Nationalism and Culture (2 page)

That people today contemplate this catastrophic trend of affairs with little understanding merely proves that the forces that once freed Europe from the curse of absolutism and revealed new roads for social progress have become alarmingly weak. The vital deeds of our great predecessors are honored only in tradition. It was the great merit of the liberal line of thought of previous centuries, and the popular movements that grew out of it, that they broke the power of absolute monarchy which for centuries had crippled all intellectual progress and sacrificed the life and the welfare of the nation to its leaders' lust for power. The liberalism of that period was the revolt of man against the yoke of an insupportable overlordship which respected no human rights but treated peoples like herds of cattle that existed only to be milked by the state and the privileged orders. And so the representatives of liberalism strove for a social condition which should limit the power of the state to a minimum and should eliminate its influence from the sphere of intellectual and cultural life—a tendency which found expression in the words of Jefferson: "That government is best which governs least."

Today, however, we stand face to face with a reaction which, going far beyond absolute monarchy in its demands for power, strives to deliver over to the "national state" every field of human activity. Just as, the theology of the various religious systems hold God to be everything and man nothing, so this modern political theology regards the "nation" as

everything and the citizen nothing. And just as behind the ^'Will of God" there always lay^Iiidden the will ^f_£rivilegedjTiinonti^ so today there hides always behind the^^^WiU of the Nation" the selfish interests of those who feel themselves called to interpret this Will in their own sense and to impose it by force on the people.

It is the purpose of this work to retrace the intricate paths of this development and to lay bare its origins. In order to work out clearly the development and significance of modern nationalism and its relations to culture, the author was compelled to touch upon many different fields which are intimately interconnected. How far he has succeeded in his task is for the reader himself to judge.

The first ideas for the work came to me some time before the War and first found expression in a series of lectures and in various articles that appeared in a number of periodicals. The completion of the work was repeatedly interrupted, by a four-years' internment and by various literary labors, so that I was finally able to arrange the last chapter and prepare this book for the press only shortly before Hitler's accession to power. Then there swept over Germany the "National Revolution," which compelled me, as it did so many others to seek refuge abroad. When I fled I was able to rescue nothing but the manuscript of this work.

Since I could not longer count upon the publication of a work of such length—to which, moreover the circle of readers in Germany was now barred—I gave up all hope that my work would ever appear at all. I had to reconcile myself to this thought, as to so many others that are bound up with a life in exile. The petty disappointments of a disillusioned writer are so unimportant in comparison with the terrible distress of the time, under the yoke of which millions of men groan today.

Then, suddenly came an unexpected change. On a lecture tour through the United States I came in contact with a host of old and new friends who took a lively interest in my work. I have to thank their unselfish activity that in Chicago, Los Angeles, and later in New York, special groups were organized which took up the task of making possible the translation of my work into English, and later of effecting its publication in this country.

I feel under special obligation to Dr. Charles James, who collaborated in the translation with untiring zeal and unselfishly undertook a task, the fulfillment of which was far from easy.

I feel further impelled at this point to acknowledge my gratitude to Dr. Frederick Roman, Prof. Arthur Briggs, T. H. Bell, Walter E. HoUoway, Edward A. Cantrell and Clarence L. Swartz, who interested a larger circle of support by lecturing about my book, and by collaboration in other directions also, furthered the appearance of this work.

I owe an especial debt of gratitude to Mr. Ray E. Chase, who despite

Xll PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION

the serious difficulties imposed by his physical condition has devoted himself to the translation of my work and the revision of the manuscript, and in this has executed a task that only he can justly appreciate who knows how hard it is to render into a foreign tongue thought processes that run outside the everyday channels.

And, last but not least, I must here remember my friends H. Yaffej C. V. Cook; Sadie Cook, his wife; Joe Goldman; Jeanne Levey; Aron Halperin; Dr. I. A. Rabins; I. Radinovsky, Adelaide Schulkind, and the Kropotkin Society in Los Angeles, who by their self-sacrificing activity have provided the material means for my work. To them, and to all of those who have given support by their efforts but whose names cannot all be mentioned here, my sincerest thanks for their loyal comradeship.

A foreigner in this country, I have met with so kind a reception that I could hope for nothing better, and to such kindness man in banishment is doubly sensitive. May this work contribute to the awakening of the slumbering consciousness of freedom. May it encourage men to face the danger which today is threatening human culture and which must become a fatal destiny for men if they do not bestir themselves to put an end to the mischief. For the words of the poet hold good also for us:

The man of virtuous soul commands not, nor obeys.

Power, like a desolating pestilence.

Pollutes whate'er it touches;

. . . and obedience.

Bane of all genius, virtue, freedom, truth

Makes slaves of men, and of the human frame

A mechanized automaton.

RUDOLF ROCKER

Croton-on-Hudsofiy N. Y., September ig^6

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE

At the outset the writer of this preface wishes to make an acknowledgment and an explanation. Both are rather difficult to put briefly and clearly. After the collapse of the first arrangements for the translation of this book (details irrelevant to this discussion) Charles James, with a courage that cannot be overvalued, volunteered for the task. His understanding of the proper attitude toward the translation was the finest possible i the devotion with which he applied himself to the task was without limit. Unfortunately, the technique which for certain personal reasons he felt constrained to employ proved unsatisfactory. The transcription of his rendering from the cylinders of a dictating machine was so faulty as to make necessary an almost complete re-translation of most of the chapters he undertook and drastic revision of all the others. It would therefore be unjust to hold Mr. James responsible for any part of the translation as here presented. It would be outrageous not to make plain that but for the impetus that he gave and the example that he set this translation would probably never have been made. The writer is glad to record his recognition of this fact.

For the faults which remain in this translation the writer is alone responsible.

One who has undertaken a task of this magnitude while practically bound to an armchair must needs have owed much to others—much than can never be acknowledged in detail. Mention must, however, in decency be made of some of the many obligations incurred:

First, to all of the Los Angeles members of the Rocker Publications Committee, whose names are given in the author's preface, and among these more particularly to H. Yaffe and to C. V. Cook and Sadie Cook for painstaking care of the business and financial details j to Edward A. Cantrell for invaluable assistance in verifying quotations from English language sources j to Clarence L. Swartz for formal revision of the manuscript and for useful suggestions as to renderings j to T. H. Bell for critical assistance and—especially—for friendly approval.

Second, and above all, to De De B. Welch for the unceasing loyal

encouragement which has kept the writer at his task and for her indispensable help in verifying historical and artistic references.

Nationalism and Culture is the first of the works of Rudolf Rocker to appear in English. Although the author is known as a platform speaker to wide circles both in England and the United States some introduction of him to the wider reading public seems appropriate, the more so as his book is in a rather unusual degree an expression of the man.

Rudolf Rocker was born on March 25, 1873, in the ancient Rhine city of Mainz. He refers with a touch of pride to the fact that the city of his birth was founded by the Romans in 57 b.c, and that it was the birthplace of Johann Gutenberg and the site of his first printing house.

With mingled pride and affection he refers to its record of fruitful cultural activity, of democratic spirit and ready acceptance of advanced social ideas—he specifies the "Declaration of the Rights of Man"—and of resistance to oppression—he specifies its antagonism to the encroachments of the Prussian state. He mentions the friendly attitude of a large part of the population of Mainz to the South German federalist, Constantin Frantz, one of Bismarck's most determined opponents.

It seems clear that the atmosphere and the traditions of his native city profoundly influenced him in his youth.

Rocker's father was a music printer {Notenstecher^ "music typographer"). His mother came from one of the old burger families of Mainz. Rocker early lost his parents, and his boyhood was passed in a Catholic orphans' home.

During his childhood and youth Rocker was strongly influenced in his intellectual development by his uncle Rudolf Naumann, his mother's brother, whom he described as an extremely intelligent and well-read man. The uncle instilled in young Rudolf a fondness for serious studies and assisted him in every way in the pursuit of them. He initiated the youth into _the_sociaiist movement, which at that time in~Germany was completely under the intellectual domination of Marx and Lassalle. The Bismarckian anti-socialist law was still being rigorously enforced, so that open activity of any sort was out of the question, and the movement was entirely an underground one. Socialist literature was printed abroad, smuggled into the country and distributed secretly. The influence of this situation on young Rudolf is perhaps best described by a slightly condensed rendering of some extracts from one of his recent letters:

This underground activity had a peculiar attraction for me as a young man and appealed strongly to my romantic imagination. It also early developed in me a profound aversion for the brutal suppression of ideas and personal convictions.

This personal sense of justice was also the reason why the socialist movement of Germany could not hold me long. Its dogmatic narrow-mindedness and especially its outspoken intolerance of any opinion that was not in complete accord with the letter of the program very-soon brought me to the conviction that I had no place there.

It was not the idea of socialism that repelled me but their dogmatic interpretation of it, which assumed that they had found a solution for every social problem, and in particular the total lack of any libertarian concept, which was especially characteristic of the German social democratic movement. Socialism in so far as it opposed the monopolizing of the soil, the instruments of production and social wealth was certainly a sound and serviceable idea, but the permeation of this idea by all sorts of vestigial political theories robbed it of its real significance. It was clear to me that socialism was not a simple question of a full belly, but a question of culture that would have to enlist the sense of personality and the free initiative of the individual j without freedom it would lead only to a dismal state capitalism which would sacrifice all individual thought and feeling to a fictitious collective interest. Allied with the liberal lines of thought of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which aimed at the freeing of personality and the elimination of political power from the life of society, it would lead to the development of a new social culture based upon free agreement among human beings and the principle of cooperative labor. And so I turned logically to libertarian socialism as expressed in the writings of William Godwin, Proudhon, Fourier, Bakunin, Kropotkin, Tolstoi, Reclus, Tucker and others.

When his school years were over Rocker was apprenticed to a bookbinder, and he followed that calling until his twenty-fifth year, when he abandoned it to devote himself wholly to his studies and his literary activities. After the German custom he traveled as a young journeyman through several countries. Everywhere he got in touch with the libertarian movement and took an active part in it. A natural gift for oratory and the ability to set down his ideas in writing made him an effective worker.

Later, personal acquaintance, warm friendship and close association with men like Peter Kropotkin, Elisee Reclus, Domela Nieuwenhuis, Errico Malatesta, and others furthered his intellectual development and his literary labors, so that his name became known in the libertarian circles of all countries.

From 1893 to 1895 he lived as a political refugee in Paris. This was for him a fruitful period, as it afforded him an opportunity to acquaint himself thoroughly with the social movements of the day.

From Paris he went to London where he became interested in the

Jews of the East Side. He went to live among them and learned their language. From 1898 until the outbreak of the World War he was editor of the Yiddish Workers' Friend and of the monthly journal of social theory, Germinal.

As a non-Jew wllQ-Sp eaks and writes Yiddish and has a clear understanding 'of the problems of the Jewish people and a fine sympathy for their difficulties, Rocker has had and still has a large following among the Jews of every land.

At the outbreak of the World War Rocker was arrested in London and interned for the duration of the war as an alien enemy. The story of his experiences in a British concentration camp he has embodied in a book, Hinter Stacheldraht und Giiter, which as a picture of a terrible but somewhat neglected aspect of the war is unsurpassed by any factual narrative to which that bloody period has given rise. It is soon to appear in English.