Capitalist Cant Criticised. Light on a Dark Subject
Capitalism Creates Cant
The intellectual atmosphere of capitalist society is well laden with cant at the best of times, and the reason is not far to seek.
The antagonism of interests between classes and sections of classes gives rise to a necessity for preserving by some artificial means the unity and permanence of the established order. The chief instrument for the accomplishment of this purpose is the State, the political weapon of the property-owning class ; but coercion by the State is expensive, and other means of securing the submission of the disturbing elements of society are therefore exploited for all they are worth.
Apart from State education, which does its best to warp the constitution of working-class minds in the making, there exist those precious “moulders of public opinion,” the Press, the pulpit, and the political platform. Paid and maintained by the wealthy, their function is to persuade the workers either that their interests are identical with those of their masters, or that material interests are in themselves base and degraded elements of human nature which must be suppressed and not encouraged. In other words, the stock-in-trade of these intellectual prostitutes is cant and delusion. It could not be otherwise.
Since the “great war” commenced this industry of lying, like many others, has been speeded up considerably. The various capitalist nations concerned had to concentrate all the forces they could muster for the purpose of securing plunder through carnage, and the support of the working class was essential to this end.
In addition to saving the use of force, cant also suffices as a justification for it when necessary. As the real reasons for the war would hardly have aroused much enthusiasm among the workers, they had to be supplied with false ones. Not only that. Various rebellious members of the wage-slave class had to be quieted lest they should act on the principle that the capitalists’ extremity was the workers’ opportunity. Anti-strike-and-free-speech-measures had to be enforced, and in order to make it easy, “public opinion” supporting these measures had to be developed. Consequently the politicians and penny-a-liners, backed by the ubiquitous parson, started working overtime, so if the air smelt of cant before, it positively reeked with it as the war fever rose.
Such Lofty Motives
The Austrian Emperor started well by “taking up his sword under the grace of God” (poor God puzzled as to which side he is really on) “to defend the integrity of his Empire against Serbian conspirators.” This was nice and vague and saved him mentioning ports on the Adriatic and such-like “gross matters.” Holy Russia, protector of small nations (such as Finland, Poland, and Persia) indignantly arose to defend her little cat’s-paw with truly Christian zeal, considering the proximity of Serbia to Constantinople, thus forcing Germany, out of respect for treaties, to defend her illustrious ally. Germany also found it necessary to defend the Fatherland against France, and any student of history knows that it was a mere coincidence that she collared Antwerp in doing so, not to mention various valuable Belgian mineral districts.
Not to be outdone in this sudden craze for defending something, Great Britain stepped in to defend Belgium, and incidentally the various German colonies and trade routes. The writer forgets just what Japan and Italy started to defend, but has no doubt that it was connected witli our glorious civilization in some way, and had nothing to do with such outlandish places as Kiao-chau and the Trentino.
They All Wanted Peace
The reader will thus see that in entering the war the various nations were actuated by the “loftiest idealism” and “spirit of self-sacrifice” according to their own accounts, and only a materialist would dream of doubting their words. What worries some of us, however, is that such a mutual policy of “defence, not defiance” should have resulted in the complicated tangle of attacks and manifestations of violence which at present disfigures the fair face of Europe. They all wanted peace, of course, yet somehow went to war. Why ?
Imprisoned in this free country we have necessarily to rely on the British excuse. “It was the German.” we are told, “who put us all to rout, but what he wants to fight us for we cannot well make out !” But stay ! Mayhap he wants to convert us to his “system.” Kultur ! That’s it ! State slavery ! Yes ! it is to defend the innocent inhabitants of these isles against the monster of Bureaucracy that the Government declared war. The Belgian “defence” is stale ; fresh piffle must be unearthed. That it is piffle the reader has only to carry his memory back to before the war to discover—if, of course, he cannot see in conscription, munitions acts, etc., sufficient evidence of the present power of British “militarism.”
Liberals, Tories, and Labour men ! Did they not all invite “us” to copy Germany ? Where, pray, did they point to show the benefits of State old-age pensions, State insurance, State railways, State this, that, and the other, ad lib ? What was the classic example of the prosperity (for some) induced by Protection ? Germany, every time ! The “system” which the perjured British Government professes to be fighting was being forced by them on their slaves as rapidly as it could be done before the war, while now, far from being checked, this tendency is being pushed forward more rapidly than ever. And why ?
Britain Follows Germany
In spite of all their childish cant phrases, our rulers know that it is only by copying the Germans and adopting scientific methods of economic and military administration that they can hope to win. Indeed, they admit it. Every fresh encroachment upon the liberties of the workers is necessary to win the War. Capitalist victory presupposes working-class slavery.
It is only since the middle of the last century that Germany has developed into a full-blown capitalist State. At that time she found her manufactures and commerce far behind those of her rivals, England and France. The possession of good seaboards had given these latter an appreciable start in the acquisition of colonies and the growth of a world commerce ; and German statesmen recognised the necessity of scientific organisation if the leeway was to be made up. German capitalists saw that only by combined effort could they hope to compete successfully, not merely for international trade, but for their own home market. Here it should be noted that every nation which has entered the international commercial arena has first been forced by the competition of outside capitalists, to develop on capitalist lines in order to supply its own markets. Japan and China offer more recent examples of this, and the further behind in the race a nation is the more concentrated and determined is the effort needed to succeed. Hence the “aggressiveness” of Germany.
If the German State is fighting for world-power, as we are told, it is only because her rivals have already got a substantial share of that power beforehand.
Just as the State is the instrument by which a capitalist nation holds itself together, so it is the agent of its expansion. Consequently the Germans have paid great attention to the perfection of the State. They have developed the organ of class rule on scientific lines, with special attention to the concrete force by which the State acts, i.e., the armed forces.
It is the internal social administration of the State that concerns us here. The Germans realised that their dominion over their own wage-slaves must be made as secure and as economically as possible. Hence their “State slavery,” which all social reformers are anxious to have their respective governments adopt.
German Capitalist Cunning
It is said that the strength of a chain is that of its weakest link. The weak spots in the working class are the extreme young and the aged, the sick and disabled and the unemployed. They are financial burdens on their relatives, and a source of strain whenever the workers come into conflict with their masters, as in a strike, for instance. To get control of the workers in their weak places became an object of German policy. The workers had already endeavoured by Trade Union organisation etc. to erect bulwarks against unemployment, sickness, and the like, so forthwith the State undermined these independent efforts by introducing compulsory insurance with the funds in its own hands. With the assistance of State labour exchanges this enabled it to convert the unemployed into a regular strike-breaking army. In short, it organised the means whereby the masters could keep down their restless slaves. For the rest it acquired the power to throw the maintenance of the young and aged, sick and disabled, back on to the financially weakened workers at such times as it suited their purpose (e.g. in times of strikes), thus adding further to the strength of the masters’ position.
By such means as these, coupled with technical education, the German State reduced its wage-slaves to the level of the most docile and productive in Europe. This accomplishment was a great asset in the struggle for commercial supremacy, and it speaks volumes for the success of its schemes that its rivals should set about imitating them.
Conscription and militarist control of the workers was the coping-stone on the edifice, and this has now been finally added to the British structure, fitting testimony to the value of “British Ideals.” These “ideals” boomed once upon a time by the opponents of the “Servile State” (Belloc, Chesterton & Co.), are now abandoned by their champions as worthless in face of the testing reality of war.
This cant about the “German System” is, of course, amplified by minor forms of humbug. For instance, we are told that it is a light of “right” against “might” what time the munition workers are speeded up to breaking point and “conscientious objectors” who refuse to exercise “might” receive scant mercy. We are told that it is “the last great war,” while the masters are but strengthening their hands against the day when the “patched up peace” between capital and labour will dissolve and the CLASS WAR break out again with added fury.
We invite our fellow workers to clear their minds of illusions, to study Socialism and organise to carry through with intelligent purpose the genuine “last great war.”
E. B.