Karl Marx's
The Holy Family
Chapter I
"CRITICAL CRITICISM
IN THE FORM OF A MASTER-BOOKBINDER",
OR CRITICAL CRITICISM AS HERR REICHARDT
Critical Criticism, however superior to the mass it deems itself, nevertheless
has boundless pity for the mass. And Criticism so loved the mass that it sent
its only begotten son, that all who believe in him may not be lost, but may have
Critical life. Criticism was made mass and dwells amongst us and we behold its
glory, the glory of the only begotten son of the father. In other words,
Criticism becomes socialistic and speaks of "works on pauperism". It does not
regard it as a crime to be equal to God but alienates itself and takes the form
of a master-bookbinder and humiliates itself to the extent of nonsense -- indeed
even to Critical nonsense in foreign languages. It, whose heavenly virginal
purity shrinks from contact with the sinful leprous mass, overcomes itself to
the extent of taking notice of "Bodz" and "all original writers on pauperism"
and "has for years been following this evil of the present time step by step";
it scorns writing for experts, it writes for the general public, banning all
outlandish expressions, all "Latin intricacies, all professional jargon". It
bans all that from the works of others, for it would be too much to expect
Criticism itself to submit to "this administrative regulation". And yet it does
do so partly, renouncing with admirable ease, if not the words themselves, at
least their content. And who will reproach it for using "the huge heap of
unintelligible foreign words'' when it repeatedly proves that it does not
understand those words itself, Here are a few samples:
"That is why the institutions of mendicancy inspire them with horror."
"A doctrine of responsibility in which every motion of human thought becomes an
image of Lot's wife."
"On the keystone of this really profound edifice of art."
"This is the main content of Stein's political testament, which the great
statesman handed in even before retiring from the active service of the
government and from all its transactions."
"This people had not yet any dimensions at that time for such extensive
freedom."
"By palavering with fair assurance at the end of his publicistic work that only
confidence was still lacking."
"To the manly state-elevating understanding, rising above routine and
pusillanimous fear, reared on history and nurtured with a live perception of
foreign public state system."
"The education of general national welfare."
"Freedom lay dead in the breast of the Prussian national mission under the
control of the authorities."
"Popular-organic publicism."
"The people to whom even Herr Brüggemann delivers the baptismal certificate of
its adulthood."
"A rather glaring contradiction to the other certitudes which are expressed in
the work on the professional capacities of the people."
"Wretched self-interest quickly dispels all the chimeras of the national will."
"Passion for great gains, etc., was the spirit that pervaded the whole of the
Restoration period and which, with a fair quantity of indifference, adhered to
the new age."
"The obscure idea of political significance to be found in the Prussian
countrymanship nationality rests on the memory of a great history."
"The antipathy disappeared and turned into a completely exalted condition."
"In this wonderful transition each one in his own way still put forward in
prospect his own special wish."
"A catechism with unctuous Solomon-like language the words of which rise gently
like a dove -- chirp! chirp! -- to the regions of pathos and thunder-like
aspects."
"All the dilettantism of thirty-five years of neglect."
"The too sharp thundering at the citizens by one of their former town
authorities could have been suffered with the calmness of mind characteristic of
our representatives if Benda's view of the Town Charter of 1808 had not laboured
under a Mussulman conceptual affliction with regard to the essence and the
application of the Town Charter."
In Herr Reichardt, the audacity of style always corresponds to the audacity of
the thought. He makes transitions like the following:
"Herr Brüggemann ... 1843 ... state theory ... every upright man ... the great
modesty of our Socialists ... natural marvels ... demands to be made on Germany
... supernatural marvels ... Abraham ... Philadelphia ... manna ... baker ...
but since we are speaking of marvels, Napoleon brought," etc.
After these samples it is no wonder that Critical Criticism gives us a further
"explanation" of a sentence which it itself describes as expressed in "popular
language", for it "arms its eyes with organic power to penetrate chaos". And
here it must be said that then even "popular language" cannot remain
unintelligible to Critical Criticism. It is aware that the way of the writer
must necessarily be a crooked one if the individual who sets out on it is not
strong enough to make it straight; and therefore it naturally ascribes
"mathematical operations" to the author.
It is self-evident -- and history, which proves everything which is
self-evident, also proves this -- that Criticism does not become mass in order
to remain mass, but in order to redeem the mass from its mass-like mass nature,
that is, to raise the popular language of the mass to the critical language of
Critical Criticism. It is the lowest grade of degradation for Criticism to learn
the popular language of the mass and transfigure that vulgar jargon into the
high-flown intricacy of the dialectics of Critical Criticism.
Chapter II
"CRITICAL CRITICISM" AS A "MILL-OWNER",
OR CRITICAL CRITICISM AS HERR JULES FAUCHER
After rendering most substantial services to self-consciousness by humiliating
itself to the extent of nonsense in foreign languages, and thereby at the same
time freeing the world from pauperism, Criticism still further humiliates itself
to the extent of nonsense in practice and history. It masters "English questions
of the day" and gives us a genuinely critical outline of the history of English
industry.
Criticism, which is self-sufficient, and complete and perfect in itself,
naturally cannot recognise history as it really took place, for that would mean
recognising the base mass in all its mass-like mass nature, whereas the problem
is precisely to redeem the mass from its mass nature. History is therefore freed
from its mass nature, and Criticism, which has a free attitude to its object,
calls to history: "You ought to have happened in such and such a way!" All the
laws of Criticism have retrospective force: prior to the decrees of Criticism,
history behaved quite differently from how it did after them. Hence mass-type
history, so-called real history, deviates considerably from Critical history, as
it takes place in Heft VII of the Literatur-Zeitung from page 4 onwards.
In mass-type history there were no factory towns before there were factories;
but in Critical history, in which, as already in Hegel, the son begets his
father, Manchester, Bolton and Preston were flourishing factory towns before
factories were even thought of. In real history the cotton industry was founded
mainly on Hargreaves' jenny and Arkwright's throstle, Crompton's mule being only
an improvement of the spinning jenny according to the new principle discovered
by Arkwright. But Critical history knows how to make distinctions: it scorns the
one-sidedness of the jenny and the throstle, and gives the crown to the mule as
the speculative identity of the extremes. In reality, the invention of the
throstle and the mule immediately made possible the application of water-power
to those machines, but Critical Criticism sorts out the principles lumped
together by crude history and makes this application come only later, as
something quite special. In reality the invention of the steam-engine preceded
all the above-mentioned inventions; according to Criticism it is the crown of
them all and the last.
In reality the business ties between Liverpool and Manchester in their present
scope were the result of the export of English goods; according to Criticism
they are the cause of the export and both are the result of the proximity of the
two towns. In reality nearly all goods from Manchester go to the Continent via
Hull,according to Criticism via Liverpool.
In reality all grades of wages exist in English factories, from Is 6d to 40s and
more; but according to Criticism only one rate is paid -- 11s. In reality the
machine replaces manual labour; according to Criticism it replaces thought. In
reality the association of workers for wage rises is allowed in England, but
according to Criticism it is prohibited, for when the Mass wants to allow itself
anything it must first ask Criticism. In reality factory labour is extremely
tiring and gives rise to specific diseases -- there are even special medical
works on them; according to Criticism "excessive exertion cannot be a hindrance
to work, for the power is provided by the machine". In reality the machine is a
machine; according to Criticism it has a will, for as it does not rest, neither
can the worker, and he is subordinated to ...
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