Page - 127 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

the national question 127 Inhisfurtherobservationsonthevaluequestion,Bauerparticularlyfocused on the national conditionality of judgements and ethics.When individuals evaluatetheiractionsthroughtheprismofthenation,theyeithersubordinate theirownsystemofvalues tothenational interests,oralternativelysubmit to the complex of values, norms, and judgements producedby anation. Bauer attached greater importance to the second interpretation, arguing that the evolutionofanationalculturewasstronglyaffectedbytradition.Thepractical expressionof thiswasasentimentalanddeclamatoryglorificationofGerman bourgeois culture in his writings.18 As an aside, Bauer did not inquire into theessenceofvalues,nordidheconsider investigatingthemscientifically.He simply took theirexistenceasagiven, claiming they, like the realmofculture in itsentirety,wereobjectiveandsubject tohistoricalchange in thecourseof socialevolution. This led him to another substantial idea, namely that values had a class character. Values promoted at any givenmoment in the course of historical developmentare,accordingtoBauer,synonymouswiththevaluesofthedom- inant social class. The existing social order serves toprotect certainnational values, and it is simultaneously committed tovalues that serve toperpetuate the ruleof thepowerful classes.Baueraccused therulingclassesofdemoting nationalvaluestoameretoolofclassstrugglebyemployingtrickery:todefend their interests, theyconstrueanyresistanceoftheoppressedagainst theexist- ingsocialorderasanassaultonthenational tradition.Baueraddedthatvalue judgementdependsonthegoalsthatindividualclasseshavesetthemselves.In theageofanti-absolutist andanti-feudal struggles, thebourgeoisieaspired to rationality. Itassumesaconservativebias, frequentlycitingtheneedtodefend national values, during theperiodofhighcapitalism.Theclass struggle gives rise to the following: rationalist thinking characterises classes that fight for social andeconomic liberation,whileappeals tonational traditionsandcon- servatismtypifytheideologyoftherulingclasses.Thedevelopmentofcapital- ismproducesanewsocialclass,themodernproletariat.Havingbeenexcluded Germanculture fromFrenchcultural influences torestoreandpreservethevaluesofhis ownnation.However,heaptlyobservedthatLessing’sworkaccommodatedtheinterests oftherisingGermanbourgeoisie,whichrejectedFrenchcourtculturewithouthavingyet establisheditsownideology. 18 Bauer was convinced of the superiority of German culture over the cultures of other nations.Mommsenpointsoutthatbycategorisingeverynewculturalachievementasan achievementof theGermannation, Bauerwas alsohidingnationalmotivesbehindhis humanistandemancipatorydeliberations.SeeMommsen1979b,p.212;compareMozetič 1987,pp.225–6andHanisch2011,p.95.