218 Chapter 9
tionalreasonthatyoudeterminethatyourconsciousnessis an individualone—it is
throughperceptualobservationthatyourecognizethatyouare a beingseparatefrom
othersapientbeings,thusestablishingyouas an individualandseparateunit.Jacobi
drewfromDavidHume’s attackon observationalreasoning,^125 whereasFichtewasin-
spiredby Kant’s.^126 BothJacobiand Fichtesurmisedthat insofaras theirrespectivephilo-
sophicmentorwascorrectthatsensoryevidenceprovidesno objectiveconfirmationof
anyproposition,it followsthatthereis no proofthatanyoneis an individualseparate
fromanythingelse.Insofaras Kantis right,declaredJacobiand Fichte,it followsthat it is
theoreticallypossiblethat humansare not individualand autonomousunits,but a single,
collectiveentity.^127 Takingthatargumentfarther,HerderproposedthatGermanywas
comprisednot of individualsbut justoneentity.Thisservedas the precursorto the
extollingof theVolk.^128
Andthe romanticistmovementwasnot limitedto Germany;^129 the movementconcur-
rentlyexistedin EnglandandFrance.TheEnglishandFrenchversionsof romanticism
avoidedadoptingthe explicitpoliticalcollectivismof theirGermancounterpart,though
theymaintainedthe hostilityto politicalcollectivism’s implicitopposite—individualistic
profit.SuchRomanticistsas MaryShelley’s husband,PercyByssheShelley,explicated
theiraversionto capitalism,denouncingthe factorysystem.^130 As Percyframedit, “‘Poet-
ry,” whichrepresentseverythingthatis good,versus“the principleof Self,of which
moneyis the visibleincarnation,are” respectively,“the Godandthe Mammonof the
world.”^131
Therewerethreeareas,though,wherethe Romanticsprovedto be unlikeMarxand
the earlynineteenth-century’s utopiansocialists.First,the Romanticistsdid not consider
it a priorityto effecta changein ownershipoverfactoriesor mills;theywantedthesemills
to ceaseto existaltogether,or at leastto dwindlein number.It wasin the Romanticist
movementthatwe noticethe firstripplesof the anti-industrialismcurrentthathas ever
sincebeenpartof the environmentalismmovement.^132 Secondly,the Romanticsadmitted
theirdistrustof inductivereason;theyannouncedtheirfideism.Thirdly,withthe excep-
tion of Jean-JacquesRousseau,few of the Romanticspeddleda complexpoliticalplatform
thattheystrivedto implementor ratify.On the whole,the Romanticsdid not present
plansfora newsocialsystem;theymerelyknewwhattheywereagainst—capitalismand
industrialism—and blindlyrebelledas a result.
As notedby U.C.BerkeleypoliticalscientistsAaronWildavskyand CarolynWebber,
“Celebratingintuitionandemotioninsteadof coldreason,the Romanticmovementwas
certainlyantimarket;it condemnedthe ‘cashnexus’ as an inappropriatebasisfor personal
relationships.In the impersonalindustrialsystem,leftistsandrightistsalikesawonly
dehumanizedworkunderabhorrentconditions.... If life washarshfor laborersin the
neworder,it wasnot onlybecausebusinessmenweregreedy,but becausestructural
instabilitywasbuiltintothe system... the industrialestablishment’s rapeof unspoiled
naturewouldleadinexorablytowarddisaster.A lamentfor lossof ruralvirtuewasthe
Romanticpoets’ responseto industrialization;theirmetaphorsrejectedthe presentand
idealizedthe past.”^133
JoachimFest,biographerof Hitler,elaborateson RomanticismovertakingGermany
fromthe 1800sto the beginningfewdecadesof the 1900s:“Suchwritersas Paulde
Lagarde,JuliusLangbehn,andEugenDuhringbecamespokesmenfor a widespread
moodhostileto moderncivilization.... therewasa reactionagainstthe... life-affirming
optimismof the age.. .” Themore-civilized“presentwasfiercelycondemned.... In
Germanythe spokesmenfor this attitudedespisedprogress... theyopposedthe stock
exchange,urbanization,... the globaleconomyand positivisticscience.... In brief,they
wereagainstthe wholeconceptof modernimprovement.. .” Rejectingindustry,they
reveredthe wilderness,everythingferaland nonhuman.^134