"
Madison's theory, therefore, is that the propensity to faction may be
kindled by religious or political opinions, by leaders, but most
commonly by the distribution of property. Yet note that Madison claims
only that men are divided by their relation to property. He does not
say that their property and their opinions are cause and effect, but
that differences of property are the causes of differences of opinion.
The pivotal word in Madison's argument is "different." From the
existence of differing economic situations you can tentatively infer a
probable difference of opinions, but you cannot infer what those
opinions will necessarily be.
This reservation cuts radically into the claims of the theory as that
theory is usually held. That the reservation is necessary, the
enormous contradiction between dogma and practice among orthodox
socialists bears witness. They argue that the next stage in social
evolution is the inevitable result of the present stage. But in order
to produce that inevitable next stage they organize and agitate to
produce "class consciousness." Why, one asks, does not the economic
situation produce consciousness of class in everybody? It just
doesn't, that is all. And therefore the proud claim will not stand
that the socialist philosophy rests on prophetic insight into destiny.
It rests on an hypothesis about human nature. [Footnote: _Cf._
Thorstein Veblen, "The Socialist Economics of Karl Marx and His
Followers," in _The Place of Science in Modern Civilization,_
esp.
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