Rend a neve mindennek
Order is the Name of Everything

Summary/Abstract: The essay discusses the importance of name-giving in political thinking and political theory. It argues that name-giving is more than a ceremonial and symbolic act. Ever since the Biblical times and ancient politics, naming the polis or the community has been an act of power; and knowing its name has been tantamount to possessing power over the object. Significantly, the founder of political theory, Thomas Hobbes, also acted as a magician when he announced in a solemn way the name of ‘his’ Commonwealth, the Leviathan. The essay seeks to demonstrate how the failure of naming the Austro-Hungarian Empire is analyzed by Robert Musil in his The Man Without Qualities. Musils chief protagonist in this respect is General S. von Bordwehr, practically, the representative of the soldier-Emperor, who discovers that his Empire has no other name but Order. However, Order is an utterly unpolitical name, or, worse, it is the most absolutist and utopian political name conceivable. Hence the General’s foreboding that all order ends in death. In this way, the old Monarchy, notwithstanding her many charms, historical and cultural amenities, rich and colorful traditions, ushered in the greatest catastrophe in modern Europe, and proved to be the womb of totalitarian thinking and practice.

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