Unique and Universal - Some Historical Reflections

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the unique and the universal by J. L.Talmon A MONG THE MOST baffiing phenomena of .fi modern times has been the tension between

those developments which lead to universal uniformity on the one hand, and to the self­ assertion of racial and national peculiarity on the other. Universal religions, abstract ideolo­ gies, economic, scientific and technological developments, universally shared expectations from life-all these represent the strain be­ tween the conscious resolve to plan change and the irrational vital forces and traditions which hinder it. This may be seen as a quest for identity in modern man, which stems from the conflict between anxiety to he true to himself and the desire to accept universal principles of existence. Such contemporary developments have in­ spired Dr. Talmon's probe into the perennial conflict between the unique and the universal. His opening essay explores the interaction between socialism and nationalism from the eighteenth century to the Russo-Chinese con­ flict of today. "Mission and Testimony" shows the ambivalence in modern German history between modes of thought derived from the common philosophy of natural law and, on the other hand, historicist theories. It explores the German fascination with such theories on the

uniqueness of every collective individuality as a law unto itself, and how the paradox was overcome by turning exclusive racialism into a kind of universal message, with anti-Semitism as its motive force. Some essays are inspired by and concerned with Dr. Talmon's experience as a Jew who has freely chosen citizenship in the new State of Israel. Yet at the same time he feels himself identified with Western humanist civilization. He writes, of course, under the shattering im­ pact of the frightful events which his generation lived through, which swept the Jews into the heart of the raging vortex and made it a testi­ mony to the apocalyptic possibilities inherent in the tension between universal and unique. The essays of Jewish interest are intended neither as an apotheosis nor as an apologia; they are stimulated by an acute need to sort out the well-nigh insoluble dilemmas of Jewish existence for the unique Jewish situation is ultimately a sample of the great human condition. J. L. Talmon was born in Poland in 1916 and came to London in 1940, where he worked for three years at the London School of Eco­ nomics. He was Secretary for Foreign Affairs of the Palestine Committee until 194 7, when he accepted a Research Fellowship from the Israel Zangwitt Fund. He is now Professor of Modern History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His previous books are The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy and Politi­ cal Messianism.

GEORGE BRAZILLER JACKET DESIGN BY ARNOLD SKOL::--JCK

One P ark Avenue, New York 16

By the same author THE ORIGINS OF TOTALITARIAN D�OCRACY POLITICAL MESSIANISM: THE ROMANTIC PHASE

THE UNIRUE AND THE UNIVERSAL Some Historical Reflections

J. L.

TALMON

GEORGE BRAZILLER NEW YORK

COPYRIGHT

@ 1965 by J• L. , TALMON .

First published in England 1965 by Martin Secker and Warburg Limited Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 65-19565 Published 1966 by arrangement with Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of the contents of this book may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher: George Braziller, Inc., One Park Avenue, New York 16, N.Y. First printing

Printed in Great Britain

To my late teachers RICHARD KOEBNER LEWIS NAMIER R. H. TAWNEY

CONTENTS Preface 1. The National Brotherhood and the international confraternity. Nationalism and Socialism 2. Uniqueness and Universality of Jewish History. A mid-century revaluation 3. Herder and the German Mind 4. Mission and Testimony. The universal significance of modern anti-semitism

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64 91 1 1g

5. Right and Force

165

6. The Age of Revolution

213

7. The Irresistible Force and the Immovable Wall

231

8. Experiment in Utopia. The lesson of the Israeli Kibbutz 268 g. Who is a Jew? 1o.

Lewis Namier

Index

312

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PREFACE

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contained in this collection represent an effort to sort out some of the elements of a basic dilemma of modern times. In that sense they are variations on a single theme. They do not claim to offer solutions or to preach a doctrine, for the human condition is not an intellectual prob­ lem waiting for a hidden key but an existential situation, the history of which is also its structure and its logic-like the psychologist's case. If laying bare concatenation and association is not a solution nor a cure, it does help us never­ theless to live with our troubles, and adds significance and depth to our lives, even if it does not make us any happier. These essays are concerned with the quest for identity in a world where on the one hand rationalist modes of thought, technological developments and universal ideologies seem to be wiping out all racial and national differences, but on the other hand nationalist self-assertion is growing more and more intense. The tendency towards oneness, prompted by rational resolve; and the recalcitrance of facts of nature and history asserting their uniqueness: which is more authentic and more potent. The two contending forces have given rise to extreme mass movements of fanatical conviction, Communism and Nazi-Fascism. Some attempt is made in the following pages to examine their interaction. The present probe has been inspired by the author's existential situation as a Jew who has lived through the traumatic experiences of Nazism and Communism, chose Israel as his home, and who at the same time feels deeply committed to the Western tradition. The Jew is unable ( and unwilling) to shake off his unique­ ness, but he can live only in a world based on universal values. In this he is unique, but at a deeper level his problem is really a parable on the human condition in general. In recent times the Jews became witness and whipping-block 9 HE ESSAYS

THE UNIQ.UE AND THE UNIVERSAL

to the furies released by the unresolved conflict. A part of those who survived the hurricane determined to cut the knot and to be simply themselves. They are now discovering that the problem of identity is staring at them anew, albeit in a different guise. The collection is thus divided into "general" and "Jewish" essays. Most of them have previously appeared in journals, in the Hebrew or English language, or in both simultane­ ously, and one ("Experiment in Utopia") in Swedish ("Dagens Nyheter") , and I wish to thank Haaretz and Amoth, Commentary and Encounter for permission to reprint the pieces which first appeared in their columns. Several essays grew out of public lectures given at different times: "Uniqueness and Universality of Jewish History" was delivered as the inaugural Hillel Foundation lecture at University College, London, 1956, "The National Brotherhood and the inter­ national confraternity" is a much extended version of a lecture given in 1959 at All Souls College, Oxford, and "Herder and the German Mind" was read in the series of lectures on the History of Thought arranged by St. Catherine's College, Oxford for the Academic year 1963-4. The author is conscious of some repetitions but they appeared inevitable. The reader is asked for indulgence. Thanks are due and wholeheartedly given to good friends who helped to prepare this collection for publication: Miss Bernadette Folliot, Dr. Jonathan Frankel, Mrs. Efrath B. Kleinhaus, and Dr. Renee Winegarten.

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I The National Broth erh ood and the international confraternity

Nationalism and Socialism

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HE TRIBE may be considered as a simple datum, one of the phenomena of nature. The nation is a product of both nature and history. Nationali�m is E:... f!am� of mind, a type of awareness. At the root of every nation will be found some tribal-racial nucleus, and almost every nation came into being through a fusion of tribes. Sometimes one tribe sub­ dued and assimilated its neighbours. On occasion tribes united of their own free will. There have been many in­ stances of nations emerging from matrimonial-territorial arrangements between ruling houses, as well as cases of territorial-political units being split into separate national­ ities by dynastic bargains. It was large-scale conquests that led to the unification, for example, of the Russian people. The uninterrupted rule of a successful dynasty fused diverse tribes and distant regions into the single entity that is France. Though the Dutch and the Flemish spoke the same language, religious reasons induced the Belgians to prefer the Spanish rule, while the Dutch Calvinists were fired by a relentless resolve to secure independence for their convictions and way of life. Despite the fact that the peasants and burghers of Switzerland spoke three different languages, a common love of freedom and the anxiety to make it safe prevented their falling apart after they had won their victory over the com­ mon foe. Historic memories and linguistic differences served as the media of national self-identification in the case of the II

THE UNIQ.UE AND THE UNIVERSAL

various Slav racial groups, which were intermingled in the same territory. Geographical causes an,d a sense of partner­ ship in a new venture of universal significance gave vitality to American nationhood. In brief, the factor that lends cohesion to a nation varies from case to case. To become effective it must, however, have a long and relatively un­ broken span of time to exercise its influence. One might indeed, call time the Father of all nations.

I It is when, at a given moment in time, members of a nation wake up to the fact of their forming an all-embracing, and at the same time exclusive entity, a partnership in all things, more real than, for example, a religious faith or social class-that we may speak of the emergence of nationalism. Such an awareness developed in Western Europe after the various tribes and provinces had been successfully fused into entities by centralised states. Here being, to use the Marxist vocabulary, created consciousness. But the rise and growth of consciousness became in turn a determining factor in shaping the mode of being. In Eastern Europe nations were born as soon as their members adopted the nationalist creed, or more precisely, became conscious of being deprived of what others possessed -autonomous statehood. In the West union may have been imposed by force from above, and awareness of differences may persist, even after the unitary state has been fully consolidated; yet the lag of time between the early events and the rise of modern nationalism has been long enough to enable the State to achieve the full integration of the various fissiparous elements, and for a community of interests and sentiments to become strong enough. to withstand any centrifugal tendencies. The Welsh have for hundreds of years made no attempt to break away from England, nor have the Proven