The Little Review, June-July 1915 (Vol. 2, No. 4)Various
General
The Little Review, June-July 1915 (Vol. 2, No. 4)
Various
Literature, Modern -- 20th century -- Periodicals
Et comme Wilson dit, d’une voix sombre:
“Nous verrons demain,”
Et sent Washington et Lincoln, dans l’ombre,
Lui prendre la main,
Bernstorff, en pleurant, regagne la porte ...
(Il y a, là-bas,
Deux petits enfants qu’une femme morte
Serre entre ses bras.)
_The Downfall of the International_
Another result of the war, already sufficiently crystallized, is the
bankruptcy of the illusionary spirit of internationalism. In his
remarkable book[1] Mr. Walling has taken the trouble of quoting
resolutions of national sections of the Socialist party the world over,
before and during the war. With a few significant exceptions the
Socialists of the warring nations have had to exchange their erstwhile
slogan “Workers of the world, be united!” for the less noble motto
“Defend your country!” Even when the European armies had already been
mobilized the Socialists held protest meetings at which they threatened
to call a general strike if war should be declared. But with the first
cannon boom the theoretic brotherhood evaporated and gave way to
patriotic sentiments. The workers declared that they were Germans,
Russians, etc., first, then Socialists. True, in the beginning the
German Socialists claimed that they were fighting against the
reactionary Czardom, while the Socialists of the Allies tried to justify
the international carnage as the struggle against Prussian militarism;
but ultimately such clear-headed thinkers as Kautsky and some of the
English Socialists came to see the futility of endeavoring to discover
idealistic causes for the mutual slaughter. The country is in danger,
consequently we must defend it, regardless of the rightness or wrongness
of its policy—this is the prevailing sentiment among the workers. The
grandiose structure of the International has fallen in ruins; the
“scientific” theories and calculations of the Marxians have received a
blow by the underestimated imponderabilia, that of primitive patriotism.
On the other hand, “applied” Socialism has won a considerable victory
with the development of the war. Nearly all the belligerent countries
have adopted State-Socialism in such measures as the nationalization of
railways and means of production. The capitalists are evidently shrewd
enough to utilize the doctrines of their opponents in time of need and
thus to neutralize the sting of that very opposition. What will become
of Socialism when at least its minimum-program is accepted and put into
practice by the _capitalistic_ order without the aid of a social
revolution, the inevitability of which has been scientifically proven by
Marx and his disciples?
[1] _The Socialists and the War, by William English Walling. New
York: Henry Holt and Company._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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