda honors with reverent awe. Under capitalism, physicists are reduced to wage-laborers of military research, developing ever more lethal weapons like drones and hyper-sonic missiles to massacre other workers in looming imperialist wars for profit. Irrespective of an individual scientist’s intentions, the sciences today serve only the imperialist system that the revolutionary communist Progressive Labor Party (PLP) is organizing internationally to smash.
Chanda is relentless in exposing the racist and sexist practices that have rippled through the history of scientific discovery. She constantly exposes the rapacious capitalist imperialist system that has ravaged the lives of workers, especially Black, Latin, and women workers, all over the world. She makes several sharp points like: “If Black people are invisible, how come the police are so good at shooting our friends and family…The starting point might be to avoid looking at the differences between people, and instead focus on the system that implies extreme differences.”
Chanda punctuates her analyses with her love and thirst for studying the wonders of the universe. And it is amazing and dazzling! The observable universe has no center! Space and time are inseparable from one another, and “spacetime” itself is curved! However, the joy of these advances is lessened by how many workers are shut out from learning about the world. “We lose people because too often there aren’t enough victories and moments of joy and fun for those of us who are from communities that history kicked to the cotton fields, trails of tears, unsafe street corners, prisons, and death at the hands of state actors and vigilantes. It is hard to see the wonders of the universe through the social crud.”
Political struggle is scientific
Chanda correctly blames the structural racism within capitalism for the poverty that oppresses so many Black people, refugees, single mothers, children and trans workers. Chanda states we should be able “to see the night sky and be inspired by the universe as it really is. It should be a human right, not a luxury for the chosen few.” She also writes, “People need to know that we live in a universe that is bigger than the bad things that are happening to us.”
Chanda says in her professional life she is afraid of what would happen if she really spoke her mind. That is why we need a Party like PLP, that unites the working-class. You cannot beat the bosses individually. The Disordered Cosmos lucidly attacks the capitalist system all the way through, so it was a disappointment to see on the last page her call for “peace” three times in the last paragraph as her final stand.
Chanda, and all workers, must subscribe to CHALLENGE and organize our efforts scientifically using dialectical materialism (see page 3) to demolish capitalism and set up a communist system in which everyone can strive to reach their full potential. The Disordered Cosmos is a good introduction for workers to the “big questions” of both political struggle and the nature of the universe itself, and a rich text for Party study groups on dialectical materialism.