However, the understanding which merely calculates, proves itself generally inadequate for dealing with all serious matters in life. There is something higher than the intellect. A man of fine character allows himself to be swayed more by innate and instinctive feelings than by cold calculation. And these instinctive feelings which, in reality, indicate an intimate spiritual and emotional insight into the connection between things, are a far surer guide to mankind than all the speculations of the intellect. Where the guiding instinct is wanting, we see the intellect straying into all manner of blind alleys, clambering too high on its own artificial structures, which have lost all touch with reason and nature, and at last, for this reason, failing completely.
The Hebrew, a being, who is not of immediate natural origin, and who, for that reason, makes his journey through life without any intimate connection with nature, is devoid of instinctive feelings. He endeavours to replace them by conscious intellect. This may confer a certain apparent superiority on him so long as he moves in artificial surroundings, which depend, more or less, upon intellectual foundations. He is, however, completely at a loss, and feels helpless immediately when he finds himself in a situation where the relations are entirely natural.
[Page 207] A Robinson, alone on a desert island, can contrive, with scant resources, to keep body and soul together; a Hebrew is incapable of doing so. The Jew is a second-rate man, whose existence depends upon all kinds of artificial assumptions. He is Nature’s step-child, and cannot get on with this mother. He is always in need of some man, who has grown up in touch with Nature and who is full of natural impulse, to carry him — the Jew — through life.
And when Sombart believes that he can perceive the acme of genius in freedom from all natural law, and in tearing one’s self loose from all natural instincts, he betrays, in spite of himself, his own Jewishness. The opposite is correct; genius stands — unconsciously in most cases — in closest relationship, in inmost feeling with the natural laws of being and becoming!
It draws from a source, whose deepest spring is scarcely known to itself. It is only for the reason that the internal and eternal obedience to law, of all natural things and occurrences, resides also in the creations of genius, that the latter are eternal and inextinguishable; and it is also for this reason that they stir the emotions of mankind, so long as men do not close their ears to the voice of nature.
The conspicuous intellectualism of the Jew is direct evidence of his weakness and of his inferiority from a human point of view. It is only when the natural feeling fails, when the instinct is no longer a safe guide, that the calculating intellect begins in its distress to strain after artificial remedies, and seeks to create artificial conditions, which are agreeable to it.
The Jew can only flourish in an artificial world. In reality, the mental speculations of the Hebrew are confined to comparatively narrow fields of activity, where it is a matter of obtaining an advantage and of misleading and confusing the opponent. Only there is he a master; everywhere else, where it is a case of penetrating more deeply into artistic, technical and exact scientific knowledge, the intellect of the Jew does not suffice. And therefore, the Hebrew is never inventor and artist in the grand style. Whoever follows up the refined subtleties of the Rabbis in the Talmud, can often observe how their petty, shortsighted, calculating spirit leads them into incredible imbecilities.
[Page 208] According to the popular opinion, the devil is a professor of slyness. But also, according to popular tradition, there are all kinds of legends, showing how the peasant gets the better of the devil; and from this popular notion emerges a deep meaning. The peasant may appear to be awkward and helpless in the external affairs of life, especially when he is brought face to face with the artificial conditions of town life; he possesses, for the most part, however, although it may be only by means of his feelings, a deeper insight into natural things than many a learned townsman.
And the devil, for all his arithmetic, always miscalculates when he encounters natural cleverness, and when the unalterable laws of nature break through his web of deceit. Yes, after all, the devil is stupid, and so is his cousin, the Jew. Place him face to face with Nature, with no creative men to assist him, and all his lordly intellectualism will suffer a miserable shipwreck — will not save him from starvation.
On the other hand, the Jew has known how to confer an extraordinary power of attraction on the modern towns with their artificial and refined methods of traffic and intercourse; he entices the simple villagers away from nature into these modern paradises of vice, where everything is cast in an unnatural and artificial mould. Jews, and Jewish mentality reign supreme in the large towns, and the natural man feels that he is a stranger there, more like a child, straying helplessly into the traps of the Jews, which are laid for him on every side. Therefore, whoever wishes to escape from the Jewish illusion must fly from these places, and seek refuge again on the maternal breast of Nature; and, just as surely is he doomed to certain ruin, who imagines that he can continue to live as a child of Nature in the meretricious and false world of the Jew.
Even Sombart admits as much: “ We frequently find in the case of the Jew that all instinctive feeling is stunted, just as if all sensibility and sensitive relations to the rest of the world were foreign to his disposition.”
[Page 209] Here, however, it is conceded that the Hebrew himself stands forth as both foreign and contrary to Nature. He moves in the midst of Nature as a dull and insensible being; he certainly sees things separately, but he passes over the causal connection of the natural phenomenon and the inward obedience to law of all life, without paying the slightest attention to the same. For this reason, he is unable to judge what the final effects of his scheming and plotting will be; he is always directed merely by the advantage of the moment. He hankers after the goods and chattels of the peasant; he knows how to get hold of the same, and to drive the peasant from hearth and home; but he neither stops to reflect, nor does he care, what will become of the village, when all the peasants have been plundered in this fashion and driven away. He sucks the last drop of blood out of the workman and the small employer of labour, and dispatches them to ruin, without asking: what will become of the world if we weaken the productive classes in this manner? He entangles the various countries in debts and loans, and hands them over to ruin, without taking the trouble to think that these operations will eventually cause human society itself to collapse — that society which nourishes him with its flesh, and out of whose body he derives his parasitic existence. We see here the same fool, who saws off the branch on which he is sitting, and who kills the hen, which lays golden eggs for him. Accustomed to the constant provision of new hunting-grounds and fresh objects of usury by an inexhaustible Nature, and by the indefatigable industry of the nations, he is unable to conceive that the world-dominion, for which he is striving, would mean simultaneous world-ruin. The vain nature of his understanding, which does not look beyond to-day and to-morrow, operates destructively and suicidally in all directions.
Hence only powers can work constructively, which stand in organic relation to Nature; and the profoundest essence of natural things can only be comprehended by means of sensibility. The intellect is not sufficient to sound the well of life. The Jewish mode of thinking is inorganic, and is, for that reason, incapable of creative operation.
[Page 210] For that reason also, the Hebrews are incapable of forming a state of their own, for, in the last analysis, the state is of an organic nature, and endures only through organic laws. Society, in a well ordered state, requires organisation of the classes, a rational constructive policy, and internal connections — i.e., sound relations and ties with one another, which enable the concern, taken as a whole, to prosper. The Hebrew has no understanding for all this. He regards individual men merely as objects to be turned to profitable account, and is incapable of comprehending why these same men are desirous of retaining a scale in their social order, why they band together in organic associations the better t
o fulfil their duties as men and citizens. All this appears to him as foolish prejudice and antiquated institution; he would like to alter, loosen and dissolve everything in order to find an easy and convenient field for his profiteering operations. He is, therefore, hostile to all organic social creations: the guilds, the trade associations, the nobility, the army. These are like a thorn in his eye. He would like to disrupt and atomise them, and to isolate the members. He is guided in this policy by the calculation that he can deal better with the individual, and can more easily make him subservient to his aims than he can the compact whole. He calls this disruption of all organic structures, “bringing freedom”, “liberalising”; he knows how to delude men into believing that their organic connection is a barrier, which must be broken down, a fetter, which must be shaken off, in order to attain to true liberty — the liberty of the wolf amongst sheep.
Sombart remarks very appositely: “ The Jew is very sharp-sighted, but he does not see much. In the first place, he does not perceive that his environment is a living one. And, for this reason, feeling for what is singular in life, for its entirety, for its indivisibility, for what has organically developed, for what has grown naturally, is lost to him. Consequently all conditions and relations of dependence, which are built up on personality, such as personal rule, personal service, personal sacrifice, are foreign to him. The Jew, from his very disposition, is averse to all chivalry, to all sentiment, to all nobility, to all feudalism, to all patriarchism.
[Page 211] He is also incapable of understanding a community, which is built up on the above relations. Everything to do with class or rank, everything incorporative is hateful to him. He is political individualist.” *
And yet he is individualist only in a restricted sense; he is himself the slave of a rigid principle, of a law of compulsion, which, in the place of a natural tie, binds him together with his kind. The Jew himself possesses no individuality; he is invariably only the more or less successful repetition of a Jewish pattern. The Jews, amongst themselves, resemble one another in their national characteristics to a much greater extent than the men of other nations; and the extraordinary limitation of their disposition is rooted in the above fact. The Hebrew is, as it were, an automaton, trained and adjusted to carry on definite social activities; he fulfils exactly the same functions in all grades of society. For this reason a Hebrew is easily replaced by another Hebrew, whilst the same cannot be said of men of other nations.
The Hebrew is now desirous of transferring this systematic constitution of the Jewish league, i.e., this mechanical placing together of elements all equal in value and devoid of individuality, to other social creations, and even to the state. He is unable to understand why organised society is on the defensive against this subjugation to one pattern, and he denounces this opposition to his endeavours to break up and dissolve, as “Reaction”. In reality, this reaction is the natural and healthy resistance, which an organised society evolves against the efforts of the Hebrew to introduce decay and dissolution; in other words, it is the instinct of self-preservation.
The actual and harmful reactionary is, on the contrary, the Hebrew, who checks the natural growth of national life by his plan to reduce all to one emasculated pattern, and who desires to force this life back into its primordial state — the struggle for existence of all against all. It is he who hinders natural development, and thereby disturbs the even progress of life.
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* We are justified in supposing that this train of thought on the part of Sombart was set in motion by the “Hammer”, which, ever since it was founded in 1902, has often thrown light upon the “Jew Question” from this point of view.
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[Page 212] This fact, to our unspeakable misfortune, is only recognised by a few. The enormous liberation of energy, caused by the speculative principle of the Hebrew, and the enormous development of the external life caused thereby, deceive everyone as to the true state of affairs. The glitter and gleam all around us appear to many as the veritable light of life, but it is, in reality, only the phosphorescence of corruption. The Hebrew, by inciting to that wild struggle for existence, has forced into action the last reserves of national energy, and thus the national life itself seems to have experienced a tremendous stimulus; and yet it is only the waging of a desperate battle for mutual destruction, which must end suddenly from exhaustion.
But what does the Hebrew care about that! As a man who depends upon the momentary fluctuation of affairs, he derives his chief benefit from such conditions, and that is enough for him. Sombart says:
“ The Jew brings everything into relation with his “I”. The questions, which have first claim on his interest, are: Why? To what purpose? Where do I come in? What do I get out of it? His real living interest is the interest for success. It is unJewish to regard an activity as an end in itself, to live life itself for its own sake, without purpose in accordance with destiny; it is unJewish to rejoice harmlessly in Nature. (Sombart page 230-31).”
And just as he is himself, so has the Jew devised his God. The Jewish God stands outside the pale of Nature as a despot, who alters the course of affairs arbitrarily to suit his purposes. He allows all kinds of miracles to take place, which are contrary to Nature, and arranges everything so that it turns out to the advantage of his favourite people.
3. Apparent Jewish Superiority.
When Sombart expresses the opinion: “ At the present day, the Jew of Western Europe no longer desires to retain his faith and his national peculiarity; he wishes, on the contrary, so far as national consciousness has not again been aroused in him, to allow his peculiarity to disappear as completely and quickly as possible, and to adopt the culture of the nations who act as host to him,”
we must ask circumspectly: where are the proofs of this suggested effort? Who authorises Sombart to assure us of this? For our part, we perceive and know just the contrary.
[Page 213] It may well be conceded that, at the present day, the Hebrew is occasionally uncomfortable under his skin, since observant men have begun to make a practice of observing his activity, and are now revealing his tricks; it may well be the case at the present day that many a Jew no longer wishes to be recognised as such, and would prefer to change his appearance; the fact remains that it is simply impossible for the Jew to be absorbed by other nations, even if it were his wish. His distinctive nature is far too different from that of other nations, and moreover his self-esteem is too great. He has no intention of resigning his privilege of being regarded as a “chosen people.” But the aversion also of the other nations, so far as a healthy instinct is still alive in them, will protest against any such fusion. Certain sections of society, which have already completed their resemblance to the Hebrew, represent types of degeneration doomed, in any case, to disappear. It is only the degenerate who shows inclination towards the Hebrew; the former, by the loss of the finer instincts, has sacrificed his real manhood, has been discarded by nature, and sinks into that swamp of corruption represented by Hebrewdom — the dregs of culture.
The following judgement concerning the Jews testifies that Sombart, in his scientific positiveness, is gradually working round to our perception, even though it may be in a circuitous manner:
“ His intuition has not grown out of his innermost being, but is a product of the head. His stand-point is not the level earth, but an artificial building in the air. He is not organic original but mechanic-rational. He is not rooted in the mother-soil of sensibility — instinct.”
All this is covered by the perception expressed a long time ago by the Anti-Semites. Only, at the same time, it must not be forgotten: the Jewish entity, and its inward perception of life, is certainly an artificial creation of the intellect; but, in the course of thousands of years, it has become so ingrained in the Hebrew — has entered so thoroughly into his flesh and blood, that he is actually less capable of changing his skin than the representative of any other race.
[Page 214] He
certainly possesses adroitness enough to adopt superficially the manners, and even the mode of thinking, of others; he has sufficient powers of dissimulation and of acting, to make us believe that he is a being very similar to ourselves; but, in the end, the unadulterated Hebrew always comes to the surface again.
This pliancy, this outward adaptability, this talent for representing one’s self as something different to what one really is, might appear admirable to us, if it was not at the same time so dangerous. All these Hebrew talents are only means to mislead us, and to make us subservient to the designs of the stranger. It is correct that the Hebrew, regarded from a purely intellectual point of view, appears to display great superiority in a number of respects, the questionable value and unquestionable danger of which are only recognised by the instinct of fine-feeling. We may admire the Jew from an intellectual point of view, but our feelings reject him.
Sombart speaks appositely concerning the “moral mobility” of the Jew; in the pursuit of his purposes:
“no irksome restrictions of a moral or aesthetic nature are allowed to intervene.”
His morality is lax and elastic; he is ready, at any minute, to proclaim that odd is even if he sees any advantage in doing so. “ In this respect his poorly developed sense for what one can call personal dignity, is of assistance to him. It is very little exertion to him to deny what he has himself said, when it is a question of accomplishing his purpose.”
The Riddle of the Jew's Success Page 24