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proposed roads to freedom(通往自由之路)-第7部分
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means of production into so… cially exploited and; therefore; common
means of production; as well as the further expropriation of private
proprietors; takes a new form。 That which is now to be expropriated is no
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longer the laborer working for himself; but the capitalist exploiting many
laborers。 This expropriation is accomplished by the action of the
immanent laws of capitalistic production itself; by the centralization of
capital。 One capitalist always kills many; and in hand with this
centralization; or this expropriation of many capitalists by few; develop;
on an ever extending scale; the co…operative form of the labor…process; the
conscious technical application of science; the methodical cultivation of
the soil; the transformation of the instruments of labor into instruments of
labor only usable in common; the economizing of all means of production
by their use as the means of production of combined; socialized labor; the
entanglement of all peoples in the net of the world…market; and with this;
the international character of the capitalistic regime。 Along with the
constantly diminishing number of the magnates of capital; who usurp and
monopolize all advantages of this process of transformation; grows the
mass of misery; oppression; slavery; degradation; exploitation; but with
this; too; grows the revolt of the working… class; a class always increasing
in numbers; and disciplined; united; organized by the very mechanism of
the process of capitalist production itself。 The monopoly of capital
becomes a fetter upon the mode of production; which has sprung up and
flourished along with; and under it。 Centralization of the means of
production and socialization of labor at last reach a point where they
become incompatible with their capitalist integument。 This integument is
burst asunder。 The knell of capitalist private property sounds。 The
expropriators are expropriated;'8'
'8' Vol。 i pp。 788; 789。
That is all。 Hardly another word from beginning to end is allowed to
relieve the gloom; and in this relentless pressure upon the mind of the
reader lies a great part of the power which this book has acquired。
Two questions are raised by Marx's work: First; Are his laws of
historical development true? Second; Is Socialism desirable? The second
of these questions is quite independent of the first。 Marx professes to
prove that Socialism must come; but scarcely concerns himself to argue
that when it comes it will be a good thing。 It may be; however; that if it
comes; it will be a good thing; even though all Marx's arguments to prove
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PROPOSED ROADS TO FREEDOM
that it must come should be at fault。 In actual fact; time has shown many
flaws in Marx's theories。 The development of the world has been
sufficiently like his prophecy to prove him a man of very unusual
penetration; but has not been sufficiently like to make either political or
economic history exactly such as he predicted that it would be。
Nationalism; so far from diminishing; has increased; and has failed to be
conquered by the cosmopolitan tendencies which Marx rightly discerned
in finance。 Although big businesses have grown bigger and have over a
great area reached the stage of monopoly; yet the number of shareholders
in such enterprises is so large that the actual number of individuals
interested in the capitalist system has continually increased。 Moreover;
though large firms have grown larger; there has been a simultaneous
increase in firms of medium size。 Meanwhile the wage…earners; who were;
according to Marx; to have remained at the bare level of subsistence at
which they were in the England of the first half of the nineteenth century;
have instead profited by the general increase of wealth; though in a lesser
degree than the capitalists。 The supposed iron law of wages has been
proved untrue; so far as labor in civilized countries is concerned。 If we
wish now to find examples of capitalist cruelty analogous to those with
which Marx's book is filled; we shall have to go for most of our material
to the Tropics; or at any rate to regions where there are men of inferior
races to exploit。 Again: the skilled worker of the present day is an
aristocrat in the world of labor。 It is a question with him whether he shall
ally himself with the unskilled worker against the capitalist; or with the
capitalist against the unskilled worker。 Very often he is himself a capitalist
in a small way; and if he is not so individually; his trade union or his
friendly society is pretty sure to be so。 Hence the sharpness of the class
war has not been maintained。 There are gradations; intermediate ranks
between rich and poor; instead of the clear…cut logical antithesis between
the workers who have nothing and the capitalists who have all。 Even in
Germany; which became the home of orthodox Marxianism and developed
a powerful Social…Democratic party; nominally accepting the doctrine of
‘‘Das Kapital'' as all but verbally inspired; even there the enormous
increase of wealth in all classes in the years preceding the war led
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PROPOSED ROADS TO FREEDOM
Socialists to revise their beliefs and to adopt an evolutionary rather than a
revolutionary attitude。 Bernstein; a German Socialist who lived long in
England; inaugurated the ‘‘Revisionist'' movement which at last conquered
the bulk of the party。 His criticisms of Marxian orthodoxy are set forth in
his ‘‘Evolutionary Socialism。'''9' Bernstein's work; as is common in Broad
Church writers; consists largely in showing that the Founders did not hold
their doctrines so rigidly as their followers have done。 There is much in
the writings of Marx and Engels that cannot be fitted into the rigid
orthodoxy which grew up among their disciples。 Bernstein's main
criticisms of these disciples; apart from such as we have already
mentioned; consist in a defense of piecemeal action as against revolution。
He protests against the attitude of undue hostility to Liberalism which is
common among Socialists; and he blunts the edge of the Internationalism
which undoubtedly is part of the teachings of Marx。 The workers; he says;
have a Fatherland as soon as they become citizens; and on this basis he
defends that degree of nationalism which the war has since shown to be
prevalent in the ranks of Socialists。 He even goes so far as to maintain that
European nations have a right to tropical territory owing to their higher
civilization。 Such doctrines diminish revolutionary ardor and tend to
transform Socialists into a left wing of the Liberal Party。 But the
increasing prosperity of wage…earners before the war made these
developments inevitable。 Whether the war will have altered conditions in
this respect; it is as yet impossible to know。 Bernstein concludes with the
wise remark that: ‘‘We have to take working men as they are。 And they are
neither so universally paupers as was set out in the Communist Manifesto;
nor so free from prejudices and weaknesses as their courtiers wish to make
us believe。''
'9' Die Voraussetzungen des Sozialismus und die Aufgaben der
Sozial…Demokratie。''
In March; 1914; Bernstein delivered a lecture in Budapest in which he
withdrew from several of the positions he had taken up (vide Budapest
‘‘Volkstimme;'' March 19; 1914)。
Berstein represents the decay of Marxian orthodoxy from within。
Syndicalism represents an attack against it from without; from the
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standpoint of a doctrine which professes to be even more radical and more
revolutionary than that of Marx and Engels。 The attitude of Syndicalists to
Marx may be seen in Sorel's little book; ‘‘La Decomposition du
Marxisme;'' and in his larger work; ‘‘Reflections on Violence;'' authorized
translation by T。 E。 Hulme (Allen & Unwin; 1915)。 After quoting
Bernstein; with approval in so far as he criticises Marx; Sorel proceeds to
other criticisms of a different order。 He points out (what is true) that
Marx's theoretical economics remain very near to Manchesterism: the
orthodox political economy of his youth was accepted by him on many
points on
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