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PARTISAN REVIEW
tion in the illiberal anti-Semitism of the masses; in their eyes it was a
one-sided but ultimately beneficial (to the socialists) expression of anti–
capitalist
ressentiment.
Once the "small man"
(Kleinburger)
understood,
however, that not all Jews were capitalists and not all capitalists were
Jews; once he realized that
only
social democracy was serious about
overthrowing capitalism as a whole, then anti-Semitism would gradually
dissolve and disappear. In the meantime, the movement was an irritation,
not so much because it attacked the Jews but because it was turning on
values that social democrats hold dear - free thought, science, progress,
and education - by exploiting the basest and most contemptible instincts
of the masses. The Austrian socialist intellectuals remained overconfident,
however, that the workers would never succumb to this anti-Semitic fa–
naticism and irrationality. They counted on their highly developed or–
ganizations, their class consciousness, and the tremendous efforts their
party had invested in educating and enlightening the workers, to success–
fully resist such tendencies. No other socialist party in Europe (except
possibly the Social Democratic Party) placed such an emphasis on its
Bildungsvereine
and on
Kulturpolitik;
on the creation, even before 1914,
of a social, cultural, and spiritual "state within a state." The party was
especially innovative during the interwar period when Red Vienna served
as a bastion against the growing antidemocratic forces in the Austrian
Republic. Not even the mindless hysteria of the patriotic crowds in the
Ringstrasse, demonstrating in favor of the First World War, shook the
Marxist intelligentsia's optimism in the historical mission and capacity of
the masses for self-liberation. A chastened Victor Adler, though,
confessed to the young Trotsky in August of 1914: " ... all the
unbalanced, all the madmen now come into the streets; it is their day.
The murder ofJaures is only the beginning. War opens the door for all
instincts, all forms of madness."
Victor Adler, originally a psychiatric practitioner and a leader with a
deep understanding and empathy for the laboring masses, had few illu–
sions about Austrian politics, despite all his Marxist faith and rationalist
logic. As he used to joke with Trotsky, his previous profession had
splendidly prepared him for dealing with the lunatic asylum
o(fin-de-siecle
Viennese public life. In Adler's case, the study of depth psychology did
not undermine his optimistic faith as a Marxist social democrat in the
possibility of a socialist society bringing about the creation of a free citi–
zenry, a new liberated and nonalienated mankind. Unlike Freud, Adler
did not believe that the masses were fundamentally childish, inherently
hostile to culture, thirsting only for violent instinctual release, or longing
for erotic submission to a leader. Unlike some of his more demagogic
followers, Adler was definitely not an example of the
Fuhrer as Veifuhrer
