Page:Lenin - The Collapse of the Second International - tr. Sirnis (1919).pdf/37

 be an "ultra-imperialism" and again Free Trade? Thus argues Kautsky, the priest, who consoles the oppressed masses by depicting for their benefit the blessing of this "ulta-imperialism," though he is not ready to say whether such a thing is "feasible" or not! Feuerbach was right when he said, in reply to those who defend religion by the argument that it is soothing to a man that such comfort has a reactionary significance, for he who comforts a slave, instead of inciting him to rebel against slavery, lends a helping hand to the slave-owners.

Every class of oppressor requires two social functions to defend his domination—the function of a hangman and that of a priest. The hangman must crush the protests and the revolts of the oppressed; the priest must picture to them perspectives (it is especially convenient to do this without guaranteeing that such perspectives can be realised) of their misery being alleviated and their sacrifices lessened, while leaving class domination intact. Thus are the oppressed reconciled to this domination and led away from taking revolutionary action. Their revolutionary frame of mind is impaired and their revolutionary resoluteness shaken. Kautsky has turned Marxism into a most loathsome and stupid counter-revolutionary theory, and into the dirty sermonising of a priest.

In 1909, in his pamphlet: "The Path to Power," Kautsky recognised that under capitalism contradictions were becoming more acute, a fact which is indisputable and which has been refuted by no one. He also recognised that an era of wars and revolutions and a new "revolutionary period" were drawing nigh. And, again, he declares that no revolution can take place "prematurely," and calls it "downright treason to our cause" if we refuse to reckon with the possibility of victory during an insurrection, though before the struggle has commenced we may realise that defeat is in store for us.

The war came, and these contradictions did indeed become more acute. The misery of the masses increased enormously. The war is dragging on, and its scope is extending, but Kautsky writes pamphlet after pamphlet. Submissively following the dictates of the censor, he quotes no data concerning the pillage of lands and the horrors of war; he mentions neither the scandalous profits of war contractors, nor the high cost of living, nor the military enslavement of the mobilised