Hunting Down Social Darwinism Will This Canard Go Extinct

The EquivocationInfectsthe Intellectuals 69

practice.As boththe pro-slaveryandanti-slaverypriestscitedarbitrarymythologyin
theirargumentsoverthe ethicsof slavery,neithersidecouldoutdebatethe other.It was
up to rationalargumentationto demonstratethe wrongnessof humanbondage.Andit is
no accidentthat the antislaverymovement’s biggestchampions,includingWilliamLloyd
GarrisonandFrederickDouglass,werebig defendersof laissez-faireeconomics.It is
thereforefallaciousfor AbrahamFoxmanto faultthe Enlightenmentfor rationalizingone
race’s subjugationof another.Wiseris howJohnGrayadmitsthatthe Nazioutlook
“repudiatedEnlightenmentvaluesof humanequality” of rightsand“universalemanci-
pation.. .”^113
Secondly,in contrastto secularliberalEnlightenmentideology,Hitlerand mostof his
lieutenantsprovedto be strongbelieversin fideismandmysticism.TheNaziphiloso-
phy’s hostilityto Enlightenmentreasonis betterunderstoodin lightof explanationspro-
videdby Universityof WisconsinhistorianGeorgeL. Mosse(1918–1999).He tracesthe
Nazimovement’s emphasison racismandgovernmentalcontrolto whathe dubsthe
moregeneral“Volkishthought” thatfloweredin the nineteenthcenturyand wiltedonly
uponthe Nazis’ wartimedefeat.Volk, remember,refersto the collectivePeopleor tribe.
Thereare commonthreadstyingthe nineteenth-centuryVolkishthoughtwithits final
product,twentieth-centuryNaziism.Thosethreadsare as follows.

1. Mainpriorityis placedon the Germanrace.The Volkishmovementromanticized,
   withgreatnostalgia,its imageof the Germanraceas it wasin the primitiveprein-
   dustrialera: a collectivisttribe.^114


2. Havingthe Germanrace—the Volk—feel a strong,emotive,faithfulbondwiththe
   nativelandscape.^115 Thisidolizationof the landscapeis the sourceof the Volkish
   movementcultivatingideasthat wouldbe nurturedby the West’s twentieth-centu-
   ry environmentalistmovement.^116 Thecommonalitiesbetweenthe Volkishmove-
   mentandtwentieth-centuryenvironmentalideologywillbe furtherdiscussedin
   chapter9 of this book.


3. Hostilityto personswhorejectVolkishmysticismandcollectivism—personswho
   insteadrely on unflappablereasonand pecuniaryself-interest.The Jewsare stereo-
   typedas possessingthesetraits,and thusthe Volkishmovementharborsprejudice
   againstthe Jews.Thisscapegoatingof rational,self-interested,capitalistJewswill
   be studiedin Chapters7 through9.

ThisNaziideology—Volkishthought^117 or Volkism—washeavilyinfluencedby a philo-
sophicalmovementthat sweptEngland,Germany,and the rest of Europefromthe eight-
eenthcenturyonward.Thismovementwasknownas philosophicRomanticism.Roman-
ticism,in this context,doesnot referto the nineteenth-century’s aestheticRomanticism
movement,whereinpoetsandcomposersstressedheroicandlarge-scalethemes.Philo-
sophicalRomanticismwas a philosophythat rejectedtechnology,industrialprogress,and
reasonin favorof mysticismand worshipof a wildernessuntrammeledby man.^118 Some
thinkersandartists,suchas PercyByssheShelleyandMaryShelley,dabbledin both
philosophicand aestheticRomanticismsimultaneously.
Whilethereis muchto praisein aestheticRomanticism,a significantshareof the
destructivenessof Naziphilosophycan be tracedbackto philosophicRomanticism.^119
JoachimFest,authorof one of the mostprestigiousbiographiesof AdolfHitler,docu-
mentsthiswell.He observesthatGermany’s philosophicRomantics“treatedthe facts
thatwereheldup to themwithhaughtycontemptandroundlyridiculed‘one-eyedrea-
son.’” Theywereexplicitin having“no regardfor logic”—in theiropinion,to be called
illogicalwasnot perforcean insult.Festrealizesthatthe Romanticmovement’s “anticivil-
izational sentiments” holding influence overthe Nazis “was to havegrave conse-
quences.” TheGermanRomantics—and,by consequence,Hitler—”sawno goodin the