THE "NEW ORDER"
305
would not help Churchill to declare himself converted from
laissez
faire
internationalism into a national socialist; the struggle between
"democracy" and "fascism" would still go on.
Because it was a class society which reacted to the demands
of the law of value its reaction gave new impetus and additional
force to the old activities that were designed to combat depressions.
"The general character of the action taken to meet the demo–
cratic demand arising out of the trade cycle is always the
same. It is called 'planning.' It actually consists in the sub–
stitution of monopoly control for competition in all the mar–
kets and industries it touches.''
23
Once more now, the crisis is fought with still greater concentration,
still more "planning," but this greater "planning" involves a
greater destruction of vested interests. Because "all contradictions
of the capitalist production come to the fore in the general eco–
n·omic world-crisis,m
4
the destruction of those vested interests
demands warfare. The total war indicates that present-day society
is still determined by a law of value that asserts itself like an
"over-riding law of nature." Hence the inability to "understand"
how the war could happen in our "civilization," and the "magnetic
force" that draws nation after nation into the conflict.
If
any
proof should be needed that the world is still a capitalistic world,
the war itself is proof enough. Those nations complying with the
demands of the law of value most vigorously, that is, the fascist
nations, have to be appraised therefore as the
most capitalistic.
Wbat Is Capitalism?
It
is often assumed that if it were not for the war, Hitler's
production for warfare, i.e., less butter and more cannons, could
be transformed into a social production, i.e., no cannons and more
butter. Hitler's production is not solely "war production"; it is
capitalistic production pure and simple and therefore also war
production. The assumption, furthermore, that socialism might
be introduced in Germany and Russia if Hitler and Stalin desired
it and if it were not for the "enemy," or the "war," is senseless
because all economy is world economy. These nations are not
isolated; they are integrated parts of the world production and
"Durbin,
The Politics of Democratic Socialism;
p.
100.
"K. Marx,
Theorien ueber den Mehrwert ;
Vol. III,
p.
318.
