GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

5IO
POLITICS
and such a will, if it existed, would fulfil most of the re-
quirements which Rousseau specifies for the manifestation
of the General Will. Thus in the idealist theory of the State
to be described in a later chapter, Rousseau's General Will
becomes identified with the Will of the State, the State
being conceived as a living organism, which is a whole or
unity, and which stands to its constituent members in the
relation in which the whole or unity which is a living
human body stands to its constituent organs.
Some of the Consequences of Rousseau's Doctrine of the
Will. The consequences ofthis doctrine are in the highest
degree formidable. Because the General Will is always
right and always disinterested, it is argued that the State
is always right and always disinterested. The will of the
State is, therefore, held to be morally superior to that of
any individual, and it is urged that the individual's will
may justifiably be subordinated to it Again, the living
organism i*, it is obvious, more important than its component
organs; their function is to promote its welfare,
and their sole excellence consists in promoting its welfare
as folly as possible. Therefore, by analogy, the State is
more important than the individuals who compose it;
their excellence is to be found in its service and their
raison d'ttoe in the promotion of its interests. This principle
is familiar in the Nazi philosophy which dominates Ger-
many to-day. The individual, Nazis maintain, belongs
from birth to death to the State; the individual's private
interest must, therefore, be subordinated to the interest
of the State, which is not only an end in itself, but is the
synthesis of all ends, moral and spiritual. Such, broadly, is
the conclusion of the line of thought which, starting from
Rousseau's doctrine of the General Will, culminates in the
idealist theory ofthe State and finds oneofits expressions in the
practice of National Socialism in contemporary Germany.
There is, I would suggest, another strand in the rope
which bridges the gap between Rousseau's political
theory and the doctrines of modern Totalitarianism.