104 Foundations of Democratic Dogma
It seems to me now to be the one adequate expression of
the entire philosophy upon which our modern democratic
dogma rests. Gradually I became aware that the instinct of
the Church has been essentially sound in this matter. So-
cialism, both communistic and nationalistic, and Christian-
ity are essentially incompatible. They start from opposite
premises and, when thought out, come to opposite conclu-
sions.
IV. MODERN SOCIALISM AND “BOURGEOIS MORALITY”
A
The degradation of democratic dogma which I have pic-
tured in the preceding sections consists, then, in attempting
to detach our democratic values from the philosophical
structure with which they are bound up and to graft them
upon a wholly biological and naturalistic conception of man.
Is it not inevitable that they should have undergone the
degradation which I have pictured?
This process of degradation has been immensely has-
tened, however, by anti-democratic theories of man both of
which have been derived from the application of the no-
tions of physical and biological science to man. I mean com-
munism and national socialism, which, although differing in
details, nevertheless have the same philosophical basis. It
is immaterial that the one is based upon a materialistic phi-
losophy of history, the other on a biological materialism of
Blut ιιnd Boden; both are equally inimical to a transcen-
dental view of man and to any doctrine of inherent right.
It is rarely realized how, despite their apparent enmity,
these two ideologies are in principle so completely one, and
how they are both derivable from the same fundamental
premises. Both start from scientific naturalism as their pri-
mary premise; both apply this scientific naturalism to man,