THE FUTURE OF SOCIALISM
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own sense of alienation by immersing himself in the broad maternal
expanse of the masses. Worship of the proletariat becomes a perfect
fulfillment for the frustrations of the intellectual.
Of course, this is not the whole story. There was considerable
prima facie support for the myth. The beginnings of trade union or–
ganization at one time may have promised a serious future for an
organized proletariat. But there is no point in keeping up the pre–
tense a century later. The trade union movement is as clearly indi–
genous to the capitalist system as the corporation itself, and it has
no particular meaning apart from that system. In a socialist society
its functions are radically transformed: it becomes, not a free labor
movement, but a labor front. Even in England, as Sir Walter Citrine
remarked on joining the Coal Board, strikes can no longer be trade
union instruments in a nationalized industry. Unions inevitably become
organs for disciplining the workers, not for representing them.
Indeed, the whole conception of the proletariat as an agency
of change is meaningless. The technical necessity for organization
instantly sets in motion a tendency toward oligarchy; separate inter–
ests arise between leadership and rank-and-file; and a working class
committee after a short time will stand for, not the working class,
but its own bureaucratic instinct for survival.
Moreover, workers as a mass have rarely had the impulses
attributed to them by Marxism. They too often believe in patriotism
or religion, or read comic strips, go to movies, play slot machines
and patronize taxi dance halls: in one way or another, they try to
cure their discontent by narcotics rather than by surgery. Thus they
are rarely swept by the proper mass emotions. The general strike is
in principle the most potent weapon in the world, but it always
remains potent in principle. The great moment for the general strike
was perhaps 1914; but, even had Jaures survived, the working classes
would have succumbed to the bugle, the flag, and the military parade.
Marx recognized that many workers were not Marxists and so in–
vented a classification called the
Lumpenproletariat
in which were
dumped those who did not live up to theory. Lenin recognized this
too and so invented a disciplined party which, announcing itself the
only true representative of the proletariat, ruthlessly shot down dis–
senters. No country has more spectacularly abandoned a belief in
the working class than the USSR.
·
For these various reasons, the mystique of the working class
has faded somewhat since the First World War. In its place has
arisen a new mystique, more radiant and palpable, and exercising
