Technology, War and Fascism

Collected Papers of Herbert Marcuse, Volume 1

Herbert Marcuse, Douglas Kellner, Douglas Kellner

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2004
• ISBN:
  9781134774654
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Philosophy History & Theory

PUBLICITY TITLE Marcuse's most famous book (One Dimensional Man) has sold over 100, 000 copies worldwide Kellner and Marcuse - both big names in their own rights First in a "series" of six - a must for libraries to have whole sets Revival of HERBERT MARCUSE LEGACY Marcuse's philosophy was so ahead of its time that its almost more appropriate now than it was in the 1960s

THE NEW GERMAN
MENTALITY†

1 THE TWO LAYERS OF THE NEW
GERMAN MENTALITY

National Socialism has changed the thought and behavior pattern of the German people in such a way that it is no longer susceptible to the traditional methods of counter-propaganda and education. The German people today is oriented to essentially different values and standards; it talks and understands a language that is different not only from that of Western civilization but also from that of the former German Kultur. A thorough knowledge of the new mentality and the new language is a prerequisite for the effective psychological and ideological offensive against National Socialism.

We may distinguish between two layers of the new mentality:

1. the pragmatic layer (matter-of-factness, the philosophy of efficiency and success, of mechanization and rationalization)
2. the mythological layer (paganism, racism, social naturalism)

The two layers are two sides of one and the same phenomenon.

A critical analysis of the new mentality is necessary in order to find the instruments that are most apt to destroy it.

We have two principal sources for such an analysis:

1. The actual organization of National Socialist society. We may infer the new psychological status of the people from the pattern of the social and political institutions which have been set up to govern this people.
2. The National Socialist ideology, that is to say, the philosophy by which the National Socialists explain and justify the new institutions and relations. The ideology can only be understood, however, by analyzing it in the context of the actual organization of National Socialist society.

2 THE FEATURES OF THE NEW
GERMAN MENTALITY

We may summarize the new German mentality under the following headings:

1 Integral politicalization The facts are well known, but an adequate interpretation of their scope and consequences is still lacking. In present day Germany, all motives, problems and interests pertaining to the life of individuals are more or less directly political ones, and their realization is likewise a directly political action. Social as well as private existence, work as well as leisure, are political activities. The traditional barrier between the individual and society, and between society and the state has disappeared. But it would be utterly wrong to regard this politicalization as the culmination of German etatism, authoritarianism or anti-individualism. The National Socialist politicalization rather revitalizes certain forms of terroristic politicalization which were characteristics of the middle class revolution in the Western European countries: the “bourgeois” emerges as the “citoyen” whose life is business, and whose business is a political affair.

2 Integral debunking National Socialism has trained the German people to consider everything that is not borne out by the facts as an ideological manoeuvre designed to conceal and confuse the real fronts and forces in the struggle within and without. This process did not stop short at National Socialism’s own philosophy: the cynicism which pervades this philosophy has also seized those who are supposed to believe what their leaders tell them. The German people believe in the National Socialist philosophy insofar as this philosophy proves to be an efficient weapon for defense and aggression—but not farther. With the exception of the very young and the very old objects of National Socialist organization, everyone who believes in the National Socialist ideology is conscious of the fact that he believes in an ideology.¹

3 Cynical matter-of-factness In organizing German society for total warexpansion, National Socialism has imbued the thus mobilized population with a rationality that measures all issues in terms of efficiency, success and expediency. The German “dreamer” and “idealist” has become the world’s most brutal “pragmatist.” He views the totalitarian regime solely under the aspect of his immediate material advantages. He has adjusted his thoughts, feelings and behavior to the technological rationalization which National Socialism has transformed into the most formidable weapon of conquest. He thinks in quantities: in terms of speed, skill, energy, organization, mass. The terror which threatens him at any moment promotes this mentality: he has learned to be suspicious and shrewd, to weigh any step at an instance’s notice, to hide his thoughts and his aims, to mechanize his actions and reactions and to adapt them to the rhythm of universal regimentation. This matter-of-factness is the very center of the National Socialist mentality and the psychological ferment of the National Socialist system.²

4 Neo-Paganism The pragmatic cynicism which pervades the National Socialist matter-of-factness has been pushed forward into a revolt against the basic principles of Christian civilization. To the German people, these principles were last materialized in the Weimar Republic and in the Labor movement. National Socialism has from the beginning associated the latter with the basic ideas of Christian civilization: Christian humanism, the Rights of Man, democracy and socialism have been made elements of one and the same compound.³ This strange amalgam was rendered possible by the fact that, since the First World War, the German labor movement had become part and parcel of the system of democratic culture. The labor movement thus came to share the fate of this culture, and the failure of the Weimar Republic to fulfill its promises was used by the National Socialists to nourish distrust and hatred of the supreme ideas of Christian civilization as such, a distrust and hatred which were deeply rooted among large strata of the German population. In fostering these feelings, National Socialism appealed to the German people’s experience of its most recent frustration: the revolt against Christian civilization belongs to the new spirit of matter-of-factness rather than to the spirit of “German metaphysics.”

The revolt against Christian civilization appears in various forms: antisemitism, terrorism, social Darwinism, anti-intellectualism, naturalism. Common to all of them is the rebellion against the restraining and transcendental principles of Christian morality (the liberty and equality of man qua man, the subordination of might to right, the idea of universal ethics). This rebellion is an age-old German heritage which was operative in all typically German movements: in Luther’s protestantism, in the “Faustic” elements of German literature, philosophy and music, in the popular upheavals during the Wars of Liberation, in Nietzsche, in the Youth Movement. But National Socialism has destroyed the metaphysical implications of this rebellion and transformed it into an instrument of totalitarian efficiency.

5 Shift of traditional taboos In order to actualize this rebellion, National Socialism was compelled to attack some of the taboos that Christian civilization had placed upon private and social life. The most conspicuous side of this process is the attack on certain taboos on sexuality, the family, the moral code.⁴ We shall see, however, that the taboos have only been shifted, and not abolished. The result is an illusionary license and emancipation, accompanied by a strengthening of the taboos on other and better protected relations and institutions.

6 As the war goes on, the German population is increasingly possessed by a catastrophic fatalism which strengthens rather than weakens the hold of the National Socialist regime. The German masses seem to identify the annihilation of Hitlerism with annihilation as such, that is to say, with the final destruction of Germany as a nation and state, with the final loss of security, with the lowering of the standard of living below the inflation level. This catastrophic fear is one of the strongest bonds between the masses and the regime.⁵

We shall now attempt to interpret the elements of the new German mentality in the context of the National Socialist organization of society, but we shall interpret them only under the aspect of the destruction of this mentality.⁶

3 THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF THE NEW
GERMAN MENTALITY

National Socialism may be characterized as the specifically German adaptation of society to the requirements of large scale industry, as the typically German form of “technocracy”. We might even venture to say that National Socialism is the first and only “middle class revolution” in Germany, occurring at the stage of large scale industry and therefore skipping or condensing the preceding stages of the development. National Socialism has abolished the remnants of feudalism, notwithstanding the concentration of large real estate which the system promotes with all means (this concentration is a capitalistic rather than feudal process). National Socialism has furthermore abolished the relatively independent position of those groups which lagged behind the capacity of large scale enterprise, namely, the groups of small and middle business, of commerce and finance. The free market, which corresponded to the economic constellation prior to the predominance of large scale enterprise, has been regimented. National Socialism has incorporated labor into the dominion of industry and removed the barriers of social legislation which stood in the way of such incorporation. Directly political forms of control have been established (abolition of the rule of law, of free contract, representation, etc.). National Socialism has merged the industrial, governmental (ministerial) and semi-governmental (party) bureaucracy, thereby adjusting the state to the needs of the industrial apparatus. Finally, National Socialism has released the full capacity of this apparatus by embarking upon a policy of imperialist expansion on a continental scale. This sweeping adjustment in the social institutions and relations implied a not less sweeping adjustment in private as well as collective morale and psychology. The new mentality is, even in its most irrational aspects, the result of a process of totalitarian “rationalization” which removes the moral inhibition, waste and inefficiency that stand in the way of ruthless economic and political conquest.

The analysis of the new mentality will make it clear that:

1. the new mentality is the expression, not of some abtruse philosophy, but of a highly rationalized pattern of social organization;
2. there is no warranted conclusion that the new mentality will disappear with the disappearance of the National Socialist regime. For the new mentality is bound up with a pattern of social organization that is not identical with National Socialism, although National Socialism has given it its most aggressive form.

Moreover, in view of the social function of the new mentality, it is highly improbable that it can simply be retransformed into the mentality of the status quo. Since the new mentality is skilfully adapted to the latest stage of large scale industry and organization, to utmost technological capacity, any retrogression behind this stage would contradict the general trend of the international development and constitute a source of recurrent crises and conflicts. Integral politicalization is the National Socialist concomitant of the transition to a planned economy within the established social framework; integral debunking, cynical matter-of-factness and the shifting of traditional taboos are the German features of technological rationality, and neo-paganism serves to crush the psychological and emotional resistance to ruthless imperialist conquest. The whole mentality is that of the “late-comer” who tries to break into the entrenched system of powers with terroristic means.

There are other reasons against retrogression to the status quo, reasons that are founded in the new mentality itself. The matter-of-factness which, in present day Germany, provides the ground for all evaluation still gives the Hitler regime preference over the era of the democratic Republic. The German masses of today regard liberty, equality and the rights of man as a mere ideology unless these ideas are realized in material security and an adequate standard of living. The Weimar Republic was not able to achieve this realization, and the German masses care but little what happens in the other democracies as long as they themselves do not enjoy these benefits.⁷ In Germany, full employment prevails, and the population does not yet starve. To be sure, the increasing hardships of war and the terrible losses will shift the balance in disfavor of the regime—but not in favor of the status quo. Here again, the evaluation is entirely pragmatic: the war has been pictured to the German population as a business proposition; the investment is high and frightfully risky, but it is the only possible investment, and the initial success is promising.⁸ Entire nations have been subjected to German exploitation, and even the little man gets a small share of the booty. Moreover, it seems as if the technical character of modern warfare diminishes the weight of the moral factor and allows to continue operations even if the “spirit” is surprisingly low.

The National Socialist regime’s hold over the German people is based on its efficiency and success in the international struggle, and military defeat is therefore the prerequisite for breaking this hold. But there is not the slightest guarantee that the downfall of the regime will eradicate the roots of theNational Socialist mentality which made the regime possible. This mentality will disappear only when the dominion of those groups is dissolved which are for life and death tied up with the regime and, beyond the regime, with its motives and aims. It will disappear only when a social order has been established in which the achievements of the regime (full employment and material security) are preserved in a truly democratic form. To prepare the ground for such action, an attempt can be made to influence the new mentality by utilizing those of its elements which tend beyond the National Socialist form of their realization. These elements are above all the pragmatic matter-of- factness, and the integral politicalization. This, of course, does not mean that the National Socialist philosophy and propaganda are to be copied or adapted to different contents. Any concession in this direction would immediately appear as a sign of weakness and strengthen the belief in the superiority of National Socialism. It must rather be shown that National Socialism inevitably frustrates the motives and impulses which animate the new mentality, that National Socialism is the embodiment of the oppressive forces which it pretends to have conquered, and that liberation lies beyond the New Order as well as the status quo. The content and language of an effective counter-propaganda can neither be that of the New Order nor of the status quo but must develop a content and language of its own. They must respond, but not correspond, to the new mentality.

We have so far treated this mentality as a unit; we have talked of “the German people” and disregarded its differentiation in the various social strata. This is a gross over-simplification, and the adaptation of propaganda to the different social strata and interests is indispensable. We shall try such a differentiation later on. There is, however, some justification for neglecting it in a preliminary general outline. In Germany, the regimented rationalization of society is totalitarian also in the respect that it standardizes the thought and behavior pattern in all social strata. With the exception of the active opposition, they all converge on the same interests. National Socialism has furthermore “unified” the social antagonisms to such an extent that the vast majority of the population faces the small group of the industrial and governmental leadership.⁹ Outside the ranks of this leadership, they are all objects of one and the same authoritarian organization, and their life depends at any moment on this organization, in the factory as well as in the shop, in the office and on the land, at home as well as in the assembly halls, clubs, theaters, hospitals and concentration camps. The dichotomy between thesmall ruling group and the rest of the population does not mean that the latter constitutes one oppositional mass. Unfortunately, the picture is not that simple. There is hardly any social group which, in its material interest, is not in some way or the other bound up with the functioning of the system, and wherever these ties are loosening, they are replaced by brute terror. The dichotomy rather designates the two poles on which the distribution of power centers: the policy is laid down by the ruling clique within which the conflicts of interests are fought out and the basic compromises reached, all other groups are fused together into an all-embracing organization which insures the execution of this policy. Within this regimented mass, the active opposition (that is to say, the opposition which fights the system, and not merely the more or less contingent composition of its leadership) is scattered ...

Table of contents

• COVER PAGE
• TITLE PAGE
• COPYRIGHT PAGE
• FOREWORD
• PREFACE: THE UNKNOWN MARCUSE: NEW ARCHIVAL DISCOVERIES
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• INTRODUCTION: TECHNOLOGY, WAR AND FASCISM: MARCUSE IN THE 1940s
• SOME SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY
• STATE AND INDIVIDUAL UNDER NATIONAL SOCIALISM
• A HISTORY OF THE DOCTRINE OF SOCIAL CHANGE
• THEORIES OF SOCIAL CHANGE
• THE NEW GERMAN MENTALITY
• DESCRIPTION OF THREE MAJOR PROJECTS
• SOME REMARKS ON ARAGON: ART AND POLITICS IN THE TOTALITARIAN ERA
• 33 THESES
• LETTERS TO HORKHEIMER
• HEIDEGGER AND MARCUSE: A DIALOGUE IN LETTERS