J.d.K
Member
In 1915 Nahum Goldmann wrote a book called the Spirit of Militarism (The original in German is called "Der Geist des Militarismus") The following is the English translation circling around the internet:
“The historical mission of our world revolution is to rearrange a new culture of humanity to replace the previous social system. This conversion and re-organization of global society requires two essential steps: firstly, the destruction of the old established order, secondly, design and imposition of the new order. The first stage requires elimination of all frontier borders, nationhood and culture, public policy ethical barriers and social definitions, only then can the destroyed old system elements be replaced by the imposed system elements of our new order.
The first task of our world revolution is Destruction. All social strata and social formations created by traditional society must be annihilated, individual men and women must be uprooted from their ancestral environment, torn out of their native milieus, no tradition of any type shall be permitted to remain as sacrosanct, traditional social norms must only be viewed as a disease to be eradicated, the ruling dictum of the new order is; nothing is good so everything must be criticized and abolished, everything that was, must be gone.
After destruction of the old order, construction of the new order is a larger and more difficult task. We will have torn out the old limbs from their ancient roots in deep layers, social norms will be lying disorganised and anarchic so they must be blocked against new cultural forms and social categories naturally re-emerging. The general masses will have been first persuaded to join as equals in the first task of destroying their own traditional society and economic culture, but then the new order must be forcibly established through people again being divided and differentiated only in accordance with the new pyramidal hierarchical system of our imposed global monolithic new world order.
Capitalism must be condemned as a fundamental misfortune caused by the wealth of capitalist power exploiting the false separation between the high rulers and the oppressed exploited masses. The masses must be induce to repudiate the concept of personal wealth and personal rights, this second task will also be solved only by virtue of the great guiding principle of the subordinating militaristic spirit in which superior ranks impose order on inferiors, new world order: “which will bring the true aristocratic principle of “might is right” in the those who can rule – shall rule”.”
This is the original, which I couldn't find anywhere other than on random websites on the internet. However, I was able to verify it was indeed the original version by searching these words one by one on this site https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt...8;sort=seq;sz=10;start=1;page=search;orient=0:
All this is from page 38 of the original text:
"So besteht denn die erste Aufgabe unserer Zeit in der Zerstörung. Alle sozialen Schichtungen und gesellschaftlichen Formungen, die das alte System geschaffen hat, müssen vernichtet, die einzelnen Menschen müssen aus ihren angestammten Milieus herausgerissen werden; keine Tradition darf mehr als heilig gelten; das Alter gilt nur als Zeichen der Krankheit; die Parole heißt: was war, muß weg. Die Kräfte, die diese negative Aufgabe unserer Zeit ausführen, sind: auf dem wirtschaftlich-sozialen Gebiete der Kapitalismus, auf dem politisch-geistigen die Demokratie. Wieviel sie bereits geleistet haben, wissen wir alle; aber wir wissen auch, daß ihr Werk noch nicht ganz vollbracht ist. Noch kämpft der Kapitalismus gegen die Formen der alten, traditionellen Wirtschaft, noch führt die Demokratie einen heißen Kampf gegen alle Kräfte der Reaktion. Vollenden wird das Werk der militaristische Geist. Sein Uniformierungsprinzip wird die negative Aufgabe der Zeit restlos durchführen: wenn erst alle Glieder unseres Kulturkreises als Soldaten unseres Kultursystems uniformiert sind, ist diese eine Aufgabe gelöst.
Dann aber erst erhebt sich die andere, größere und schwierigere Aufgabe: der Aufbau der neuen Ordnung. Die Glieder, die nun aus ihren alten Verwurzelungen und Schichtungen herausgerissen sind und ungeordnet, anarchisch herumliegen, müssen zu neuen Formungen und Kategorien geschlossen werden; wurden bei der Lösung der ersten Aufgabe alle zunächst einmal für gleich erklärt, so müssen die Menschen nun wieder geteilt und differenziert: ein neues pyramidales, hierarchisches System muß errichtet werden. Auch diese Aufgabe versuchte der Kapitalismus zu lösen; wir wissen, mit welchem Mißgeschick. Er nahm die fundamentale Trennung in Herrschende und Beherrschte nach falschen Gesichtspunkten vor: nach denjenigen des Reichtums, der kapitalistischen Macht. Auch diese zweite Aufgabe wird nur der militaristische Geist lösen können kraft seines anderen großen Leitprinzips der Subordination. Er wird den wahren aristokratischen Grundsatz zur Herrschaft bringen: Herrschen soll, wer herrschen kann."
Google translated into english which ofcourse is a terrible translation and not to be taken seriously:
So the first task of our time is destruction. All social stratifications and social formations that the old system created must be destroyed, individual people must be torn out of their ancestral milieus; no tradition can be considered sacred anymore; the Old age is only a sign of illness; the slogan is: what was must go. The forces that carry out this negative task of our time are: in the economic and social field capitalism, in the political and intellectual field democracy We all know, but we also know that their work is not yet fully accomplished. Capitalism is still fighting against the forms of the old, traditional economy, and democracy is still waging a fierce battle against all forces of reaction the work of the militaristic spirit: its principle of uniformity will carry out the negative task of time completely: when all members are first If he is in uniform in our cultural area as soldiers of our cultural system, this one task is solved.
But only then does the other, larger and more difficult task arise: the building of the new order. The limbs that have now been torn from their old roots and layers and are lying around in an anarchic, disordered manner, must be closed to new formations and categories; If everyone was initially declared equal in solving the first task, people must now be divided and differentiated again: a new pyramidal, hierarchical system must be established. Capitalism tried to solve this problem too; we know with what misfortune. He made the fundamental separation into rulers and ruled according to the wrong viewpoints: according to those of wealth, of capitalist power. This second task can only be solved by the militaristic spirit by virtue of its other great guiding principle of subordination. He will bring the true aristocratic principle to rule: He who can rule should rule. "
What is obvious however is that the translation that is spread around on the internet "the new pyramidal hierarchical system of our imposed global monolithic new world order" contains way more words than the original one "ein neues pyramidales, hierarchisches System muß errichtet werden." and since my native language is dutch, which is quite similar to german, I can say that the google-translation of that portion is actually completely correct: "a new pyramidal, hierarchical system must [or "got to be"] be established". Nowhere does it say monolithic or world order or even imposed. It may have been what Goldmann intended, but it isn't what he actually wrote there in german. Nor does it actually say the following words (in bold) in the internet-translation: "The historical mission of our world revolution is to rearrange a new culture of humanity to replace the previous social system". The same happens near the end: "this second task will also be solved only by virtue of the great guiding principle of the subordinating militaristic spirit in which superior ranks impose order on inferiors, new world order". Where does it say new world order in the original text? Nowhere. Another one: "This conversion and re-organization of global society requires two essential steps"... the original doesn't say global society. And there's proparbly more, but I can't be bothered to look further. You can double-verify this by translating words like world revolution, humanity, global, society etc. in german and you'll see, using the website I mentioned above, they don't appear at page 38 or even at all. Who wrote this translation, I wonder? I don't know the context of this text beyond this little piece, and maybe Goldmann indeed wanted to revolutionize the whole world, but why add language that is common among conspiracy theorists that was never there to enforce your point?? I think that's manipulative and not ok.
Yet despite of that... the piece is quite disgusting really.
“The historical mission of our world revolution is to rearrange a new culture of humanity to replace the previous social system. This conversion and re-organization of global society requires two essential steps: firstly, the destruction of the old established order, secondly, design and imposition of the new order. The first stage requires elimination of all frontier borders, nationhood and culture, public policy ethical barriers and social definitions, only then can the destroyed old system elements be replaced by the imposed system elements of our new order.
The first task of our world revolution is Destruction. All social strata and social formations created by traditional society must be annihilated, individual men and women must be uprooted from their ancestral environment, torn out of their native milieus, no tradition of any type shall be permitted to remain as sacrosanct, traditional social norms must only be viewed as a disease to be eradicated, the ruling dictum of the new order is; nothing is good so everything must be criticized and abolished, everything that was, must be gone.
After destruction of the old order, construction of the new order is a larger and more difficult task. We will have torn out the old limbs from their ancient roots in deep layers, social norms will be lying disorganised and anarchic so they must be blocked against new cultural forms and social categories naturally re-emerging. The general masses will have been first persuaded to join as equals in the first task of destroying their own traditional society and economic culture, but then the new order must be forcibly established through people again being divided and differentiated only in accordance with the new pyramidal hierarchical system of our imposed global monolithic new world order.
Capitalism must be condemned as a fundamental misfortune caused by the wealth of capitalist power exploiting the false separation between the high rulers and the oppressed exploited masses. The masses must be induce to repudiate the concept of personal wealth and personal rights, this second task will also be solved only by virtue of the great guiding principle of the subordinating militaristic spirit in which superior ranks impose order on inferiors, new world order: “which will bring the true aristocratic principle of “might is right” in the those who can rule – shall rule”.”
This is the original, which I couldn't find anywhere other than on random websites on the internet. However, I was able to verify it was indeed the original version by searching these words one by one on this site https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt...8;sort=seq;sz=10;start=1;page=search;orient=0:
All this is from page 38 of the original text:
"So besteht denn die erste Aufgabe unserer Zeit in der Zerstörung. Alle sozialen Schichtungen und gesellschaftlichen Formungen, die das alte System geschaffen hat, müssen vernichtet, die einzelnen Menschen müssen aus ihren angestammten Milieus herausgerissen werden; keine Tradition darf mehr als heilig gelten; das Alter gilt nur als Zeichen der Krankheit; die Parole heißt: was war, muß weg. Die Kräfte, die diese negative Aufgabe unserer Zeit ausführen, sind: auf dem wirtschaftlich-sozialen Gebiete der Kapitalismus, auf dem politisch-geistigen die Demokratie. Wieviel sie bereits geleistet haben, wissen wir alle; aber wir wissen auch, daß ihr Werk noch nicht ganz vollbracht ist. Noch kämpft der Kapitalismus gegen die Formen der alten, traditionellen Wirtschaft, noch führt die Demokratie einen heißen Kampf gegen alle Kräfte der Reaktion. Vollenden wird das Werk der militaristische Geist. Sein Uniformierungsprinzip wird die negative Aufgabe der Zeit restlos durchführen: wenn erst alle Glieder unseres Kulturkreises als Soldaten unseres Kultursystems uniformiert sind, ist diese eine Aufgabe gelöst.
Dann aber erst erhebt sich die andere, größere und schwierigere Aufgabe: der Aufbau der neuen Ordnung. Die Glieder, die nun aus ihren alten Verwurzelungen und Schichtungen herausgerissen sind und ungeordnet, anarchisch herumliegen, müssen zu neuen Formungen und Kategorien geschlossen werden; wurden bei der Lösung der ersten Aufgabe alle zunächst einmal für gleich erklärt, so müssen die Menschen nun wieder geteilt und differenziert: ein neues pyramidales, hierarchisches System muß errichtet werden. Auch diese Aufgabe versuchte der Kapitalismus zu lösen; wir wissen, mit welchem Mißgeschick. Er nahm die fundamentale Trennung in Herrschende und Beherrschte nach falschen Gesichtspunkten vor: nach denjenigen des Reichtums, der kapitalistischen Macht. Auch diese zweite Aufgabe wird nur der militaristische Geist lösen können kraft seines anderen großen Leitprinzips der Subordination. Er wird den wahren aristokratischen Grundsatz zur Herrschaft bringen: Herrschen soll, wer herrschen kann."
Google translated into english which ofcourse is a terrible translation and not to be taken seriously:
So the first task of our time is destruction. All social stratifications and social formations that the old system created must be destroyed, individual people must be torn out of their ancestral milieus; no tradition can be considered sacred anymore; the Old age is only a sign of illness; the slogan is: what was must go. The forces that carry out this negative task of our time are: in the economic and social field capitalism, in the political and intellectual field democracy We all know, but we also know that their work is not yet fully accomplished. Capitalism is still fighting against the forms of the old, traditional economy, and democracy is still waging a fierce battle against all forces of reaction the work of the militaristic spirit: its principle of uniformity will carry out the negative task of time completely: when all members are first If he is in uniform in our cultural area as soldiers of our cultural system, this one task is solved.
But only then does the other, larger and more difficult task arise: the building of the new order. The limbs that have now been torn from their old roots and layers and are lying around in an anarchic, disordered manner, must be closed to new formations and categories; If everyone was initially declared equal in solving the first task, people must now be divided and differentiated again: a new pyramidal, hierarchical system must be established. Capitalism tried to solve this problem too; we know with what misfortune. He made the fundamental separation into rulers and ruled according to the wrong viewpoints: according to those of wealth, of capitalist power. This second task can only be solved by the militaristic spirit by virtue of its other great guiding principle of subordination. He will bring the true aristocratic principle to rule: He who can rule should rule. "
What is obvious however is that the translation that is spread around on the internet "the new pyramidal hierarchical system of our imposed global monolithic new world order" contains way more words than the original one "ein neues pyramidales, hierarchisches System muß errichtet werden." and since my native language is dutch, which is quite similar to german, I can say that the google-translation of that portion is actually completely correct: "a new pyramidal, hierarchical system must [or "got to be"] be established". Nowhere does it say monolithic or world order or even imposed. It may have been what Goldmann intended, but it isn't what he actually wrote there in german. Nor does it actually say the following words (in bold) in the internet-translation: "The historical mission of our world revolution is to rearrange a new culture of humanity to replace the previous social system". The same happens near the end: "this second task will also be solved only by virtue of the great guiding principle of the subordinating militaristic spirit in which superior ranks impose order on inferiors, new world order". Where does it say new world order in the original text? Nowhere. Another one: "This conversion and re-organization of global society requires two essential steps"... the original doesn't say global society. And there's proparbly more, but I can't be bothered to look further. You can double-verify this by translating words like world revolution, humanity, global, society etc. in german and you'll see, using the website I mentioned above, they don't appear at page 38 or even at all. Who wrote this translation, I wonder? I don't know the context of this text beyond this little piece, and maybe Goldmann indeed wanted to revolutionize the whole world, but why add language that is common among conspiracy theorists that was never there to enforce your point?? I think that's manipulative and not ok.
Yet despite of that... the piece is quite disgusting really.