Gustav Landauer (1870-1919) was a
German anarchist during the German November revolution. On the 2nd of
May 1919 he died a martyrs death, during the fall of the Soviet
republic. His anarcho-socialist ideas can definitely be seen as a
solid basis for what we today describe as “folkanarchism”.
Landauer is best described as a critical and realistic idealist. He
was not deceived by idealist mirages, nor by materialist fallacies.
Folk and Culture
In contradiction to most socialists
from his time, Landauer never believed that humanity would reach a
higher phase of life by the development of technology and science. He
didn't count on the idea that “progress” would be mechanically
achieved, but by an eternal rejuvenation and renewal. The peoples
never aged, only their cultures did. At a certain time each culture
irrevocably lost its life force, through which it froze and fell.
Because of this the peoples who were once its bearers fell into a
state of “serenity” and forgot that what they had wanted, known
and done, until finally the day came that they were regenerated by a
new idea.
When this new idea appeared between
them as a real unchanging truth, then the individuals were bound
again through worship and love. Through this, human life became
lifted to higher forms of organisation and a new culture flourished.
In these times the urge to connect with the people got the upper hand
and the power over the individual. With this a form of social life
came to being that was described by Landauer as “the community of
communities”; the organic connection of little, self-governing and,
on their own strength acting units, that in turn connected themselves
with larger units. This age of great culture was marked by the new
idea feeding the “stream of life”, only then the relationships
were healthy and life had dignity.
This era was always preceded by a stage
in which the spirit of the community dominates. In this stage no
brilliant personalities rise above the masses, because the essence of
life is uniform. Brilliant personalities come forth from the bosom of
the community and the general spirit of the people themselves,
therefore the people does not gawk at them as “wondrous animals”,
but recognize them as natural fruits from the tree of society. These
highlights are rarely reached in humanity its rich and infinitely
long history. During these highlights there is no need for an ideal,
no craving for the new, because the spirit that gives meaning to
life, is present in all its manifestations.
After these era’s of balance,
inexorably follows times of demise. The negative forces that are
present within each culture, are rigid dogmas, which prevail over the
living spirit. The living spirit is killed by them, because people
are clinging to one and the same dogmatic form. Organisations, like
the State, have contained since their existence the seeds of
domination and mechanically rigid centralism. Through the advance of
the general decay their bad sides have gotten worse, while they grow
in strength. In the masses, the spirit that binds all individuals
into a true community, disappears. When the life of the community no
longer feeds the individual, the individual gets alienated and
lonely. This process of sophisticated individualization on the one
hand, and atomization on the other, leads towards a mindlessness of
the masses. They can only become a people again, when a new culture
flourishes.
Progress and Revolution
In contradiction to most revolutionary
Marxists, Landauer unconditionally rejected the “Zeitgeist”.
Fierce anti-capitalists like Vladimir Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl
Liebknecht accepted the growth of the big-industrial organisation and
saw the associated mechanization as “progress” in the spirit of
Marx. Their “progress” was nothing more than the “progress”
of the bourgeoisie. Landauer´s thought was not based on the
historical materialism, which makes the development of technology as
the criterion of progress. He didn't see the development of Western
humanity since the Renaissance as an unparalleled triumph. Landauer
had his own criteria for progress. He didn't see progress in
materialist terms, but measured life by the content in which people
became aware of their connectedness. The modern Zeitgeist he
acknowledged as an era of cultural descent, of increasing alienation
and upheaval.
However Landauer didn’t believe in
the “eternal damnation” of a people. He saw change through
renewal as a law of life. Through demise, growth could be born and
from despair new strength could derive. There was only one spirit
that could rise the people again: the spirit of justice in community
life. Landauer didn’t only see his socialism as the only
opportunity to escape the need and social misery of the proletariat,
but also as the only opportunity for the renewal of the entire
humanity. Only this could stop its demise and alienation.
Landauer considered the revolution as a
constantly recurring phenomenon, through which society could escape
from the danger of cultural rigidity. Since the Western culture
perished, the West mostly survived through violence and centralized
State power. During this period the Western humanity also strove for
freedom, which was strongly expressed during the revolution.
Therefore Landauer considered the revolution as the run-up towards
spiritual rebirth. The urge to live, which was suffocated during
normal times, was released during revolutionary days.
Although Landauer was convinced of the
regenerative function of the revolution, he didn’t see it as the
way towards socialism. According to him the great force of socialism
was construction: the peaceful reconstruction. When the revolution
had destroyed the old strongholds and obsolete forms of life, then
her positive forces were enough to ensure the existence and further
development of the community.
Landauer’s views on socialism were
realistic-idealistic. Realistic was his view that the urge for
socialism arose from social relations and the impossibility to which
capitalism led us. His view was idealistic because he was convinced
that next to these social conditions, another force of a completely
different order was needed before socialism could be born: the
creative spirit which could produce new relationships between
mankind. For Landauer socialism was not absolute. The natural feeling
of fraternity between fellow countrymen and fellow human beings he
acknowledged, as the active force that gave meaning to life and to
the world. Socialism was not build on a certain modus of production
or a certain technology, but on a deep and noble urge within human
nature: social instincts and social feelings.
This is the socialism Landauer fought
for many years of his life and for which he eventually died a martyrs
death.
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