Essay on "Mass Politics in Europe"

Essay 5 pages (1470 words) Sources: 2 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

He concluded that the ghetto had degraded the Jewish people physically and psychologically, and that its only hope of redemption was a national Jewish state (Schorske, pg. 151). As a journalist in France, he had once imagined the country as "the font of liberty and civilization," but he soon discovered this was no longer the case by the 1890s. Instead, he witnessed and reported on "aristocratic decadence, parliamentary corruption, socialist class warfare, anarchist terror, and anti-Semitic barbarism" (Schorske, pg. 153). He was present in 1895 when Dreyfus was formally degraded out of the French Army, and witnessed the mob screaming "Judas! Traitor!" And "Kill the Jews!"(Burns, pg. 54). Eduard Drumont's newspaper Free Speech proclaimed "France for the French" under its title, and routinely attacked Jews, foreigners and immigrants, and claimed that Jews were in control of the country even though they were far less than 1% of the population (Burns, pg. 8). Drumont, like Hitler, believed that all of history was a struggle of "Aryans and Semites," and called for the "retraction of emancipation and expropriation of Jewish capital" (Schoske, pg. 157). Maurice Barres made a campaign speech for Action Francaise in 1898 stating that "I come to you again with those national and social ideas which you have praised before and will not reject today," calling the Jews "parasites" and "vermin" and accusing them of controlling the government and the economy with their corrupt money power (Burns, p. 7).

Herzl actually thanked men like Maurras and Barres for opening his eyes and removing all his illusions about the future of liberal, assimilated Jews in Europe. Mass movements proclaiming an early version of 'national socialism' blended with anti-Semitism and irrationalism were already becoming common, and with the Dreyfus case "his concerns for the fate of the liberal order in France and Austria converged" (Schorske, pg. 158). Even though the First World War and the Great Depression had not fatally undermined liberalism in most of Europe, Herzl had already gotten a glimpse of the future. He doubted that liberal rationalism would have any effect against mass anti-Semitism in Europe, and in this he proved to be prophetic (Schorske, p. 160). Early versions of fascism were already calling for violence, expropriation and even extermination of the Jews and other minorities, while liberalism was weak and in decline. Zionism was therefore created as a reaction against decaying liberalism as well, and as Bismarck unified Germany in 1870, it would appeal to the masses not with reason, but with flags, emotions, and nationalist symbolism. Like its opponents, it would also threaten violence and mass unrest if its demands were not granted.

In many ways, the situation in Europe at the end of the 19th Century is quite similar to that today, in which an economic depression and mass unemployment undermined public confidence and trust in established institutions. For the ordinary workers, peasants and artisans, who were only recent enfranchised in many countries like France and Austria, mass populist, nationalists and socialist movements were far more appealing that the dry and elitist liberals, who came to be seen as the party of the wealthy. In addition, parliamentary institutions seemed corrupt and unrepresentative, while the mass movements of the Right blamed this of the money power of the Jews. Marxists and social democrats generally refrained from open anti-Semitism along these lines, and did not regard capitalism as a Jewish-controlled phenomenon as the movements of the Far Right always did. Nevertheless, even Social Democrats like Adler in Austria were growing accustomed to making strong nationalistic appeals, while Bismarck's authoritarian state in Germany was also proving a model for co-opting the labor and socialist movements through old age pensions and national health insurance. In this respect, democratic socialism was already evolving into national socialism -- which should not be confused with Nazism -- and when World War I began most of the socialist parties apart from Lenin's Bolsheviks voted to support their respective national governments. Liberal rationalism was not able to counter these emotional and populist mass movements at the time, and in fact lacked massed appeal. Given the political and economic situation in the world today, and the mass distrust of older institutions and political parties, history could very well repeat itself.

WORKS CITED

Burns, Michael. France and the Dreyfus… READ MORE

How to Reference "Mass Politics in Europe" Essay in a Bibliography

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