In the nineteenth century the question of the true meaning
of socialism was a live issue among collectivists of all stripes.
Kant, Herder, Fichte, and Hegel were dominant mainstream
voices. Yet clearly none was a conservative. Conservatives of
the nineteenth century favored returning to or re-invigorating
feudal institutions. Our four figures, by contrast, all favored
significant reforms and a jettisoning of traditional feudalism.
Yet none was an Enlightenment liberal. Enlightenment liberals
were individualistic, the center of their political and economic
gravity tending toward limited governments and free
markets. Our four figures, by contrast, voiced themes of strong
collectivism in ethics and politics with calls for individuals to
sacrifice for society, whether society was defined as the species,
the ethnic group, or the state. We find in the case of Kant a call
for individuals to be willing to do their duty to sacrifice for the
species; we find in the case of Herder a call for individuals to
find their identity in their ethnicity; we find in the case of Fichte
a call for education to be process of total socialization; and we
find in the case of Hegel a call for total government to which
the individual will surrender everything. For a school of thinkers
who advocated total socialization, “socialism” seemed an
appropriate label. Accordingly, many thinkers on the collectivist
Right thought of themselves as true socialists.
Yet “socialism” was also being used as the label for Left
collectivists, so there was a lively debate between the Left and
many on the Right over who had the most right to call themselves
“socialist.”
The debate was not merely semantics. Both Right and
Left were anti-individualist; both advocated government
management of the most important aspects of society; both
divided human society into groups which they took to be fundamental
to individuals’ identities; both pitted those groups
against each other in inescapable conflict; both favored war
and violent revolution to bring about the ideal society. And
both sides hated the liberals.