The Renewal of the Social Organism
GA 24
8. Socialist Stumbling-Blocks
[ 1 ] Ideas which take account of the realities that gave rise to the demands now agitating humanity, and are in harmony with the conditions under which it is possible for men to live together culturally, politically and economically—such ideas are drowned out by the clamor of others that are remote from life in both regards. People who long for something other than the traditional forms of life, or who have in fact already been torn out of these older forms by events, are people who until now have stood at such a remove from the forces that brought these circumstances to the surface of history that they lack any insight whatever into how they act and what they signify. Within the mass of the working classes, there is a dull consciousness that demands a change in their form of life, which they see as a result of capitalist forces dominating the economy. Yet the manner of their participation in economic life hitherto has not made them aware of the way these forces operate. Thus they are unable to conceive any fruitful way of transforming these forces. The intellectual leaders and agitators of the proletarian masses are blinded by utopian ideas and theories which derive from a social science still based on the old economic concepts that so urgently need changing. These agitators have not even the faintest idea that their notions about politics, economics and cultural life are in no way different from the “bourgeois notions” they are fighting, and that at bot-tom all they are striving for is to see the old notions realized by a new group. However, nothing really new ever comes about when different people do the same old thing in a slightly different way.
[ 2 ] One of these “old ideas” is the attempt to control economics by political and legal means. It is an “old idea” because it has brought a large part of humanity into an untenable position, as the catastrophe of World War I has shown. The new idea that must replace this old one is to liberate the administration of the economy from any kind of interference by political or national power, and to conduct the management of the economy along lines that are based entirely on economic principles and economic interests.
[ 3 ] But surely it is impossible to imagine a form of economic life that is not managed by businessmen using political and legal means! Such is the objection raised by those who believe the proponents of the threefold social order have no insight into what is socially self-evident. But actually those who make this objection refuse to see what a far-reaching transformation it would bring about in economic life if the political and legal views and institutions at work within the economy were not ruled from within the economic system itself according to its interests, but rather guided by something external to the economy, and subject only to considerations that lie within the competence of every adult. Why do so many people, even those of a socialist turn of mind, refuse to see this? The reason is that through their participation in political life they have learned to think about the way a political state governs, but not about the peculiar nature of the forces inherent in economic life. Thus they are able to conceive an economic process managed according to the principles on which a political state is governed; but they are unable to conceive of one structured according to its own economic principles and needs, one that takes its legal regulations from a different quarter altogether. This is true for most of the agitators and leaders of the proletariat. If the mass of workers themselves, from the circumstances previously dis-cussed, have insufficient insight into ways that economic life might possibly be transformed, their leaders are no better off. They exclude themselves from all such insight by confining their thinking wholly within the political arena.
[ 4 ] A consequence of this one-sided confinement to politics are the attempts being made in various quarters to establish Workers' Councils [Betriebsräte]. The current attempt to create such institutions must be consistent with the afore-mentioned “new idea,” if all labor expended on it is not to be wasted. This “new idea” requires, however, that Workers' Councils should be the first institutions with which the state has no concern, but which are free to form according to the purely economic considerations of those engaged in economic life. It should be left to the emerging corporation to promote associations that will create through economic cooperation what has been brought about hitherto by the egotistical competition of individuals. It is a question of free social coordination between the various complexes of production and consumption, and not one of centralized control according to political policies. The point is to promote the economic initiatives of the workers through such an association, not to submit them to the tutelage of a bureaucratic hierarchy. Whether economic life has a political ad-ministration imposed on it by state law, or whether a “system of industrial council boards” [Rätesystem] is planned by people who are able to think and organize only along political lines, the outcome is the same. Among these people there may perhaps be some who, in theory, demand a certain independence of the economic life; in practice, however, their demands can only result in an economy straight-jacketed by a political system because their scheme is the result of political thinking. Before one can conceive such institutions in a way required by the actual conditions of present-day life, one must have a clear idea of the way in which both the governmental and legal system and the spiritual-cultural sphere of the threefold social order should develop in their own manner apart from the economic system. It is possible to form a clear picture of an independent economic life only when one sees other things in their proper place within the whole structure of the social organism—those things that should not fall within the orbit of the economy. If one does not see clearly the proper place for the unfolding of cultural and legal impulses, one will always be tempted to fuse them somehow with economics.
Sozialistische Entwickelungshemmungen
[ 1 ] Ideen, die mit der Wirklichkeit rechnen, aus der die heutigen aufgeregten Menschheitsforderungen entsprungen sind, und die mit den Bedingungen im Einklang stehen, unter denen Menschen geistig, politisch und wirtschaftlich zusammenleben können, werden gegenwärtig übertönt von solchen, die nach beiden Richtungen hin lebensfremd sind. Die Menschen, die sich aus den bisherigen Lebensverhältnissen heraus nach anderen sehnen, oder die durch die Weltereignisse aus diesen Verhältnissen schon tatsächlich herausgerissen sind: sie waren bis jetzt den Kräften, welche diese Verhältnisse an die geschichtliche Oberfläche getrieben haben, so ferne gestanden, daß ihnen die Einsicht in die Wirkungsweise und Bedeutung dieser Kräfte gänzlich fehlt. Die proletarischen Massen verlangen, aus einem dumpfen Bewußtsein heraus, nach einer Änderung derjenigen Lebensverhältnisse, in welche sie sich versetzt sehen, und in denen sie eine Wirkung des von kapitalistischen Kräften verwalteten neueren Wirtschaftslebens sehen. Aber sie sind durch die Art ihrer bisherigen Mitarbeit an diesem Wirtschaftsleben nicht eingeweiht worden in dieWirkungsweise dieser Kräfte. Deshalb können sie nicht zu fruchtbaren Vorstellungen darüber kommen, in welchem Sinne diese Wirkungsweise eine Umwandlung erfahren muß. Und die intellektuellen Führer und Agitatoren der proletarischen Massen sind verblendet durch theoretisch-utopistische Ideen, welche durchaus einer sozialen Wissenschaft entstammen, die sich noch an Wirtschaftsanschauungen orientierte, die einer Umwandlung dringend bedürfen. Diese Agitatoren haben noch nicht einmal ein ahnendes Bewußtsein davon, daß sie über Politik, Wirtschaft und Geistesleben keine anderen Gedanken haben, als die «bürgerlichen Denker», die sie bekämpfen, und daß sie im Grunde nichts anderes anstreben, als die bisherigen Gedanken nicht von den Menschen verwirklichen zu lassen, die sie bis jetzt verwirklicht haben, sondern von anderen. Aber es entsteht nicht ein wahrhaft Neues dadurch, daß das Alte von anderen Menschen in einer etwas anderen Art als früher getan wird.
[ 2 ] Zu den «alten Gedanken» gehört, das Wirtschaftsleben mit politisch-rechtlichen Machtmitteln beherrschen zu wollen. Dies ist deshalb ein «alter Gedanke», weil er einen großen Teil der Menschheit in eine Lage gebracht hat, deren Unhaltbarkeit die Weltkriegskatastrophe tatsächlich erwiesen hat. Der neue Gedanke, durch den dieser alte ersetzt werden muß, ist: die Befreiung der Wirtschaftsverwaltung von jedem politisch-rechtlichen Machteinschlag; ist: die Leitung der Wirtschaft nach Richtlinien, die sich nur aus den Ouellen der Wirtschaft und aus deren Interessen heraus ergeben.
[ 3 ] Man könne sich doch eine Gestaltung des Wirtschaftslebens nicht denken, ohne daß die wirtschaftenden Menschen in politisch-rechtlichen Beziehungen dieses Leben abwickeln. So wird von Leuten eingewendet, die zu glauben vorgeben, wer von der Dreigliederung des sozialen Organismus rede, der habe keine Einsicht in eine solche Selbstverständlichkeit. In Wahrheit will aber derjenige, der diese Einwendung erhebt, nicht darüber eine Einsicht gewinnen, welche bedeutungsvolle Tragweite es für die Umwandlung des Wirtschaftslebens haben muß, wenn die in ihm waltenden politisch-rechtlichen Anschauungen und Einrichtungen nicht innerhalb der Wirtschaft selbst nach deren Interessen geregelt werden, sondern durch eine außerhalb ihrer stehende Leitung, die sich nur von Gesichtspunkten bestimmen lassen kann, welche im Urteilsbereich jedes mündig gewordenen Menschen liegen. Wo liegt der Grund dafür, daß auch viele sozialistisch Denkende eine solche Einsicht nicht gewinnen wollen? Er liegt darin, daß sie durch ihre Teilnahme am politischen Leben sich wohl Vorstellungen gebildet haben über die Art, wie politisch-rechtlich geleitet wird, nicht aber, wie die dem Wirtschaftsleben ureigenen Kräfte beschaffen sind. Deshalb können sie sich zwar ein Wirtschaften denken, dessen Leitung nach politisch-rechtlichen Verwaltungsgrundsätzen verfährt, nicht aber ein solches, das aus seinen eigenen Voraussetzungen und Bedürfnissen sich ordnet, und in das die von anderer Seite stammenden Rechtssatzungen hineinwirken. In einer Lage, die hiermit gekennzeichnet ist, sind die meisten Führer und Agitatoren des Proletariats. Ist dessen Masse durch die Tatsachen, die oben angeführt sind, ohne genügende Einsicht in die mögliche Umwandlungs form des Wirtschaftslebens, so sind dessen Führer nicht besser daran. Sie entfremden sich einer solchen Einsicht dadurch, daß sie ihr ganzes Denken aus dem Umkreis des Politischen nicht heraustreten lassen.
[ 4 ] Eine Folge dieser Einspannung des Denkens in das einseitig Politische ist die Art, wie man auf verschiedenen Seiten die Einrichtung der Betriebsräte ins Leben rufen will. Das Streben nach einer solchen Einrichtung in der Gegenwart muß entweder im Sinne des gekennzeichneten «neuen Gedankens» erfolgen, oder es wird alle Arbeit, die auf dieses Streben gewendet wird, vergeudet sein. Der «neue Gedanke» aber verlangt, daß man in der Betriebsräteschaft eine erste Institution entstehen lasse, um die sich der «Staat» nicht kümmere, die sich bilden kann aus dem rein wirtschaftlichen Denken der am Wirtschaftsleben beteiligten Personen heraus. Und man überlasse es der in einer solchen Art entstehenden Körperschaft, die Anregung zu den Assoziationen zu geben, durch deren soziales Zusammenwirken in der Wirtschaft fortan geschehen soll, was vorher durch den egoistischen Wettbewerb Einzelner geschaffen worden ist. Auf die freie soziale Zusammengliederung der einzelnen Produktions- und Konsumtionszweige kommt es an, nicht auf die Verwaltung von Zentralstellen aus nach politischen Verwaltungsgesichtspunkten. Um die durch solche Zusammengliederung geförderte wirtschaftliche Initiative der arbeitenden Menschen, nicht um deren Bevormundung durch Ämter und Oberämter handelt es sich. Ob eine Verwaltung nach politischen Gesichtspunkten durch ein Staatsgesetz über das Wirtschaftsleben gestülpt wird, oder ob von Menschen ein «Rätesystem» für die Wirtschaft ausgedacht wird, die nur nach politischen Gesichtspunkten denken und nur nach solchen Gesichtspunkten organisieren können: das läuft auf dasselbe hinaus. Es mag unter den letzteren Menschen sogar solche geben, die theoretisch eine gewisse Selbständigkeit des Wirtschaftslebens fordern; praktisch kann sich aus ihren Forderungen nur ein Wirtschaftssystem ergeben, das in ein politisches System eingeschnürt ist; denn es ist aus politischem Denken heraus geplant. In einer den gegenwärtigen Lebensbedingungen der Menschheit entsprechenden Weise wird man über eine solche Einrichtung nur denken, wenn man eine genaue Vorstellung davon hat, wie sich neben dem Wirtschaftssystem das staatlich-rechtliche und das geistige Glied des sozialen Organismus sachgemäß entwickeln sollen. Denn man wird sich ein Bild des selbständigen Wirtschaftslebens nur machen können, wenn man in der Gesamtgestalt des sozialen Organismus das an seinem rechten Orte sieht, was in dem Wirtschaftskreislauf nicht sein soll. Sieht man die rechten Orte für die Entfaltung des geistigen und des rechtlichen Lebens nicht, so wird man immer versucht sein, beides in irgendeiner Art mit dem Wirtschaftsleben zu verschmelzen.
Socialist obstacles to development
[ 1 ] Ideas that reckon with the reality from which today's agitated human demands have arisen, and that are in harmony with the conditions under which people can live together spiritually, politically and economically, are currently being drowned out by those that are alien to life in both directions. The people who, out of their present living conditions, long for other conditions, or who have already been actually torn out of these conditions by world events: up to now they have been so far removed from the forces that have driven these conditions to the historical surface that they completely lack insight into the mode of action and significance of these forces. The proletarian masses, out of a dull consciousness, demand a change in the living conditions in which they see themselves placed and in which they see an effect of the newer economic life administered by capitalist forces. But they have not been initiated into the workings of these forces by the nature of their previous participation in this economic life. Therefore they cannot arrive at fruitful ideas about the sense in which this mode of operation must undergo a transformation. And the intellectual leaders and agitators of the proletarian masses are blinded by theoretical-utopian ideas, which originate from a social science that is still oriented towards economic views that are in urgent need of transformation. These agitators do not even have an inkling of the fact that they have no other ideas about politics, economics and intellectual life than the "bourgeois thinkers" they are fighting against, and that they are basically striving for nothing other than to have the previous ideas realized not by the people who have realized them up to now, but by others. But nothing truly new arises from the fact that the old is done by other people in a slightly different way than before.
[ 2 ] One of the "old ideas" is to want to dominate economic life with political and legal means of power. This is an "old idea" because it has brought a large part of humanity into a situation whose unsustainability has indeed been proven by the catastrophe of the world war. The new idea with which this old one must be replaced is: the liberation of economic administration from any political-legal interference with power; is: the management of the economy according to guidelines that arise only from the sources of the economy and from its interests.
[ 3 ] It is impossible to imagine the organization of economic life without the economic people managing this life in political-legal relationships. This is the objection raised by people who pretend to believe that anyone who talks about the threefold organization of the social organism has no insight into such a self-evident fact. In truth, however, the person who raises this objection does not want to gain an insight into the significant consequences it must have for the transformation of economic life if the political-legal views and institutions prevailing in it are not regulated within the economy itself according to its interests, but by a management outside it, which can only be determined by points of view that lie within the sphere of judgment of every person who has come of age. What is the reason that even many socialist thinkers do not want to gain such an insight? It lies in the fact that, through their participation in political life, they have formed ideas about the way in which political and legal affairs are conducted, but not about the nature of the forces inherent in economic life. Therefore, they can imagine an economy whose management proceeds according to the principles of political and legal administration, but not one that is organized according to its own conditions and needs, and into which the legal statutes originating elsewhere have an effect. Most of the leaders and agitators of the proletariat are in a situation characterized by this. If its masses are without sufficient insight into the possible form of transformation of economic life as a result of the facts mentioned above, its leaders are no better off. They alienate themselves from such an insight by not allowing their whole thinking to leave the political sphere.
[ 4 ] One consequence of this confinement of thinking to the one-sidedly political is the way in which various sides want to bring the establishment of works councils into being. Striving for such an institution in the present must either take place in the spirit of the "new idea" described above, or all work devoted to this endeavor will be wasted. The "new idea", however, demands that a first institution be created in the works council, which the "state" is not concerned with and which can be formed out of the purely economic thinking of the people involved in economic life. And it is left to the body thus created to provide the impetus for the associations through whose social cooperation in the economy should henceforth take place what was previously created by the egoistic competition of individuals. It is the free social organization of the individual branches of production and consumption that is important, not the administration of central offices from a political administrative point of view. It is the economic initiative of the working people that is promoted by such organization, not the paternalism of offices and higher offices. Whether an administration based on political considerations is imposed on economic life by a state law, or whether a "council system" is devised for the economy by people who think only according to political considerations and can organize only according to such considerations: it amounts to the same thing. There may even be people among the latter who theoretically demand a certain independence of economic life; in practice, their demands can only result in an economic system that is tied into a political system, because it is planned on the basis of political thinking. One will only think about such an institution in a way that corresponds to the present living conditions of mankind if one has a precise idea of how the state-legal and spiritual parts of the social organism are to develop properly alongside the economic system. For one will only be able to form a picture of independent economic life if one sees in the overall shape of the social organism that which should not be in its proper place in the economic cycle. If one does not see the right places for the development of spiritual and legal life, one will always be tempted to merge both in some way with economic life.