The Revolt Against Civilization

Untertitel: "The Menace of the Under-Man"

In der deutschen Ausgabe von 1925:

Der Kulturumsturz

Die Drohung des Untermenschen

Inhalt

Dieses Werk von Ph.D. Lothrop Stoddard vom Juni 1922 ist eine frühe Referenz auf den Term Untermensch. Legt man das Original und die "Einzige berechtigte deutsche Übersetzung" von 1925 nebeneinander, so wird greifbar, wie diese Quelle den Nazi-Jargon um eine wesentliche Vokabel erweitert hat. Sehr wahrscheinlich als Folge des wissenschaftlichen Megatrends der Zeit, der Eugenik, wurde das Werk in nur vier Monaten, bis Oktober 1922, gleich zwei Mal neu aufgelegt.

Nachfolgend findet sich eine geraffte Darstellung des Inhalts: Es werden Original und deutsche (Erst-)Übersetzung von 1925, des Vorworts sowie der jeweils ersten Absätze der einzelnen Kapitel wiedergegeben.

Preface		Vorwort des Verfassers
The revolutionary unrest which to-day afflicts the entire world goes far deeper than is generally supposed. Its root-cause is not Russian Bolshevik propaganda, nor the late war, not the French Revolution, but a process of racial impoverishment, which destroyed the great civilizations of the past and which threatens to destroy our own.		Die umstürzlerische Unruhe, die heute die ganze Welt ergriffen hat, geht weit tiefer als man gemeinhin annimmt. Ihre letzte Wurzel ist weder das Werben des russischen Bolschewismus noch der letzte Krieg noch die Französische Revolution, sondern ein Vorgang artlicher Erschöpfung, der die großen Kulturen der Vergangenheit vernichtete und der auch unsere eigene zu zertrümmern droht.
This grim blight of civilized society has been correctly diagnosed only in recent years. The momentous biological discoveries of the past generation have revealed the true workings of those hitherto mysterious laws of life on which, in the last analysis, all human activity depends.		Dieses düstere Verhängnis der Kulturgemeinschaft ist erst neuerdings richtig erkannt worden. Die bedeutenden biologischen Entdeckungen des letzten Menschenalters haben das wahre Wirken jener bisher rätselhaften Lebensgesetze enthüllt, von denen letzten Endes alle menschliche Tätigkeit anhängt.
In the light of these biological discoveries, confirmed and amplified by investigations in other fields of science, especially psychology, all political and social problems need to be re-examined.		In dem Lichte dieser biologischen Entdeckungen, die durch Forschungen auf anderen Gebieten der Wissenschaft, besonders dem der Psychologie, bestätigt und erweitert werden, müssen alle Fragen des Staats- und Gesellschaftslebens überprüft werden.
Such a re-examination of one of these problems - the problem of social revolution - has been attempted in the present book.		In dem vorliegenden Buche wird der Versuch gemacht, die Frage des gesellschaftlichen Umsturzes zu überprüfen.
Lothrop Stoddard. Brookline, Massachusetts, March 30, 1922		Brookline, Massachusetts, den 30. März 1922. Lothrop Stoddard.

Chapter 1 / The Burden of Civilization		1. Die Bürde der Kultur
Civilization is the flowering of the human species. Is is both a recent and a fragile thing. The first glimmerings of genuine civilization appeared only eight or ten thousand years ago. This may seem a long time. It does not seem so long when we remember that behind civilizations's dawn lies a vast night of barbarism, of savagery, of bestiality, estimated at half a million years, since the ape-man shambled forth from the steaming murk of tropic forests, and, scowling and blinking, raised his eyes to the stars. (...)		Kultur ist die Blüte des Menschengeschlechts; sie ist jung und zart. Erst vor acht- bis zehntausend Jahren zeigte sich das erste Aufdämmern wahrer Kultur. Dieser Zeitraum mag groß erscheinen. Er erscheint nicht groß, wenn wir bedenken, daß jenseits der Kulturdämmerung eine sehr lange Nacht der Halbwildheit, der Wildheit, der Tierheit liegt. Man schätzt eine halbe Million Jahre, seit der Affenmensch sich aus dem feuchten Dunkel tropischer Wälder herauswagte und trübe und blinzelnd zum ersten Male die Augen zu den Sternen emporhob. (...)

Chapter 2 / The Iron Law of Inequality		2. Das eiserne Gesetz der Ungleichheit
The idea of "Natural Equality" is one of the most pernicious delusions that has ever afflicted mankind. It is a figment of the human imagination. Nature knows no quality. The most cursory examination of natural phenomena reveals the presence of a Law of Inequality as universal and inflexible as the Law of Gravitation. The evolution of life is the most striking instance of this fundamental truth. Evolution is a process of differentiation - of incresing differentiation - from the simple one-celled bit of protoplasm to the definitely differentiated, complex life forms of the present day. (...)		(...)

Chapter 3 / The Nemesis of the Inferior		3. Das durch die Minderwertigen drohende Unheil
Racial impoverishment is the plague of civilization. This insidious disease, with its twin symptoms the extirpation of superior strains and the multiplication of inferiors, has ravaged humanity like a consuming fire, reducing the proudest societies to charred and squalid ruin. (...)		(...)

Chapter 4 / The Lure of the Primitive		4. Die Lockung des Urtümlichen
The revolt against civilization goes deeper than we are apt to suppose. However elaborate and persuasive may be the modern doctrines of revolt, they are merely conscious "rationalizings" of an instinctive urge which arises from the emotional depths. One of our hard, but salutary, disillusionments is the knowledge that our fathers were mistaken in their fond belief about automatic progress. We are now coming to realize that, besides progress, there is "regress"; that going forward is no more "natural" than going backward; lastly, that both movements are secondary phenomena, depending primarily upon the character of human stocks. (...)		(...)

Chapter 5 / The Ground-Swell of Revolt		5. Der Nährboden der Auflehnung
Revolutionary unrest is not new. Every age has had its discontented dreamers preaching Utopia, its fervid agitators urging the overthrow of the existing social order, and its restless rabble stirred by false hopes to ugly moods and violent action. Utopian literature is very extensive, going back to Plato; revolutionary agitators have run true to type since Spartacus; while "proletarian" risings have varied little in basic character from the servile revolts of antiquity and the "jacqueries" of the Middle Ages down to the mob-upheavals of Paris and Petrograd. (...)		(...)

Chapter 6 / The Rebellion of the Under-Man		6. Die Empörung des Untermenschen
The Russian Bolshevik Revolution of November, 1917, is an event whose significance increases with the lapse of time. It is the opening gun of the organized rebellion against civilization. Hitherto the proletarian movement had been either "in the air" or underground. Proletarian dreamers might formulate doctrines; proletarian strategists might plan campaigns; proletarian agitators might rouse wide-spread unrest and incite sporadic violence. Yet all this, though ominous for the future, did not menace society with immediate destruction. (...)		(...)

Chapter 7 / The War against Chaos		7. Der Kampf gegen den Wirrwarr
The world is to-day the battle-ground of a titanic struggle. This struggle has long been gathering. It is now upon us and must be fought out. No land is immune. Bolshevik Russia is merely the standard-bearer of a revolt against civilization which girdles the globe. That revolt was precipitated by the late war and has been intensified by war's aftermath, but it was latent before 1914, and would have ultimately burst forth even if Armageddon had been averted. (...)		(...)

Chapter 8 / Neo-Aristocracy		8. Neu-Adel
Stressful transition is the key-note of our time. Unless all signs be at fault, we stand at one of those momentous crises in history when mankind moves from one well-marked epoch into another of widely different character. Such crucial periods are of supreme importance, because their outcome may determine man's course for many generations - perhaps for many centuries. (...)		(...)

Quellen

Die deutsche Übersetzung von 1925

Neuauflage des Originaltextes