Hunting Down Social Darwinism Will This Canard Go Extinct

(Nancy Kaufman) #1

246 Chapter 10


industrialization“is viewedas a threat” by legionsof environmentalists.On suchcounts,
the advocatesof “Leftradicalismmasqueradingin the nameof progressare puttingup
the strongestresistances” to the market-basedtechnologicalchangesthatcouldimprove
our environment.“Whateffronterycallingthemselvesprogressive.... Thosewhodo not
believein progressor in the future” shouldnot arrogateto themselvesthe privilege“to
call themselvesprogressive.” BothFM-2030andRichardHofstadtersay thatleft-wing
eugenicistsweretoo “conservative,” but,as theyapplythe samelocution,theydo not
levelthe sameaccusation.WhenHofstadterassertsthatleft-wingeugenicistswereulti-
mately conservative, he believesthat,deepdown,they were stilltoo capitalist. By
contrast,FM-2030judgesthe left-wingeugenicistsas too conservativein the literalmean-
ing of the word—too inclinedto imposerestraintsuponentrepreneurialinnovationand
the unforeseenresultsit will bring.
For suchreasons,FM decides,we should“go far beyondRightandLeft.. .” The
principlesof the libertyto enterprisefreely“are.. .Up” (italicsreplaceEsfandiary’s
boldface).FM recommendsthat we advocatesof free enterpriseand technologicalgrowth
thinkof ourselvesasUp-Wingers. “Up-Wingersare resignedto nothing.” Conversely,
conservatismand leftist“radicalism... are all Down.”^84
We knowwhichcoursethe genuinelysocialistNazischose.PaulRolandrelates,“Eve-
ry aspectof the SS man’s life frombaptismto his funeralwascontrolledby the state.”
Thoroughdossierswerecompiledon all SS members,“detailingeveryaspectof their
publicand privatelives,includingtheirfinancialaffairs.Eventheirprospectivemarriage
partnerswerescreenedto ensure‘the conditionsof raceandhealthystockwereful-
filled.’”^85 The 1998 televisiondocumentaryNazis:The OccultConspiracysimilarlymen-
tionsthatin the NaziReich,girlswereconscriptedintoa youthorganizationknownas
the Leagueof GermanMaids,whereinthey“weretaughtself-sacrifice,... and thattheir
bodiesbelongto the nation.” Boysfacedthis conscriptionas well.“At eighteen,” male
“cadetssurrenderedthemselvesto the Führer.. .” And:“The ideathat the few shouldbe
sacrificedfor the goodof the manyextendedevento Hitler’s SA—the stormtroopers.”^86
GeorgeMossedisclosesthat Nazimassmeetingsand marcheswereaboutdenyingthe
individual.“Whatdid it do to thesepeople—thesemassmeetings?” Shoulda German
“leavehis lonelyshopand join in the crowdin action,he feelsas one” witheveryoneelse.
“He has lost his loneliness.”^87
Forasmuchas the Nazismirroredotheranti-capitalistmovementsin theirsocialcollec-
tivism,IsaiahBerlinarguesthat typicalleft-winganti-individualism“is,mutatismutandis,
similarto the beliefin the primacyof collectivepatternstakenby thosewhoattribute
activepropertiesto raceor culture,” suchas “the ferociouschampionsof nationalor
racial” struggle,meaning“Gobineauor HoustonStewartChamberlainor Hitler.”^88
At thisjunctureHenryAshbyTurnercan sumup whatshouldbe obviousabout
Hitler—”the principleof laissez-fairehadno placein his thought.As he envisionedand
laterput intopracticein the ThirdReich,privateownershipof the meansof production
mustalwaysremaincontingenton conformitywiththe purposesof the state.” Resultant-
ly, the governmentmusthavethe “authorityto intervenein the economy.. .”^89
Ian Kershaw,too,stressesthatunderthe Nazisit was always“the state,not the
market” thatdetermined“the shapeof economicdevelopment.. .” Underthe Third
Reich,commercebecomes“an adjunctof the state.”^90
AlanS. Milwardagreeswithotherscholarsthatthe Nazi“governmentdid not...
‘preservethe capitalistsystem,’” but insteadtriedto thwartit.^91 NiallFergusonlikewise
confirmsthat the Naziprogramintendedto protectGermansfromwhatFergusondeems
to be “the vagariesof the market.”^92
StanleyG. Paynespellsout that Hitler’s governingphilosophyrevolvedaround“state
regulationsand controls.Thusit is doubtfulthata triumphby Hitlerwouldhave‘saved

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