Dialectical Materialism Rightly Understood

While we recognize that in the general development of history the material determines the mental and social being determines social consciousness, we also--and indeed must--recognize the reaction of mental on material things, of social consciousness on social being and of the superstructure on the economic base.

This does not go against materialism; on the contrary, it avoids mechanical materialism and firmly upholds dialectical materialism. ~ Mao Tsetung