Louis Boudianoff Boudin

Socialism and War Louis Boudianoff Boudin

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1915. Excerpt: ... VI. SOCIALIST VS. BOURGEOIS THEORIES. I Stated in my last lecture that, rightly understood, the basic theories of Socialism contain within themselves a theory of race and nationality, and therefore a theory of peace and war, which is totally different from and opposed to the current bourgeois or nationalistic theories on the same subject. And at the same time I stated that such theory had never been clearly elaborated, nor any definite rules of conduct based thereon established, and that when the war came the vast majority of Socialists acted not on any Socialist theory but on the current nationalistic theory just as if there had been no Socialist theory. It would seem, on the one hand, somewhat presumptuous in one man to assert that he is in possession of the true interpretation of the principles of Socialism, which escaped the notice of the vast majority of Socialists and their intellectual leaders. even if he should admit a few other individuals into a sort of qualified partnership with himself in the possession of this precious truth. On the other hand, such a truth would of necessity seem to be of rather doubtful character: a truth that is neither clearly understood nor acted upon is certainly far from being a living truth, the kind of truth worthy of the name. In answer to the first objection to the acceptance of what I have stated I will say that truth and the knowledge of truth--which is really one and the same thing, as truth only lives by its recognition and has no existence outside of it--grow as part of the general development of the human species and their growth depends entirely on the circumstances and conditions of that development. Not only are new ideas, new modes of thought--what we call new truths--the result of new social developments...