486

p Herzen says about the civilisation of the West European countries:

p “We see a civilisation that has developed consistently on a landless proletariat, on the unconditional right of the owner to property. What Sieyes predicted for it has in fact happened: the middle estate has become everything—-on the condition of owning anything.  Whether we know how to move from the petty-bourgeois state to a state of the people or not—we still have the right to regard the petty-bourgeois state as a one-sided development, a monstrosity."  [486•* 

p In the lines which follow immediately after the passage quoted Herzen explains in what sense he has used the word: monstrosity.  It transpires that this word does not mean anything unnatural, “unlawful” or, as we would say now, not governed by laws. " Deviation and monstrosity are subject to the same law as organisms.... But in addition to this general subjection to law they also enjoy special rights and have their own particular laws, the consequences of which we again have the right to deduce without any orthopaedic possibilities of correcting them.” Herzen mentions the giraffe as an example. "From seeing that the giraffe’s front part is developed one-sidedly, we were able to guess that this development took place at the expense of the back part and that by virtue of this there were bound to be a number of defects in the organism which correspond to its one-sided development, but which are natural and relatively normal for it."

p Applying these general ideas to the civilisation of Western Europe, Herzen continues: "Thefrontpart of the European camelopard is the petty bourgeoisie—this could be disputed if it were not so obvious; but once having agreed with this one cannot help seeing all the consequences of such a predominance of shops and industry. It is clear that the merchant will be the helmsman of this world and that he will put his trade mark on all its manifestations. Against him the absurdity of an hereditary aristocracy and the misfortune of an hereditary proletariat will be equally helpless. The government must die of hunger or become his bailiff; its trace horse will be its comrades in unproductivity, the guardians of the human race not yet come of age—the lawyers, judges, notaries and others."  [486•** 

p Such is the state of affairs in social life—the sphere of “being”; and such is the state of affairs also in the sphere of thought, in the sphere of “consciousness” in general. With his usual consum- 487 mate skill Herzen portrays the sad spiritual consequences of bourgeois supremacy.

_p “Philistinism is the last word of a civilisation based on the unconditional autocracy of property,” he says, "the democratisation of the aristocracy, the aristocratisation of democracy; in this environment Almaviva equals Figaro—everything from below is striving up to philistinism, everything from above is sinking into it, unable to hold fast. The American States are a single middle state which has nothing below and nothing above, but philistine customs remain. The German peasant is a philistine tiller of the soil, the worker of all countries is a future philistine. Italy, the most poetic country in Europe, could not stay steadfast and immediately abandoned her fanatical lover Mazzini, and deceived her Herculean husband Garibaldi, as soon as the brilliant philistine Cavour, plump and bespectacled, offered to support her."  [487•* 

p To these witty lines the following can usefully be added:

p “Everything shrinks and wilts in overworked soil—there is no talent, no creation, no power of thought, no strength of will; this world has outlived its glorious age, the time of Schiller and Goethe has passed, just as the time of Raphael and Buonarroti, the time of Voltaire and Rousseau, the time of Mirabeau and Danton; the splendid age of industry is on the wane; it has had its day, just as the splendid age of the aristocracy; everyone is growing poor without enriching anyone: there is no credit, everyone is struggling to make ends meet, the mode of life is becoming less and less refined and gracious, everyone is stingy, everyone is afraid, everyone is living like shopkeepers, and petty-bourgeois habits have become universal."  [487•** 

Thus we find that, according to Herzen, petty-bourgeois relations are becoming increasingly firmly entrenched in Western Europe. "Ethical philistinism" is the inevitable and perfectly natural product of these relations. If the cause were removed, its effect would also be removed. If the supremacy of the petty bourgeoisie in social life were to come to an end, the supremacy of pettybourgeois habits would also cease and "ethical philistinism" would also disappear into the realm of legend. But Herzen saw no grounds for expecting petty-bourgeois hegemony in Western Europe to cease. True, he admitted the possibility of a radical upheaval, a social “explosion”, the sudden appearance of "some kind of lava" that would cover with a layer of stone, destroy and commit to oblivion the sickly, weak and stupid generations of people that have degenerated under the influence of the petty-bourgeois social order. And then a now life would !>ogin. But when and why is 488 this to happen? While admitting the abstract possibility of such “explosions” even in Western Europe, Herzen nevertheless considered them extremely unlikely. To my mind, Herzen regarded the forces that could lead to an “explosion”, to the appearance of “lava”, more or less in the same way as Cuvier regarded the forces that, according to his famous teaching, produce "global revolutions" from time to time: they have nothing in common with factors the operation of which we observe in the normal course of things.  [488•*  One should not set any definite hopes capable of leading to any definite actions on the possible operations of totally unknown causes. Moreover, Herzen considered even these hypothetical “explosions” and “lavas” possible only in the distant future when a whole series of generations had passed. It is obvious that such an abstract and remote possibility could not have shaken his conviction that Western Europe is the realm of the petty bourgeoisie, the “merchant” who puts his "trade mark" on everything, the shopkeeper who measures everything by his own bushel.