The New Social Order from the Point of View of Christian Principles

From Karl Polanyi
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Text in English to re-read

[5] What is wrong with the world?

Moral consciousness has out-grown social conditions.

A terrific conflict has begun.

It is not sure that society will outlive this move.

Humanity is danger of life. It is not sure whether the new way of life is possible. Mankind on the other hand refuses to live on in a state which it regards as moral unbearable.

Society will cease to exist, or it will conform to Christian moral principles.

Fascism is the attempt to save society from this dilemma by radically refusing to acknowledge the Laws by which humanity has been governed these 2000 years.

What are the Christian principles that work for a new order?

The responsibility of every human soul before God - that is the Law which will be fulfilled.

This principle does not only include Equality of human beings, but also a concept of a Freedom of self-realisation, the freedom to be as good as we can. Because society of today does not allow us to be as good as we would all ways be and some times even are --- this is the real reason why it is destined to die.

Why is Capitalist society a inde__ce to the moral development of Mankind?

Because everyday life, the life of man as a producer and consumer is organised so as to make egotism, greed, self-seeking into the only rational attitude allowed by circumstances. But that would only encourage to be bad, would not prevent to be good. What people are prevented by to be good, is that there is no possibility of realising the meaning of the service man renders to, man as a producer, nor the meaning of the burden man means to man as a consumer.

Characteristics of market-society.

In Capitalism everybody is _______ed [6] to regard the productive service he does to the other man, as a service rendered to Himself! The “Idea” of service does not change this fact because you don't know home you do service to and even if you chance to know, it would be mere self-deludion to do as if you were producing for his sake for you must actually go on reducing even if he were not existant -- simply for your own sake!

Similar is the case, yes worse even, wihman as a consumer. The consumer may have the Idea that he is being helped in his noee by his fellows (which actually is the fact), yet in as a reality, he will be handled as the person who does a service to the producer -- paradoxy could hardly be more apparent than it is here.

It is actually the consumer, the person living upon society who appears as the the one rendering a service to his fellows, whiest the producer who toils and creates then by actually plays the role of the superfluous being ::superfluous, because there are too many of them on the market -- no much better than parasite!

The market does the trick

A) Its is am machine for producing Egotism even then and there were no Egotism is no inclination to it.

B) It a machinery which isolate one human being from the other in their capacity as economic {cutities} that is just in their everyday life. Each single person lives as it were in an economic “Jenseist” with reseat to this fellows. For each single person the rest of humanity his beyond the pale. Human-beings are connected with each other by the way of Centre they all bound up with without in any case being connected with each other! The strings 1 they {are} bound to get the by all run through the Market! In this way the market isolates one person from an other. It connects goods with each other but only by cutting off its producers personnally from each other. My interest, {y} knowledge never transcends the market! I cannot keep an I on goods once they have reached the market. There they are engulfed by “the Market”, and the producer has n___ [7] because tools and Machines which are only a phase in production are separated from in terms of proprietorship (Capital) Karl Marx.

The State is to-Day third source of “fragmentation” of personality which is rather as splitting up of personality. Active citizenship seems wholly separate from passive citizenship. As it were two humanities were in Existence. Humanity has a “Doppelgänger” -- a system most conducive to a shifting of responsibilities!! Karl Marx     De Man? on the “other Marx”.

Text Informations

Reference:
Date: 1936?
KPA: 21/02, 3-7