The EquivocationInfectsthe Intellectuals 71NowconsiderAlanS. Milward(b. 1935),a historianat the LondonSchoolof Econom-
ics. He likewiseobserves,“Thebasisof FascistandNationalSocialistpoliticalandeco-
nomicthoughtwas the rejectionof the ideasof the eighteenth-centuryEnlightenment.”^130
As important,thereis FritzR. Stern(b. 1926)—like RichardHofstadter,a professorof
historyat Columbia,but,unlikeHofstadter,alsoa formerprovostof this institution.À la
Milward,Sternacknowledgesthat the Nazimovementwas a revoltagainstthe Enlighten-
mentandrationality,a revoltthataccepted“neitherWesterncivilizationnor Eastern
barbarism...”^131
Despitehis ownrejectionof reasonandhis ownsympathiesfor Romanticism,Karl
Popperadmits,“Thefascistappeal... is to our passions,to our collectivistmystical
needs... this appealmaybe calledthecunningof the revoltagainstreason.... it is a typical
tribalistideal”^132 (emphasisPopper’s).
“By callingthe fascistand Naziexperimentsof the periodbetweenthe two worldwars
antirationalist,” writesRiceUniversityhistorianGaleStokes(b. 1933),“I meanto suggest
thatthe leadersof thesemovementsof raceand rejectioncravedthe technologicalpower
put into theirhandsby the industrialrevolution,but at the sametimetheydisavowedthe
rationalizingintellectualandsocialconcomitantsof the Enlightenment” thathadren-
deredthis veryindustrialrevolutionpossible.“The Nazisbelieved... thatthe universe
held‘a primal,nonrationalforce’ thatcan be graspedonlyby the intuitivepower” of
divinemen.Accordingly,“Nazismand fascismrejectedreasonfor power,individuality”
for nationalistsupremacy,“... transparencyfor obscurantism,” and“...objectivityfor
prejudice... Thehorribleendof the Nazismin the holocaustof WorldWarII clearly
demonstratedthe bankruptcyof the antirationalexperiment.”^133
GeorgeL. Mossedetails,“The intellectualand ideologicalcharacterof Volkishthought
was a directproductof the romanticmovementof nineteenth-centuryEurope.... Volkish
ideasshoweda distincttendencytowardthatirrationaland emotional.” Volkishroman-
tics felt thatthe Enlightenmentera’s inductivereason“had beendiscredited.The patient
experimentationandintellectualdisciplineof the Enlightenment” wasabandoned,re-
placedby mysticalanimism.“Therapidprocessof Europeanindustrializationwasin-
deedbewilderingto them.. .” To findhappiness,the Germanromanticslookedto
somethingbiggerthanthemselves—a mysticalcosmosof spiritualenergy.In theircollec-
tiveunity,the Germanromanticswouldmitigate“the socialchaosof industrialization
andurbanization.. .” TheNazimovement,therefore,“wasan ideologywhichstood
opposedto the progressand modernizationthat transformednineteenth-centuryEurope.
It usedand amplifiedromanticismto providean alternativeto modernity,to the develop-
ing industrialandurbancivilization” thatalienatedthe averageGermanpsychological-
ly.^134 “Irrationalism,” statesMosse,characterizesthe Nazimindset.^135 AndJohnGray
admitsthat Naziismobviouslyheldthe characteristicsof a “neo-primitivistcult of ‘think-
ing withthe blood,’” andadmitsthatotherintellectualsresoundinglyrecognizethat
Naziismemerges“fromCounter-Enlightenmentideas...”^136 I wishGrayunderstoodthat
fact as wellas the otherintellectualsto whomhe alludesunderstandit.
HansSchemm,Bavaria’s firstMinisterof Cultureunderthe Nazis,articulatedit well:
“We are not objective,we are German.”^137
For the previouslymentionedreasons,Hitlerhimselfverbalizesthathe couldnot
standnerdswhoadheredto the secularreasonthat the Enlightenmenthad broughtforth.
Amongsuchnerds,the Führercomplained,nothingbut “knowledgeis prized.... Whatis
neededis instinctand will.”^138