86
PARTISAN REVIEW
4) Mr. Wilson finds a philosophic contradiction in the idea of
truth emerging from a class ideology. How, he asks, can Marxism, the
ideology of the proletariat, have any greater validity than the philos–
ophy of any other class?
To some extent the difficulty lies in the fact that Marxism is not
an ideology in the sense in which Mr. Wilson uses the word. The ideol–
ogy of the bourgeoisie, for example, is a rationalization of its predica–
ment; whereas Marxism is a method for placing at the disposal of the
proletariat the full heritage of human knowledge.
As
Marx pointed
out, the ruling class consistently seeks to hamper any scientific research
which might undermine the theoretical justifications of its power. On
the other hand, it is to the interests of the working class to expose
sys–
tematically and ruthlessly
all
the pious ignorance, all the carefully de–
vised mysteries, of traditional thought. In this sense, Marxism regards
itself as a criticism of all ideology which conceals the nature of things
and events.
Thus it is
possible
for the theories of Marx to have objective
truth; whether they actually do cannot be determined abstractly, but
only by a concrete examination of historical data.
Since Mr. Wilson criticises Marx for reducing history to the stag–
ing of a metaphysical system, it is most ironic that Mr. Wilson himself
should explain history in terms of certain myths and essences. He con–
ceives of German philosophy, for example, as but the old
Go~ic
spirit
in more modem dress. Strip Hegel of his abstract jargon, and you can
see the pagan gods of war, love, and fertility! And
if
one never
asks
why certain ideas flourished in one period rather than another, he can
discover the ghosts of primitive tribes lecturing in the universities of
the German Reich: behind
Nie~che
lurks Siegfried, Feuerbachs' ma–
terialism might be a pagan heresy, and Marx the leader of the ancient
migrations.
Similarly, Mr. Wilson traces the barbarism of the Nazi move–
ment as well as the betrayals of Stalin to the "primitive German
Will
which Marx tried to harness to a movement which should lead
all
humanity to prosperity, happiness, and freedom." Both the Nazis
and
the Stalinists, according to Mr. Wilson, inherited the militant mes–
sianic spirit and the blood-and-iron ethics of the German Will (not to
mention Pastor Krummacher) . Both are presumably dedicated to
an
ideal of universal brotherhood, but both postpone it indefinitely while
rejecting for the present the Christian doctrine of love and charity.
And so annoyed is Mr. Wilson with the Dialectic, which he
regards as an offspring of the German Will, that he elaborates it into a
devil theory of history.
If
Social-Democrats supported the policies of
