Jozef GOLUCHOWSKI (1797-1858)
We know that in recent times so-called socialism
and communism raise their heads very high, and no longer confine
themselves to the intellectual field, but engage in an active struggle
on the battlefield. It would be hard to try to distinguish between
the various types of these new sciences, which are meant to save
humankind. Suffice it to say that the general tendency of these
motley systems is as follows: the right of individual property should
be undermined and collective ownership introduced, and each individual
man should have a share in the fruit of this common property according
to diverse rules, formulated variously depending on which system
is found the most appealing by the formulator. Common ownership
and distribution of property are the main principles, which are
invoked by and inform all types of socialism and communism. The
more consistent advocates of these systems propose abolishing the
family; that is, untying the marital bond, etc. [...]
At the outset, only to make access to human
hearts easier, socialism and communism make friends with the Christian
religion and solemnly pledge acceptance of its sacred precepts.
However, once they sink their claws deeply into human hearts, they
discard the mask and evict religion from the human mind. Why? Because
the Christian religion is spiritual through and through, because
it transcends the boundaries of this world; because it imposes strong
checks on our appetites, because it keeps all our carnal lusts on
a leash; because it teaches to suffer; because it submits human
reason and will to the guidance of a personal God, whom it reveals;
because although it loves the pauper and often severely rebukes
the rich man, it recognizes and respects differences between people;
because instead of indulging the flesh, it teaches us to torment
it so as to enhance moral strength. The new gospel of communism
and socialism, on the other hand, preaches the emancipation of the
flesh, and since according to it there is no life beyond this one
and therefore the whole spiritual aspect is lost, self-indulgence
constitutes for it the highest aim in life. It preaches freedom,
conceived in such a way that no one should be subject to any coercion,
that everybody should follow his urges, do only what he likes, and
take from society as much as he needs. The love of the general good
is to be an infallible regulator, which will unfailingly keep everyone
in decent bounds and effectively motivate them to work.
A personal God and religion is to be supplanted
by a fanatical adulation of some blind generality, some impersonal
abstraction, i.e. this general good and one's own interest absorbed
by it. This empty box which abstraction fills with anything - it
is to be the only religion, since this new gospel concluded that
the essence of every religion is nothing other than submitting our
personality and our own interest to some higher corporation. All
the rest can be dispensed with. The absorption of the individual
by the generality is, then, the highest destiny of man. But since
such is the end of the individual, nothing prevents this individual
from extracting and using for his own pleasure any part of the general
good he fancies, as long as he remains an individual, because nothing
more is due to him. To facilitate self-indulgence this new gospel
eliminates various bonds which have hitherto restricted human beings;
many of its apostles would abolish marriage, claiming that in the
existing arrangement marriage is either financial speculation without
love, or a humiliating slavery once love evaporates. For this reason
they grant everybody the freedom to enter into such relationships
as they fancy and remain in them as long as they find it enjoyable.
The new gospel disbands the family, claiming that the of whole society
is a family bound by mutual love; it undoes the bond between children
and parents, and removes the energy of maternal love, protecting
the baby's cradle day and night; it replaces the elemental education
of the child with a general love of strangers assigned to this task,
a love the thinness of which is apparent to every eye. The family
then must be disbanded, for succession must not be allowed. Otherwise
many parents would accumulate property and pass it on to their children,
which would allow some to become too wealthy and in a position to
oppress others. [...]
Although it must be said in fairness that not all in socialism and communism
is bad [...], nevertheless the whole principle is fundamentally false.
All of [their advocates], in spite of the differences in the systems
they profess and despite all of the ferocious arguments between
them, agree that they adore materialism, and in materialism alone
they see human happiness and try to make man happy with material
means alone, waging a fierce war against the spirituality of the
Christian religion for its disdain for carnal pleasures and for
its imposing too tight constraints on all sensual urges. Such a
principle must inevitably issue in atheism or at least something
closely resembling atheism; and once we arrive at that destination,
all human strivings must be focused on this earth and our mortal
existence here. If one is devoted fully to the emancipation of the
flesh and sets it as one's principal aim, then one must lose sight
of the spirit and its needs reaching to infinity. One does not care
for immortality and everything it entails. Perhaps one would not
draw all of the consequences inherent in this system, but they are
there and will come to the surface once this teaching begins to
ferment in the head or to be put into practice. One can turn a blind
eye on many contradictions, but this will make them no less contradictory.
Socialism and communism assault the Christian religion for its condemnation
of the flesh in favor of the spirit and for repressing the natural
urges of the flesh instead of satisfying them. Yet they do not see
that in order for socialism and communism to be put into practice
and bring only beneficial results, in my opinion they would first
have to raise themselves to the highest level of spirituality and
then lift people to that level. Paradise on earth could be established
only if all people reached the pinnacle of morality. Among saints
communism would be most proper, given that the communion of the
saints - communio sanctorum
- is a dogma of our religion. However, secular communism does not
want to now anything about sainthood; moreover, what morality can
one expect from a doctrine whose premise and ultimate goal is an
unequivocal and loudly professed materialism?