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

CRITICISM OF IDEALIST THEORY 767
morality with Hitler's will. As Herr Wagner, the Bavarian
Minister of the Interior recently announced: "What Hitler
decides is right and will remain eternally right."
Again, the idealist theory proclaims that the State,
embodying, as it does, the General Wills of all its citizens,
cannot act wrongly and is, therefore, above criticism;
but it is for criticism of the Nazi party, for passing rude
remarks upon the leaders of the party, or commenting
disrespectfully upon its decrees, that contemporary Germans
are sent to concentration camps. The idealist theory holds
that the State possesses divine attributes and that we owe
it gratitude as the source of all the values and virtues of
our lives, but it is to Hcrr Hitler that the first of the Ten
Commandments for Nazi workers, drawn up by the Minister
of Labour, enjoins gratitude: "We greet the Leader
every morning," it runs, "and we thank him each night
that he has provided us officially with the will to live"
and it is service to Heir Hitler that is equated with service
to what is divine: "To serve Hitler is to serve Germany;
to serve Germany is to serve God" runs the creed which
appears in the Confessional Book of the Germans, the official
publication of the German Faith Movement. Quotations
cquld be multiplied indefinitely to show how the claims
which idealist theory makes for the State, claims which, ifthe
foregoing criticisms are valid are in any event unjustified,
and which derive such plausibility as they possess from a
false identification between society and the State,
are in
totalitarian States put forward by the particular government
which happens to control the State. Owning no better
foundation .than the successful force of a particular party,
they lose whatever semblance of justification they may in
theory have once possessed*
Summary. The above criticisms of the idealist theory
of the State apply with no less force to those political
doctrines which derive their tenets from the idealist theory
and base themselves upon it. I shall not, therefore, attempt
a specific criticism of fascist doctrines. The conclusions