richard-day-gramsci-is-dead

Utopian Socialism Then ... 115by observation of the general relations of passing and real facts, to establishthe general laws inherent in the development of the phenomena of thephysical and social world; it fi xes, so to speak, the unchangeable landmarksof humanity’s progressive march by indicating the general conditions whichit is necessary to rigorously observe and always fatal to ignore or forget.(1973/1871a: 159)What makes him different from those whom he called ‘doctrinaire’socialists, though, is his belief that while ‘science is the compassof life’, it ‘creates nothing; it establishes and recognizes only thecreations of life’ (160). That is, for Bakunin, everyday lived experience,passions, needs and aspirations must be our guide, rather thanscientific abstractions. In fact, he argued that science is simply unableto proceed without ‘flesh and blood’: ‘Abstractions advance onlywhen borne forward by real men’ [sic]’ (162). So, while Bakuninhoped to be seen as a ‘scientific’ socialist, in the sense that he placedreasoned argumentation above theology, metaphysics and merejuridical right, he did not want to be one of those ‘priests of science’to whom the people would become indentured just as soon as theyfreed themselves from Christian orthodoxy (1990/1873: 135).But if science alone can tell us what it is fatal to ignore or forget,why would we not give to its proclamations—and its proclaimers—the highest attention and honour? Bakunin argues that one problemwith scientists is that there are too few of them. Unlike Saint-Simon,he is extremely wary of expert knowledge held in the hands of afew: ‘anyone who is invested with power by an invariable sociallaw will inevitably become the oppressor and exploiter of society’(134). His deeper objection, though, comes from his faith in ‘life’,which he fears would ‘dry up’ if science were allowed to take thepre-eminent place, thereby turning human society into ‘a dumb andservile herd’ (135). Prophetic words indeed for those of us who haveexperienced the vicissitudes of scientific reason through the longtwentieth century.Bakunin’s belief that ‘life’ must always be valued over ‘thought’is also expressed in his faith in ‘the people’. Indeed, it must be saidthat just as Saint-Simon placed the burden of social well-being onexperts, or Fourier on a well-designed social structure, Bakunin hadan extremely optimistic estimation of the spontaneous will of themasses. For him, we might say, what is Popular is Rational. His longstandingreluctance to propose a specific plan of revolutionary action,for example, is primarily based upon a belief that the ideal social