106. On the World War and the Memorandum of July 1917

The war was not the result of level-headed deliberation. Level-headedness was absent in many places. It was replaced by a pathological agitation. At most, one can say that the spirit of speculation (e.g. the Baghdad Railway project) had an effect. The fact that speculation was able to exploit aspirations of nations contributed greatly to this. The states were dependent on these things. Because even the “household goods” had to put themselves at the service of the world economy. What has become of it now: The Entente and America, which were economically stable, have remained in such a way that they can be restored to their old state without any upheaval. The Central Powers, Russia, etc. are economic deserts, without a single point offering the prospect of reconstruction. We should have no illusions about this. The ideals of the people will not bring order to the deserts, but will initially increase the chaotic character. This can be seen in Austria, if one only wants to.

This has been foreseen in the appropriate places in England. There they knew that the social conditions made the world war necessary. They took it into account. They could draw the map of Europe that they foresaw there. They could know that the Central Powers would only believe themselves saved by a war.

Only by responding to timely impulses could the Central Powers and Russia have avoided the war. This did not happen. But perhaps, one might think, the course of the catastrophe taught people something? Hence my memorandum. It was based on two points of view. A straightforward account of the start of the war. Opposition to a Central European rally that would have been suitable for taking hold in Eastern Europe [in contrast to] Wilson's statements. For these cannot create a salutary social structure in Europe. They are based on the insights of the Anglo-American world. On the assumption that a political body can bring about the economic order of the present. Within this world one can. Outside of this world one cannot. But one only knows this within this world.

It was important to counter such a proclamation with one from Wilson that would have inspired confidence on this side. One that would have shown through its own content: A disruption of world peace will no longer be able to occur through the Central Powers. The second point of view of my memorandum was based on this. It was based on the assumption that the conditions of modern life in the non-English and the English-dependent areas make a tripartite division of the entire social structure necessary. 1. Legislation and administration in the sense of popular traditions. 2. Organization of economic life according to opportunistic principles. 3. free production and judgment in the intellectual field, which also includes the judicial.

Because this was not taken into account, socialist utopias arose, the much-admired but actually helpless German and Austrian national economies arose, and in Russia the most terrible social movement that humanity has ever seen arose.

The representatives of the state-planned social order within the old states were helpless; the socialists in Germany, for example, are helpless now. In Russia, they are complete illusionaries. Those in Germany want to continue war socialism.

One should not say: as things stand today, such ideas are of no use, because others live in the minds of the people. The “leaders” will be compromised in no time and with them the ideas. Then the “followers” will be inclined to listen to others and to other things. But this other thing will have to be what is demanded by the times.

The old ideas cannot be worked with any longer. They have failed where they should extend to the social realm. The first thing is to free the education system.

(In nature, overproduction is the law of life – in human life, overproduction of intellectual products is harmful. It is not possible for a battle of ideas to take place. The autonomy of the school, religious and judicial systems to the full extent.

It would be utopian to believe that something like the developed program should be immediately implemented in institutions. But that is not what it should aim for; rather, it should aim for the ideas flowing from the developed program to be reflected in public life.

It is through this that the commodity is made independent of labor. That is why the socialists were able to win the masses, because they were able to point out the fact that labor power has become a commodity. — It is important to note that for the modern worker, it is only a commodity.