7

Each stage is as meaningful and self-contained as any other. We must keep this in mind also for the understanding of the Maxist doctrine.

Another point which I have to mention here. The just or rational society as Rousseau understands it effectively recognizes natural equality or rather the equal right of each to be the judge of the means of his self-preservation. Therefore Rousseau can say that in that just o rational society evereyone remains as free and equal as he is by nature. In the decisive respect. in making of law. of public judgments as to the means of self-preservation he is equal to everyone else. Now let us look at the mechanism of that. The judgment on the means of self-preservation is the laws. Rousseau demands that everyone subject to a law must have a say in the making of the law. Everyone must be a member of the legislative body: that is to say. of the sovereign. For Rousseau the legislative body and sovereign are identical and to be distinguished from the government which we may say is the executive and the judicial part. In civil society everyone must be subject to the general will. The general will is not opposed simply to the private will. particularly. The general will is my own will modified: my owe will survives necessarily in the general will. Otherwise the general will could not bind me. If I am subject to the private will of another man then I'm a slave. but if I am subject -but I - if I am subject to the general will which is the generalization of my private will I am subject only to myself. I.m a free man. But that - is - that so- the free society is essentially an egalitarian society. but more than that this solution that everyone be subject only to the general will. which is a modificaton of his own will. and not to the subject of any other man. this rquires that everyone and everything is subject to the private will. It requires. in Rousseau.s formula. the total alienation of each associate with all his rights to the whole community: (Unquote). Here you have the word alienation which plays such a great role. but in Rosseau the accent is different. The whole - - total alienation of every individual is necessary if there is to be decency. if there is to be a just life in society: or as Rousseau is also put it. if you want to hav freedom and quality every individual must become totally denaturalized. totally collectivised. These things will come up with characteristic modifications in Marx. Rousseau.s argument. by the way. is not so difficult to understand. ie says if there are any limitations to the power. for private government. as it was then called by certain liberals in our age. Yes? And if you want to prevent the non-legal or the trans-legal dependence of individuals on other individuals this area must be susceptible of being brought under social control. That.s all Rousseau means. but the principle is. of course. that there is not sphere which can be excluded from social control. The total collectivization of each is the condition for the freedom of each. The fomula is identical for Marx and Rousseau. The concrete meaning differs. Total Collectivization. to repeat. is the indispensable condition of the freedom of each in society. You had the freedom of each originally in isolation - you know. in the state of nature- but that is not interesting. The interesting point is freedom in society. This - now Rousseau goes on to say that this alienation of the natural self . that he transforms himself-completely into a citizen. into a member of the sovereign. and ceases. in a sense. to be a natural being: this alienation is the acquisition of morality. This man in the state of nature who was concerned with his self-preservation and made his own judgments and so. that was not a moral being. Man becomes a moral being only by becoming a citizen and that is to say by divesting himself radically of his natura freedom. The rational society demands self-alienation according to Rousseau. I come back to this part of his argument. From this it follows that all society. however just. is bondage. That Rousseau says with all clarity at the beginning of