Page - 70 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

70 chapter 2 which ‘education towards socialism’was a component. ForMarx, theprolet- ariat’s achievementof revolutionaryconsciousnesswassynonymouswith the emergenceof self-knowledge and thereforewith thehistorical process itself, for in practice, the recognition of the sources of oppressionmeant its aboli- tion. Lukácswrote about this in a similar vein.54Nonetheless,many leading theoreticians of the Second International – Kautsky, Plekhanov, Lenin, Karl VorländerandGramsciamongthem–werescepticalastowhetherthepolitical andrevolutionarymaturityof theworkingclasscoulddevelopspontaneously. EvenbeforeBernstein’sappearance,historydemonstrated,firstly,thattheeco- nomicallyexploitedandpoliticallydisenfranchisedproletariatdidnotdevelop arevolutionaryconsciousness.Secondly,thatadeterioratingsituationresulted in apathy, while an improved situation increased theworkers’ susceptibility to reformist and anti-revolutionary slogans. Bauer held the opinion that the proletariat left to itselfwas incapable of achieving a level of theoretical con- sciousness, i.e. consciousness of the laws andmechanisms that determined social development, and the capitalist formation inparticular.Hence, Bauer stuck to the judgement alsomade byKautsky, Lenin andGramsci that con- sciousnessneededtobebrought into theranksof theworkingclass ‘fromthe outside’. Despite that, he didnot endorse theirmethodof engaging in agita- tionalactivity.Baueralsocameoutagainstthenotionthatitwasthetaskofthe bourgeois intelligentsia(Kautsky,Plekhanov,VorländerandGramsci)orparty bureaucrats(Lenin)toraiserevolutionaryconsciousness.Herightlyfearedthat thepropagandawarwoulddegenerate intoascramble forpolitical leadership orpersonal gain.TogetherwithMaxAdler,Bauerdevelopedhisownconcept forspreadingrevolutionaryconsciousnessamongtheworkingmasses,drawing onideasofeducationfromImmanuelKant, JohannHerder,andWilhelmvon Humboldt.Thetaskof raising ‘newman’ (a termcoinedbyMaxAdler)would be entrusted to educational and cultural institutions, and the intelligentsia, partymembers,andworkerswouldparticipateintheirefforts.Interestingly,the SocialDemocratsseemedtousetheterms ‘theoreticalconsciousness’, ‘revolu- tionaryconsciousness’,and‘socialistconsciousness’ interchangeably,as if they wereoneandthesame–norwereBauerandtheSocialDemocratsofhis time awareof anyproblemswith the ideaof introducing socialism ‘fromwithout’. It is worth remembering that this questionwas far fromobvious in light of Marxian theory. Onemay conclude fromMarx’s assertion that ‘social being determinessocialconsciousness’thatonlysocialistrelationsofproductioncan facilitate the development of socialist consciousness.Hence, one canhardly 54 SeeLukács1971,p.76.