Page:Lenin - The Collapse of the Second International - tr. Sirnis (1919).pdf/50

 Of course, the force of habit, the routine of a comparatively “peaceful” and slow evolution, nationalist prejudices, the fear of abrupt breaks and disbelief in them—all these played a secondary rôle in strengthening opportunism and in leading "Socialists" to effect a hypocritical and cowardly reconciliation with it, presumably only for a time and only for special reasons and on special occasions. The war changed the shape of opportunism which had been reared in the course of decades, raised it to a high rung and increased the number and variety of its shades. The war brought fresh adherents to the ranks of opportunism, and added to their arguments heaps of fresh sophisms; it caused many new streams and rivulets to flow into its main current, so to speak, but the main current itself has not disappeared; on the contrary, it is more apparent than ever.

Socialist Jingoism is opportunism which has become so mature that the existence of this continued bourgeois abcess within the Socialist parties has become impossible.

Men who do not wish to see the close and indissoluble bond which exists between Socialist Jingoism and opportunism, clutch at individual cases and incidents, saying, for instance, that such and such an opportunist has become an internationalist, or that such and such a radical Socialist has become a Jingo. But this is not a serious argument on the question of the development of currents, (1) The economic basis of Jingoism and opportunism in the Labour movement is one and the same—it is the union of the upper strata