Sorelianism
Sorelianism is advocacy for or support of the ideology and thinking of
With the seeming failure of syndicalism, he announced his abandonment of
Concepts
General strike and syndicalist society
Although starting out as a Marxist, Sorel eventually rejected what he considered to be the
Sorel had problems with Proudhon, and he seems to have sought to detach it of its idealism, as Proudhon had detached justice from power play, that is, from class relations.[10] Otherwise only minimally influencing him, in admiration of Friedrich Nietzsche, Sorel held that an imperialist working class would establish a new aristocracy, which he said was "organizing relations among men for the benefit of its sovereignty" and as a sole source of law.[11][8] He also believed that proletarian violence would strengthen the bourgeoisie,[12] and focused on the moral regeneration of society and the rescue of civilization rather than only the working class, considering socialism a means for revolutionary transformation of society rather than a movement of the proletariat or a movement in itself.[13]
Individualism and myth
Sorel believed there to be a close relation between conflict and freedom.
Class conflict and class rejuvenation
Sorel advocated the separation of groups in society, including support of the syndicalist model of a society where the proletarian workers would be autonomous and separate from bourgeois industrialists.[8] Sorel refused the class collaboration, or the idea of a negotiation between the classes during the period of struggle between the proletariat against the bourgeoisie.[8] At the same time, he believed that it was the proletariat's task to awaken the bourgeoisie from intellectual stupor to recover its morality and what he said was its "productive energy", as well as the "feeling of its own dignity" that Sorel stated to have been lost because of democratic ideals.[3] Hence, Sorel believed that class conflict would in the end result in the rejuvenation of both the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.[3]
Revision of Marxism, claims of "decomposition of Marxism" by Blanquism, and positivism
Sorel focused on the ethical dimension of Marxism, arguing for its utility for historical analysis and a means for transforming society.
Sorel stated that although Marx had initially denounced Proudhon while supporting
Sorelianism and French integral nationalism
Interest in Sorelian thought arose in the French
During his association with French nationalism, Sorel joined Valois in the Cercle Proudhon, an organization that Valois declared to provide "a common platform for nationalists and leftist antidemocrats".[22] The organization recognized both Proudhon and Sorel as two great thinkers who had "prepared the meeting of the two French traditions that had opposed each other throughout the nineteenth century: nationalism and authentic socialism uncorrupted by democracy, represented by syndicalism".[22] Cercle Proudhon announced that it supported the replacement of bourgeois ideology and democratic socialism with a new ethic of an alliance of nationalism with syndicalism, as they claimed those "two synthesizing and convergent movements, one at the extreme right and the other at the extreme left, that have begun the siege and assault on democracy."[22] Cercle Proudhon supported the replacement of the liberal order with a new world that was "virile, heroic, pessimistic, and puritanical—based on the sense of duty and sacrifice: a world where the mentality of warriors and monks would prevail".[23] The society would be dominated by a powerful avant-garde proletarian elite that would serve as an aristocracy of producers, and allied with intellectual youth dedicated to action against the decadent bourgeoisie.[24]
Sorelianism and Italian fascism
Upon Sorel's death, an article in the
Notable adherents
Aside from Sorel himself, there were a number of adherents of Sorelianism in the early 20th century. Sorel was a mentor to
Mussolini, when he was a member of the
See also
References
Citations
- ^ a b c d e Sternhell et al., p. 78.
- ^ Sternhell et al., p. 76.
- ^ a b c Christensen et al., p. 18.
- ^ Sternhell et al., p. 90.
- ^ Stanley 1981, p. 20.
- ^ Stanley 1981, p. 22.
- ^ Stanley 1981, pp. 14, 22.
- ^ a b c d Midlarsky, p. 93.
- ^ Stanley 1981, p. 17.
- ^ Stanley 1981, p. 14.
- ^ Stanley 1981, pp. 54, 244.
- ^ a b c Stanley 1981, p. 245.
- ^ a b c d Sternhell, p. 17.
- ^ a b c Stanley 1981, p. 206.
- ^ a b c d e Stanley 1981, p. 106.
- ^ a b c Sternhell et al., p. 82.
- ^ Holmes, p. 60.
- ^ Sternhell et al., p. 80.
- ^ Stuart, p. 149.
- ^ Sternhell et al., p. 83.
- ^ Sternhell et al., p. 85.
- ^ a b c Sternhell, p. 11.
- ^ Sternhell, pp. 11–12.
- ^ Sternhell, p. 12.
- ^ Sternhell et al., p. 93.
- ^ Hellman, p. 35
- ^ Gill, p. 19.
- ^ Cohen & Arato, p. 144.
- ^ Löwy, Michael (2 December 2019). "Georg Lukács and Georges Sorel". Translated by V. S. Conttren. from Löwy, Michael (1997). "Georg Lukács e Georges Sorel". Revista Crítica Marxista (4): 113–122.
- ^ Bien, p. 7.
- ^ Schutte, p. 39.
- ^ Sternhell et al., p. 33.
- ^ a b c d Gregor, p. 96.
- ^ Gregor, p. 123.
Works cited
- Peter Bien. Kazantzakis: politics of the spirit, Volume 2. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2007.
- Hans Dam Christensen, Øystein Hjort, Niels Marup Jensen. Rethinking art between the wars: new perspectives in art history. Aarhus, Denmark: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2001.
- Jean L. Cohen, Andrew Arato. Civil society and political theory. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1994.
- Stephen Gill. Power and resistance in the new world order. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
- Anthony James Gregor, University of California, Berkeley. Young Mussolini and the intellectual origins of fascism. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press, 1979.
- John Hellman. The communitarian third way: Alexandre Marc's ordre nouveau, 1930–2000. McGill-Queen's University Press, 2002.
- Douglas R. Holmes. Integral Europe: fast-capitalism, multiculturalism, neofascism. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2000.
- Manus I. Midlarsky. Origins of Political Extremism: Mass Violence in the Twentieth Century and Beyond. Cambridge University Press, 2011.
- Ofelia Schutte. Cultural identity and social liberation in Latin American thought. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 1993.
- John Stanley. Mainlining Marx. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 2002.
- Stanley, John (1981). The Sociology of Virtue: The Political & Social Theories of Georges Sorel. University of California Press. p. 20. ISBN 9780520037908.
- Zeev Sternhell. Neither right nor left: fascist ideology in France. 2nd edition. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1986.
- Zeev Sternhell, Mario Sznajder, Maia Ashéri. The Birth of Fascist Ideology: From Cultural Rebellion to Political Revolution. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1994.
- Robert Stuart. Marxism and National Identity: Socialism, Nationalism, and National Socialism during the French fin de siècle. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 2006.