LUKACS ISTORIE SI CONSTIINTA DE CLASA

The tragic dialectics of the bourgeoisie can be seen in the fact that it is not only desirable
but essential for it to clarify its on class interests on e!ery "articular issue hile at the
sa#e ti#e such a clear awareness becomes fatal when it is extended to the question of
the totality.
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()))reality disintegrates into a #ultitude of irrational facts and o!er these a netor* of
"urely for#al (las+ e#"tied of content is then cast+ ,")-''.
(theory and "ractice are brought into irreconcilable o""osition to each other+ ,&/.
In e!ery as"ect of daily life in hich the indi!idual or*er i#agines hi#self to be the
sub0ect of his on life he finds this to be an illusion that is destroyed by the i##ediacy of
his e1istence2 And by selling this3 his only co##odity3 he integrates it ,and hi#self4 for
his co##odity is inse"arable fro# his "hysical e1istence. into a specialised process that
has been rationalised and mechanised, a "rocess that he disco!ers already e1isting3
co#"lete and able to function ithout hi# and in hich he is no #ore than a ci"her
reduced to an abstract 5uantity3 a #echanised and rationali6ed tool),-&'7-&&.
The "roble# of commodities #ust not be considered in isolation or e!en regarded as the
central "roble# in econo#ics3 but as the central, structural problem of capitalist
society in all its aspects) Only in this case can the structure of co##odity7relations be
#ade to yield a #odel of all the ob0ecti!e for#s of bourgeois society together ith all the
sub0ecti!e for#s corres"onding to the#) 89
Des"re relatiile sociale care "ri#esc (:"hanto# ob0ecti!ity;3 an autono#y that see#s so
strictly rational and all7e#bracing as to conceal e!ery trace of its funda#ental nature 89
Neither ob0ecti!ely nor in his relation to his or* does #an a""ear as the authentic
#aster of the "rocess< on the contrary3 he is a #echanical "art incor"orated into a
#echanical syste#) %e finds it already "re7e1isting and self7sufficient3 it functions
inde"endently of hi# and he has to confor# to its las hether he li*es it or not)
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(The "ersonality can do no #ore than loo* on hel"lessly hile its on e1istence is
reduced to an isolated "article fed into an alien syste#+ $%CC =?>
The ato#isation of the indi!idual is3 then3 only the refle1 in consciousness of the fact that
the (natural las+ of ca"italist "roduction ha!e been e1tended to co!er e!ery
#anifestation of life in society< that
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for the first ti#e in history
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the hole of society is sub0ected3 or tends to be sub0ected3 to a unified economic
process, and that the fate of every member of society is determined by unified laws.
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Bureaucracy implies the adjustment of one+s ay of life3 #ode of or* and hence of
consciousness3 to the general socio7econo#ic "re#ises of the ca"italist
econo#y3 si#ilar to that hich e ha!e obser!ed in the case of the or*er in "articular
business concerns) The for#al standardisation of 0ustice3 the state3 the ci!il ser!ice etc)3
signifies ob0ecti!ely and factually a co#"arable reduction of all social functions to their
ele#ents3 a comparable search for the rational formal laws of these carefully
segregated "artial syste#s =8
As the bourgeoisie has the intellectual3organisational and e!ery other ad!antage3
thesu"eriority o the "roletariat #ust lie e1clusi!ely inits ability to see society ro# the
centre3 as a coherent whole)
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In Bar1+s ords3 for the utopians (consciousness a""roaches society fro# another orld
and leads it fro# the false "ath it has folloed bac* to the right one+ $%CC C8>
The or*ing class ought not to e1aggerate to the#sel!es the ulti#ate conse5uences of
these everyday struggles) They ought not to forget they are fighting ith effects3 but not
ith the causes of those effects< 2that they are a""lying "alliati!es3 not curing the
#alady) They ought therefore3 not to be exclusively absorbed in these unavoidable
guerrilla fights2instead of si#ultaneously trying to change it3 instead of using their
organised forces as a le!er for the final e#anci"ation of the or*ing class3 that is to say3
the ulti#ate abolition of the ages syste#)
Do not let us forget either that every attempt to rescue the ultimate goal or the
essence of the proletariat from every impure contact with capitalist existence leads
ultimately to the same remoteness from reality3 fro# ("ractical3 critical acti!ity+ and to
the sa#e rela"se into the uto"ian dualis# of sub0ect and ob0ect3 of theory and "ractice to
hich Re!isionis# has succu#bed) Te "ractical danger of e!ery such dualis# shos
itself in the loss of any directi!e for action) AA
In feudal society #an could not yet see hi#self as a social being because his social
relations ere still #ainly natural) Society as far too unorganised and had far too little
control o!er the totality of relations beteen #en for it to a""ear to consciousness as the
reality of #an)
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It as necessary for the "roletariat to be born for social reality to beco#e fully conscious)
The reason for this is that the disco!ery of the class7outloo* of the "roletariat "ro!ided a
!antage7"oint fro# hich to sur!ey the hole of society2 because for the "roletariat
total *noledge of its class situation is a !ital necessity3 a #atter of life and death<
because its class situation beco#es co#"rehensible only if the hole of society can be
understood)
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