Abstract

Straipsnyje nagrinėjamos jaunosios kartos lietuvių intelektualų katalikų pažiūros į kapitalizmą ir socializmą. Aptariamos puoselėtų nuostatų idėjinės ištakos. Atskleidžiamas kritinis požiūris į tuometinį kapitalizmą, jo funkcionavimo padarinius ir jų įtaką individo saviraiškos galimybėms. Pateikiamas socializmo, kaip teorinio modelio ir socialinio eksperimento, vykdyto Sovietų Rusijoje, vertinimas. Prasminiai žodžiai: kapitalizmas, katalikybė, socializmas, privatinė nuosavybė, visuotinė gerovė. THE STANDPOINT OF INTELLECTUAL CATHOLIC YOUTH ON CAPITALISM AND SOCIALISM IN LITHUANIA BETWEEN TWO WORLD WARS Valdas Pruskusmary Summary Intellectual Catholic youth observed and identified the real consequences of the results of the development of capitalistic system at that time and its influence upon a human spirit and the possibilities of self-expression of an individual. They recognized that the key law of capitalism - to get and accumulate profits - provokes a social stress between employers and employees. It was thought that such stress may be overcome in the only way: employers and employees must willingly and consciously restrict their egoism and look for a cooperation, but not for a confrontation. A possibility of a cooperation is shown to be possible by a circumstance that a "capitalistic spirit" is hidden in each individual and it induces the individual to act and pursue benefit, to care of himself. It is important to form the conditions to everybody to realize this aim in practical activities, considering an individual not a mean to pursue the stated object, but a close person, who needs not only a compassion, but a concrete assistance as well. According to their standpoint, an individual shall provide a social support to himself by honest and responsible performance of the assumed duties, being worthy of the corresponding remuneration for it. He shall be entitled to receive an extra pay in a case of an acquisition of shares of an enterprise, when conscious and voluntary assuming of the right of risk takes place. However, acquisition and selling of shares shall not be an obligation, but only a free and voluntary self-determination. On the other hand, an individual must feel a real support of the state as well, and it's task of paramount importance shall be a formation of the conditions for everybody and each member of the society to pursue their objects, taking into account the highest value - a human and his dignity, which cannot be sacrificed to the seeming omnipotence of the faceless machine building. Taking into consideration that the object of economical activities is a satisfaction of needs of an individual and the society, their results shall be evaluated not only in the economical scale, but in the ethical scale.