General View of Positivism — Chapter 3 The Action Of Positivism Upon The Working Classes Part 6

This, then, should be the attitude of the working class, intellectually.

Morally, what is required is, that they should have a sufficient sense of the dignity of labour, and that they should be prepared for the mission that now lies before them.

The workman must learn to look upon himself, morally, as a public servant, with functions of a special and also of a general kind.

Not that he is to receive his wages for the future from the State instead of from a private hand.

The present plan is perfectly well adapted to all services which are so direct and definite, that a common standard of value can be at once applied to them.

Only let it be understood that the service is not sufficiently recompensed, without the social feeling of gratitude towards the agent that performs it.

In what are called liberal professions, this feeling already obtains.

The client or patient is not dispensed from gratitude by payment of his fee.

In this respect the republican instincts of the Convention have anticipated the teaching of philosophy.

They valued the workman’s labour at its true worth.

Workmen have only to imagine labour suppressed or even suspended in the trade to which they may belong, to see its importance to the whole fabric of modern society.

Their general function as a class, the function of forming public opinion, and of supporting the action of the spiritual power, it is of course less easy for them to understand at present.

But, as I have already shown, it follows so naturally from their character and position, and corresponds so perfectly with their requirements as a class, that they cannot fail to appreciate its importance, when the course of events allows, or rather compels them to bring it into play.

The only danger lies in their insisting on the possession of what metaphysicians call political rights, and in engaging in useless discussions about the distribution of power, instead of fixing their attention on the manner in which it is used.

Of this, however, there is no great fear, at all events in France, where the metaphysical theory of Right has never reached so fanatical a pitch with the working classes as elsewhere.

Ideologists may blame them, and may use their official influence as they will; but the people have too much good sense to be permanently misled as to their true function in society.

Deluged as they have been with electoral votes, they will soon voluntarily abandon this useless qualification, which now has not even the charm of a privilege.

Questions of pure politics have ceased to interest the people; their attention is fixed, and will remain fixed, on social questions, which are to be solved for the most part through moral agencies.

That substitutions of one person or party for another, or that mere modifications of any kind in the administration should be looked on as the final issue of the great Revolution, is a result in which they will never acquiesce.

And if this is to be the attitude of the people, it must be the attitude no less of those who seek to gain their confidence.

With them, as with the people, political questions should be subordinate to social questions; and with them the conviction should be even more distinct, that the solution of social problems depends essentially on moral agencies.

They must, in fact, accept the great principle of separation of spiritual from temporal power, as the basis on which modern society is to be prominently organized.

So entirely does the principle meet the wants of the people, that they will soon insist on its adoption by their teachers.

They will accept none who do not formally abandon any prospects they may have of temporal power, parliamentary as well as administrative.

And by thus dedicating their lives without reservation to the priesthood of Humanity, they will gain confidence, not merely from the people, but from the governing classes.

Governments will offer no impediment to social speculations which do not profess to be susceptible of immediate application; and thus the normal state may be prepared for in the future without disturbance, and yet without neglecting the present.

Practical statesmen meanwhile, no longer interfered with by pretentious sophists, will give up their retrograde tendencies, and will gradually adapt their policy to the new ideas current in the public mind, while discharging the indispensable function of maintaining material order.

[Ambition of power and wealth must be abandoned] For the people to rise to the true level of their position, they have only to develop and cultivate certain dispositions which already exist in them spontaneously.

And the most important of these is, absence of ambition for wealth or rank.

Political metaphysicians would say that the sole object of the Great Revolution was to give the working classes easier access to political and civil power.

But this, though it should always be open to them, is very far from meeting their true wants.

Individuals among them may be benefited by it, but the mass is left unaffected, or rather is placed often in a worse position, by the desertion of the more energetic members.

The Convention is the only government by which this result has been properly appreciated.

It is the only government which has shown due consideration for working men as such; which has recognized the value of their services, and encouraged what is the chief compensation for their condition of poverty, their participation in public life.

All subsequent governments, whether retrograde or constitutional, have, on the contrary, done all they could to divert the people from their true social function, by affording opportunity for individuals among them to rise to higher positions.

The monied classes, under the influence of blind routine, have lent their aid to this degrading policy, by continually preaching to the people the necessity of saving; a precept which is indeed incumbent on their own class, but not on others.

Without saving, capital could not be accumulated and administered; it is therefore of the highest importance that the monied classes should be as economical as possible.

But in other classes, and especially in those dependent on fixed wages, parsimonious habits are uncalled for and injurious; they lower the character of the labourer, while they do little or nothing to improve his physical condition; and neither the working classes nor their teachers should encourage them.

Both the one and the other will find their truest happiness in keeping clear of all serious practical responsibility, and in allowing free play to their mental and moral faculties in public as well as private life.

In spite of the Economists, savings-banks are regarded by the working classes with unmistakable repugnance.

And the repugnance is justifiable; they do harm morally, by checking the exercise of generous feelings.

Again, it is the fashion to declaim against wine-shops; and yet after all they are at present the only places where the people can enjoy society.

Social instincts are cultivated there which deserve our approval far more than the self-helping spirit which carries men to the savings-bank.

No doubt this unconcern for money, wise as it is, involves real personal risk; but it is a danger which civilization is constantly tending to diminish, without effacing qualities which do the workman honour, and which are the source of his most cherished pleasures.

The danger ceases when the mental and moral faculties are called into stronger exercise.

The interest which Positivism will arouse among the people in public questions, will lead to the substitution of the club for the wine-shop.

In these questions, the generous inspirations of popular instinct hold out a model which philosophers will do well to follow themselves.

Fondness for money is as much a disqualification for the spiritual government of Humanity, as political ambition.

It is a clear proof of moral incompetence, which is generally connected in one way or other with intellectual feebleness.

One of the principal results of the spiritual power exercised by philosophers and the working classes under the Positivist system, will be to compensate by a just distribution of blame and praise for the imperfect arrangements of social rank, in which wealth must always preponderate.

Leaving the present subordination of offices untouched, each functionary will be judged by the intrinsic worth of his mind and heart, without servility and yet without any encouragement to anarchy.

It must always be obvious that the political importance which high position gives, is out of all proportion to the real merit implied in gaining that position.

The people will come to see more and more clearly that real happiness, so far from depending on rank, is far more compatible with their own humble station.

Exceptional men no doubt there are, whose character impels them to seek power; a character more dangerous than useful, unless there be sufficient wisdom in the social body to turn it to good account.

The best workmen, like the best philosophers, will soon cease to feel envy for greatness, laden, as it always must be, with heavy responsibilities.

At present, the compensation which I hold out to them has not been realized; but when it exists, the people will feel that their spiritual and temporal leaders are combining all the energies of society for the satisfaction of their wants.

Recognizing this, they will care but little for fame that must be bought by long and tedious meditation, or for power burdened with constant care.

There are men whose talents call them to these important duties, and they will be left free to perform them;

but the great mass of society will be well satisfied that their own lot is one far more in keeping with the constitution of our nature;

more compatible with that harmonious exercise of the faculties of Thought, Feeling, and Action, which is most conducive to happiness.

The immediate pressure of poverty once removed, the highest reward of honourable conduct will be found in the permanent esteem, posthumous as it may be sometimes, of that portion of Humanity which has witnessed it.

In a word the title, _servus servorum_, which is still retained by the Papacy from false humility, but which originated in anticipation of a social truth, is applicable to all functionaries in high position.

They may be described as the involuntary servants of voluntary subordinates.

It is not chimerical to conceive Positivist society so organized that its theoretical and practical directors, with all their personal advantages, will often regret that they were not born, or that they did not remain, in the condition of workmen.

The only solid satisfaction which great minds have hitherto found in political or spiritual power has been that, being more occupied with public interests, they had a wider scope for the exercise of social feeling.

But the excellence of the future condition of society will be, that the possibility of combining public and private life will be open to all.

The humblest citizen will be able to influence not by command but by counsel, in proportion to his energy and worth.

All the views brought forward in this chapter bear out the statement with which it began, that the Proletariate forms the principal basis of the social system, not merely as finally constituted, but in its present state of transition; and admitting this, the present state will be seen to have no essential difference from the normal future to which it tends.

The principal conditions of our transitional policy were described at the conclusion of the last chapter.

The security for these conditions is to be found in the natural tendencies of the people of Western Europe, and especially of France.

Our governors will do well to follow these tendencies instead of attempting to lead them; for they are in perfect keeping with the two great requirements of the present time, Liberty and Public Order.

[The working classes are the best guarantee for Liberty and for Order] Liberty of thought and speech is enjoyed in France, and especially in Paris, to an extent impossible in any other country, and it is due principally to the intellectual emancipation of our workmen.

They have rid themselves of theology in all its forms, and yet have not accepted any metaphysical system.

At the same time, though totally devoid at present of systematic convictions, there is in them a submissiveness of mind which predisposes them to receive convictions combining reality with utility.

In all other classes there is a tendency to use forcible measures in spreading their doctrines when discussion fails.

It is only to the people that philosophers can look for the support and extension of Liberty, which is so essential to their objects; and from this they derive moral confidence far more reassuring than any legal security.

However reactionary or stationary the views of particular leaders or sects may be, with such a population as that of Paris, no real oppression is possible.

Of all the claims which France has to the leadership of Europe, this is the strongest.

The resistance which is still offered to freedom of association and freedom of education will soon be overcome by the force of its liberal sympathies.

A population of such strong social feeling as ours will certainly not allow itself to be permanently deprived of the power of meeting together freely in clubs; institutions most conducive both to its culture and to the protection of its interests.

It will insist with equal force upon perfect liberty of teaching, feeling deeply the need of solid instruction, and the incapacity of metaphysicians and theologians to give it.

Without popular pressure, the essential conditions of educational liberty will always be evaded.

And if Liberty depends upon popular support, Public Order, whether at home or abroad, depends upon it no less.

The inclinations of the working classes are altogether on the side of peace.

Their strong dislike of war is the principal reason of the present remarkable tranquillity of Europe.

The foolish regret expressed by all the retrograde parties for the decline of the military spirit is a sufficient indication of what the popular feeling is; but even more significant is the necessity for compulsory enlistment, which began in France and has extended to other parts of Europe.

There has been much factitious indignation on the subject, but at least it must be allowed, that in our armies the officers are the only volunteers.

Again, the working class is more free than any other from international prejudices, which still disunite the great family of Western nations, although they are very much weaker than formerly.

They are strongest in the middle classes, a fact principally due to industrial competition.

But working men feel how similar their wants and their conditions are in all countries, and this feeling checks their animosity.

And the consciousness of union will become far stronger, now that the great social problem of their incorporation into modern society is being raised everywhere.

No errors that statesmen can commit, whether in matters of war or peace, can prevent this from becoming the preponderating question in every European country; and thus it tends to preserve their mutual concord.

Popular sympathies of this sort are, it may be said, less conducive to internal tranquillity than to pacific foreign relations.

But the alarm which is naturally aroused by the spiritual anarchy around us must not blind us to the real guarantees for Order which popular tendencies, rightly interpreted, hold out.

It is to the people that we must look for the ascendancy of central over local power, which, as we have seen, is so indispensable to public order.

The executive authority, provided only that it gives no cause to fear reaction, will always have their support when opposed by an assembly the prevalent tendencies of which will usually be adverse to their interests.

They will always turn instinctively to the dictatorial rather than to the parliamentary branch of the administration; feeling that from its practical character and the directness of its action, it is more likely to meet their wants.

Useless discussions on constitutional questions may suit ambitious members of the middle classes, by facilitating their arrival to power.

But the people take very little interest in all this unmeaning agitation, and often treat it with merited contempt.

They know that it can be of no use to them, and that its only result is to evade their real wants by undermining the only authority that can do them justice.

Consequently the people are certain to give their support to every government that deserves it; especially in France, where political passions have already yielded to the superior and more permanent interest of social questions.

And while strengthening the government they may do much to elevate its character; by confining it strictly to its practical function, and resisting any attempts that it may make to interfere with opinion.

In all these respects the spontaneous influence of the working classes will be of material assistance in carrying out the systematic conceptions of social philosophy.

[It is from them that we shall obtain the dictatorial power which is provisionally required] But a more striking proof of the political influence to be exercised by the people is this.

The dictatorship which our transitional policy requires as long as the spiritual interregnum lasts must arise in the first instance from their ranks.

In the word _People_, especially in the French language, there is a fortunate ambiguity, which may serve to remind us that the proletariate class is not, properly speaking, a class at all, but constitutes the body of society.

From it proceed the various special classes, which we may regard as organs necessary to that body.

Since the abolition of royalty, the last remnant of caste, our political leaders have been recruited, and will continue to be so, from the working class.

In the normal state, however, it will be required as a preliminary condition, that the holder of dictatorial power shall have first received the political training which is given by the exercise of authority in his own business.

In a settled state of society, Government, strictly so called, is a mere extension of civil influence.

Ultimately, therefore, political power will fall into the hands of the great leaders of industry.

As spiritual reorganization proceeds, they will gradually become more worthy of it than they are at present.

Besides, the tenure of power will become less burdensome, because it will be confined to duties of a purely practical kind.

As yet, however, the case is very different; and therefore the wealthy, though ultimately they will be the administrators of power, are not those to whom it should as a rule be entrusted in our present condition.

Special departments may be given to them with advantage, as we have seen proved recently, and that in cases where the functions to be performed had no relation whatever to industrial skill.

But they are not competent as yet for dictatorial power, the power which has to supply the place of royalty.

Individual exceptions, of course, there may be, though none have appeared hitherto, and at least they are not enough for our provisional system to rely on.

As yet the wealthy classes have shown themselves too debased in thought and feeling for an office of such importance.

Nor do we find greater aptitude for it outside the industrial class.

Scientific men are most assuredly unfit for it, especially in France, where the system of Academies has narrowed the mind, withered the feelings, and enervated the character to such an extent, that most of them fail in the conduct of common life, and are utterly unworthy of the smallest post of authority, even in their own department.

All other classes failing us, we have to look to the working class, which has been left more free to form broad views, and in which the sense of duty has been better cultivated.

On historical grounds I feel convinced that the workmen of France are more likely than any other class to supply men competent for supreme power, as long as the spiritual interregnum lasts; that is, for at least one generation.

On looking at this question calmly and without scholastic or aristocratic prejudice, it will be seen, as I pointed out at the beginning of this chapter, that the working class is better situated than any other with respect to generality of views and generosity of feeling.

In knowledge and experience of administration they would ordinarily be deficient; they would therefore not be fit for the work of any special department.

But this is no disqualification for the supreme power, or indeed for any of the higher offices for which breadth of view rather than special knowledge is required.

These may be filled by working men, whose good sense and modesty will at once lead them to choose their agents for special departments from the classes who have usually furnished them before.

The practical character and progressive spirit of such a government being beyond suspicion, special talent of whatever kind may be made available, even in the case of men who, if they had been placed in a higher position, would have proved thoroughly hostile to republican institutions.

Of all the diversified elements of modern society, there is not one which may not be of real service in assisting the transition.

Among soldiers and magistrates, for instance, there are many who will join the popular movement, and become sincere supporters of republicanism.

A government of this kind would tranquillize the people, would obviate the necessity for violent compressive measures, and would at the same time have a most beneficial influence on the capitalist class.

It would show them the necessity of attaining to greater purity of feeling and greater breadth of view, if they are to become worthy of the position for which they are ultimately destined.

Thus, whether we look at the interests of Public Order, or at those of Liberty, it appears necessary as a provisional measure, during the continuance of our spiritual interregnum, that the holders of dictatorial power shall be chosen from the working class.

The success of a few working men in the pursuit of wealth has exercised an unsettling influence on the rest; but in the present instance we need not fear this result.

It will be obvious that the career of a proletary governor is a rare exception, and one which requires peculiar endowments.

In examining the mode in which this anomalous policy should be carried out, we must bear in mind the object with which it was instituted.

It is most important to get rid of the custom, based on motives of self-interest, which has grown up during the last generation, of insisting on parliamentary experience as an apprenticeship for executive power; executive power being always the real object of ambition.

We have found from experience what we might have anticipated on theoretical grounds, that this plan excludes all except mere talkers of the Girondin type, men totally devoid of statesman-like qualities.

To working men it offers almost insurmountable obstacles;

and even supposing these obstacles to be overcome, we may be sure that they would lose the straightforwardness and native vigour which constitute their best claim to the exceptional position proposed for them.

It is best, then, that they should reach the position assigned to them at once, without the circuitous process of a parliamentary career.

Our transition towards the normal state will then exhibit its true character.

It will be tranquil and yet decisive; for it will rest on the combined action of philosophers without political ambition, and dictators adverse to spiritual encroachment.

The teacher who attempts to govern, the governor who attempts to educate, will both incur severe public censure, as enemies alike of peace and progress.

The whole result will be a change in our revolutionary condition identical with that which the Convention would have realized, if, as its founders contemplated, it had lasted till the Peace.

Such, then, is the nature of the compact into which all true philosophers should enter with the leading members of the proletary class.

Their object is to direct the organic and final phase through which the Great Revolution is now passing.

What they have to do is carefully to prolong the provisional system adopted by the Convention, and to ignore, as far as possible, the traditions of all succeeding governments, whether stationary or retrograde.

Comprehensiveness of view and social sympathy predominate alike in both members of this great alliance; and it is thus a guarantee for our present state of transition, and a sure earnest of the normal future.

The people are the spontaneous representatives of this alliance; the philosophers its systematic organ.

The intellectual deficiencies of the former will easily be remedied by philosophers, who will show them how essential it is on social grounds that they should understand the true meaning of history; since otherwise their conception of the union of mankind must be limited to the present generation, ignoring the more important truth of the continuity of the Present with the Past and the Future.

A

far greater obstacle is the moral deficiency of most philosophers of our time.

But the wholesome influence of the people upon them, combined with a deep philosophic conviction of the preponderance of Feeling in every subject of thought, will do much to overcome the ambitious instincts which weaken and distract their energies in the common cause of social renovation.

CHAPTER IV THE INFLUENCE OF POSITIVISM UPON WOMEN