Page:Lenin - The State and Revolution.pdf/64

 But Engels does not make the mistake made, for instance, by some Marxists on the question of the right of a nation to self-determination, viz., that, forsooth, this is impossible under Capitalism and will be unnecessary under Socialism. Such an apparently clever, but really incorrect statement might be repeated of any democratic institution, amongst others, of the payment of moderate salaries to officials; for during the lifetime of capitalism a completely consistent democracy is impossible whilst under Socialism all political democracy disappears.

This is a sophism, comparable to the old humorous problem of at what point a man will become bald if he loses his hair one by one.

The development of democracy to its logical conclusion, the investigation of the forms of this development, testing them by practice, and so forth,—all this is part of the objects in the struggle for the Social Democracy. Taken separately, no kind of democracy will yield Socialism. But in actual life Democracy will never be "taken by itself"; it will be "taken together," with other things, it will exert its influence also on economics, helping in its reorganization; it will be subjected, in its turn, to the influence of economic development, and so on. That is the dialectical process of actual living History. Engels continues:

"This disruption (Sprengung) of the old machinery of government and its replacement by a new and really democratic one, is described in detail in the third part of the Civil War. But it was necessary to dwell once more in brief on this point, that is, on one or two features of this replacement, because in Germany the superstitious faith in the State has left the realm of philosophy and passed into the general consciousness of the bourgeoisie and even of many workers. According to the teaching of the philosophers, the State is the "realization of Idea," or translated into theological language, the "Kingdom of God on earth"; the State is the field in which is, or should be realized, eternal Truth and Justice. And from this follows a superstitious reverence which takes root the more readily as people are accustomed, from their childhood, to think that the affairs and interests common to the whole of Society cannot be carried out and protected in any other way than in the one in existence—that is, by means of the State and its well-paid officials. People think they are making an extraordinary big step forward if they rid themselves of faith in a hereditary Monarchy and become partisans of a democratic republic. Whereas, in reality, the State is nothing