Nationalism and Culture

Library.Anarhija.Net Nationalism and Culture Rudolf Rocker Rudolf Rocker Nationalism and Culture 1933 Retrieved on November 25th, 2016 from https://libcom.org/library/nationalism-culture-rudolf-rocker Black Rose Books. (book two is missing a few chapters at the end, incomplete upload for the moment) lib.anarhija.net 1933 Contents Book 1 4 1. The Insufficiency of Economic Materialism 5 2. Religion and Politics 31 3. The Middle Ages: Church and State 60 4. Power Versus Culture 82 5. The Rise of the National State 96 6. The Reformation and the New State 112 7. Absolutism - An Obstacle to Economic Development 130 8. The Doctrine of the Social Contract 146 9. Liberal Ideas in Europe and America 170 10. Liberalism and Democracy 193 11. German Philosophy and the State 222 12. Democracy and the National State 243 13. Romanticism and Nationalism 261 2 14. Socialism and the State 282 15. Nationalism - A Political Religion 298 16. The Nation as Community of Morals, Custom and Interest321 17. The Nation as Community of Language 341 18. The Nation in the Light of Modern Race Theories 370 19. Political Unity and the Evolution of Culture 427 3 ”With these newspapers in his hand the Prussian delegate, Schmidt, an ally of German heavy industry, questioned the Reich’s chancellor as to what the government intended to do to meet these French threats and restore the balance of armament. Bluffed and frightened, the Reichstag then by a great majority and without dis- cussion voted the sums for the increase of the stock of machine guns. France quite naturally answered with a further strengthen- ing of this type of arm. So, while Figaro and Echo de Paris kept the French people agitated by excerpts from the German papers, espe- cially the Post, which Gontard owned, German public opinion was by similar means prepared for still further armament. The dividends of the Creusots, the Mausers, and the Krupps rose, the directors Book 1 got larger salaries, and Figaro and Echo de Paris cashed a number of checks – and, as usual, the people paid.” (Hinter elen Kulissen des Französchen Journalismuis von einem Pariser Chefredacteur. Berlin, 1925, p. 129.) One finds it quite in order that civilized cannibals should make a business of organized mass murder and invest their capital in en- terprises which have as a presupposition the wholesale killing of men while at the same time a man is socially ostracized who has the courage to brand publicly the shameless and criminal machina- tions of the dishonourable rascals who coin money from the blood and misery of the masses. 4 445 war office to obtain possession of important documents concerning pending arms orders. Furthermore, Krupp had officers of all ranks up to general and admiral in his service at the highest salaries, whose duty it was to procure arms orders for him. When this did not suffice, then, in company with other armament manufacturers like Mauser, Thyssen, Düren, Löwe, he bought a part of the press to 1. The Insufficiency of whip up jingo patriotism and war sentiment. By an official search a part of these secret documents was found in the home of Herr Economic Materialism von Dewitz, the assistant superintendent of the Krupp works. By this press propaganda a feeling of continuous danger from other The will to power as a historical factor. Science and his- nations was to be aroused and the German people made favorable torical concepts. The insufficiency of economic materi- to further expenditures for war purposes. According to seasonal alism. The laws of physical life and ”The physics ofsoci- necessity the names of the threatening enemies were changed: ety”. The significance of conditions of production. The When Krupp or Thyssen needed orders for machine guns, then expeditions of Alexander. The Crusades. Papism and it was the French or the Russians; if the dock yards of Stettin heresy. Power as a hindrance and obstruction to eco- needed orders for battleships, then Germany was threatened by nomic evolution. The fatalism of ”historic necessities” the English. Liebknecht had among his proofs a letter from the and of the ”historic mission”. Economic position and director of the Löwe arms factory to his Paris agent in the Rue de social activity of the bourgeoisie. Socialism and social- Chateaudun: ists. Psychic presuppositions of all changes in history. War and economy. Monopoly and autocracy. State Cap- ”If possible procure the publication in one of the French papers italism. having the largest circulation, preferably Figaro, an article running something like this: ”The French war ministry has resolved to The deeper we trace the political influences in history, themore speed up the manufacture of machine guns for the army and to in- are we convinced that the ”will to power” has up to now been one crease the original orders by too percent. Please do your utmost to of the strongest motives in the development of human social forms. procure the spread of similar news. (Signed) von Gontard, Director.” The idea that all political and social events are but the result of given economic conditions and can be explained by them cannot ”However, the report was not accepted in this form. The lie was endure careful consideration. That economic conditions and the spe- too obvious, and the war ministry would at once have denied it. cial forms of social production have played a part in the evolution of But a few days later there appeared, of course quite accidentally, in humanity everyone knows who has been seriously trying to reach Figaro, Matin, and Echo de Paris a number of articles concerning the foundations of social phenomena. This fact was well known be- the advantages of the new French machine guns and the predomi- fore Marx set out to explain it in his manner. A whole line of em- nance they gave to French armament. inent French socialists like Saint-Simon, Considerant, Louis Blanc, Proudhon and many others had pointed to it in their writings, and 444 5 it is known that Marx reached socialism by the study of these very a new and improved ’Esmeralda.’ Later on the same firm built for writings. Furthermore, the recognition of the influence and signifi- Italy a still better cruiser, the Tierrionte,’ and again Armstrong was cance of economic conditions on the structure of social life lies in able to enlist the world for his firm, and the South American states the very nature of socialism. competed with one another and with Japan to obtain the first It is not the confirmation of this historical and philosophical con- improved ’Piemonte’ from the Elswick works. England likewise cept which is most striking in the Marxist formula, but the posi- constructed a few Piemontes, which, while they were built in other tive form in which the concept is expressed and the kind of think- places, were equipped with Armstrong cannons of the newest ing on which Marx based it. One sees distinctly the influence of pattern!” Hegel, whose disciple Marx had been. None but the ”philosopher of the Absolute,” the inventor of ”historical necessities” and ”his- In another place Newbold reports: toric missions” could have imparted to him such self-assurance of judgment. Only Hegel could have inspired in him the belief that ”For nearly thirty years the firms of Sir William Armstrong and he had reached the foundation of the ”laws of social physics”, ac- Sir Joseph Whitworth, who both manufactured guns, fought like cording to which every social phenomenon must be regarded as cats and dogs to depreciate each other’s products. Only on one a deterministic manifestation of the naturally necessary course of point were they unanimous; both emphasized the opinion that events. In fact, Marx’s successors have compared ”economic ma- all expenditure for the manufacture of armour-plate was to be terialism” with the discoveries of Copernicus and Kepler, and no regarded as uselessly wasted money, which had better be spent for less a person than Engels himself made the assertion that, with this guns. For both firms made only guns, no armour-plate. Ten years interpretation of history, socialism had become a science. after this valiant fight against armour-plate, when the twofirms It is the fundamental error of this theory that it puts the causes had united, the first step of their successors was the erection of of social phenomena on a par with the causes of mechanistic events a marvellous plant for the manufacture of armour-plate.” – (J. T. in nature. Science concerns itself exclusively with the phenomena Walton Newbold, How Europe Armed for the War. London, 1916.) which are displayed in the great frame which we call Nature, which are consequently limited by space and time and amenable to the cal- These cases are by no means the worst and occur not onlyin culations of human thought. For the realm of nature is a world of ”perfidious Albion.” Every armament firm, without distinction of inner connections and mechanical necessities where every event nation, pursues the same dirty methods and is very able to ”correct” occurs according to the laws of cause and effect. In this world there all given possibilities for good business so as to promote its profits. is no accident. Any arbitrary act is unthinkable. For this reason sci- Here is only one example: ence deals only with strict facts; any single fact which runs contrary to previous experiments and does not harmonise with the theory ”On April 19, 1913, the delegate, Karl Liebknecht, supported by can overthrow the most keenly reasoned doctrine. the Centrum’s delegate, Pfeifer, made a statement in the Reichstag In the world of metaphysical thought the practical statement that stirred all Germany.

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