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| author | www-data <www-data@mail.pglaf.org> | 2026-06-19 01:10:24 -0700 |
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| committer | www-data <www-data@mail.pglaf.org> | 2026-06-19 01:10:24 -0700 |
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diff --git a/78895-h/78895-h.htm b/78895-h/78895-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..67cdf97 --- /dev/null +++ b/78895-h/78895-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1851 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> + <meta name="format-detection" content="telephone=no,date=no,address=no,email=no,url=no"> + <title> + The Nemesis of Mediocrity | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 7%; + margin-right: 7%; +} + +h1,h2,h3,h4 { + text-align: center; + clear: both; +} + +h3 { + page-break-after: avoid + } + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} +h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + +a {text-decoration: none;} +a:hover {text-decoration: underline;} + +p { + text-indent: 1.3em; + margin-top: .5em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .5em; +} + +hr.chap { + border: none; + position: relative; + text-align: center; + margin: 3em 0; + page-break-after: avoid + } +hr.chap::before { + content: "ꕥ"; + position: relative; + padding: 0 1em; + background: white; + color: #777; + z-index: 1 + } +hr.chap::after { + content: ""; + position: absolute; + top: 50%; + left: 0; + width: 100%; + border-top: 2px solid #ddd; + z-index: 0 + } +hr.front { + width: 10%; + margin: 1.5em 45%; + border: 0; + border-top: 1px solid #777; + page-break-after: avoid + } + +.pagenum { + right: 1%; + font-size: x-small; + color: #333; + text-indent: 0; + text-align: right; + position: absolute; +} + +.center {text-align: center; text-indent: 0;} + +.right {text-align: right;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.allsmcap {font-variant: small-caps; text-transform: lowercase;} + +.smaller {font-size:smaller;} +.xlarge {font-size:x-large;} + + +blockquote.constrain { + margin: 1em auto 2em auto; + max-width: 35em; + font-size: 92%; + } + </style> +</head> + +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78895 ***</div> + + + +<h1> +THE NEMESIS<br> +OF MEDIOCRITY +</h1> + +<p class="center"> +<span class="smcap">By</span><br> +<span class="xlarge">RALPH ADAMS CRAM</span><br> +<span class="smaller">LITT.D., LL.D.</span><br> +<br> +<br> +BOSTON<br> +MARSHALL JONES COMPANY<br> +MDCCCCXXI +</p> + +<hr class="front"> + +<p class="center smaller"> +<i>Copyright, 1917, 1919</i><br> +<br> +<span class="smcap">By Marshall Jones Company</span><br> +<br> +<i>All rights reserved</i><br> +<br> +First printing, December, 1917<br> +Second printing, May, 1918<br> +Third printing, March, 1919<br> +Fourth printing, June, 1921 +</p> + +<hr class="front"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[1]</span></p> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_NEMESIS_OF_MEDIOCRITY"> + THE NEMESIS OF MEDIOCRITY + </h2> +</div> + + +<blockquote class="constrain"> +<p>“Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers that +begat us. The Lord hath wrought great glory by them +through his great power from the beginning. Such as did +bear rule in their kingdoms, men renowned for their power, +giving counsel by their understanding, and declaring +prophecies. Leaders of the people by their counsels, and +by their knowledge of learning meet for the people; wise +and eloquent in their instructions. Such as find out +musical tunes and recited verses in writing. Rich men +furnished with ability, living peaceably in their habitations: +All these were honoured in their generations and +were the glory of their times.”—<span class="allsmcap">ECCLESIASTICUS: XLIV.</span></p> +</blockquote> + +<p>Already the revelations of war have cast +their searching and mordant light +on all that was brought over to us +out of the last century, and nothing is as it +seemed in those far and half mythical days +when there was no war and we maintained +a serene content well grounded on its broad +base of solid accomplishment. It was a +proud, even an august possession, this hoard +of coined wealth such as men had never +gathered before, made up as it was of all +the broad and shining counters minted out +of Renaissance, Reformation and Revolution, +and with this vast reserve our solvency +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[2]</span>seemed beyond suspicion. The touch of +war is like that of the magician in the +fairy tale, and enough of the bright counters +already have turned to dried and worthless +leaves to make us wonder if in the end a +single coin may remain to us, honest gold, +unclipped and undebased.</p> + +<p>Some day the count of these revelations +will be made up, but now the tale is not fully +told, and we wait, aghast, as each day some +old truism crumbles into folly, some dogma +shows thin and evanescent, some fundamental +principle of modernism reveals itself as +a superstition as groundless as those we long +ago had cast away. Meanwhile “here we +have no continuing city;” the sands slide +under our feet, and we touch nothing tangible +as we reach out for support in a darkness +that shows no sign of breaking.</p> + +<p>Amongst these revelations there is none +more unexpected, more baffling in the fact +of its existence or broader in its ramifications, +than the loss of leadership. To-day, +when men cry aloud, as never before, for +guides, interpreters, leaders, there is none to +answer; in any category of life, issuing out of +any nation. None, that is, that matches in +power the exigency of the demand. There +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[3]</span>are those that honestly try to lead; there +are those that increasingly lead under the +grim schooling of war, slowly, painfully +and towards an end still obscure and undetermined. +Arduously they struggle to build +up a following, to see the insane life of the +moment and see it whole; to keep ahead of +the whirlwind of hell-let-loose and direct an +amazed and disordered society along paths +of ultimate safety. And always the event +outdistances them, the phantasmagoria of +chaos whirls bewilderingly beyond, and +either they follow helplessly or are sucked +into the rushing vacuum that comes in the +wake of progressive destruction. In the immediate +necessity of war one august general +after another receives command, plays his +part for a day, and disappears, marked by +comparative failure if not by demonstrated +incompetence. Potential reputations break +down and are forgotten, in Mesopotamia, +Gallipoli, Galicia, Roumania, the Trentino, +the Carso, Champagne, the Argonne: on +the North Sea, in the Channel, through the +Mediterranean. The battle fronts east, west, +south, bury more than the bodies of dead +soldiers, for reputations are interned with +them in a quick and merciful oblivion.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[4]</span></p> + +<p>Still, fate is a whimsical arbiter, whose +operations are unaccountable, and any day +may appear the great leaders thus far coldly +refused to the desperate and death-locked +armies, but there is little hope for a like +mercy in statesmanship. The years just before +the war were tumultuous with the petty +machinations of the degenerate political and +diplomatic successors of the masterly manipulators +of destiny of the nineteenth century. +Noble or cynical, they were leaders, +these men of a dead generation: Metternich, +Cavour, Disraeli, Bismarck, Gladstone, +Gambetta, Lincoln, and they have left +few successors, either to their glory or their +infamy. Can there be honest comparison between +the political leaders in Great Britain +to-day and Peel, Palmerston, Gladstone, Disraeli +and Salisbury, between the flotsam and +jetsam of French parliamentary turbulence +and Thiers, Gambetta, de Freycinet? Contrast +the men now controlling the destinies +of Italy with those of the epoch of the Liberation; +match the present politicians of +Germany with those to the front from 1870 +to 1895; place in one column the members +of President Wilson’s Cabinet, the leaders +in Congress, the Governors of the several +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[5]</span>States, and in the other the American political +forces from 1860 on for the space of a +generation. Whether you like them all or +not, these men of an elder age, one thing you +must concede, and that is their capacity and +their dominance as leaders.</p> + +<p>So one might traverse the fields of religion, +philosophy, literature, art, education, +matching each man who claims or is accorded +priority, with those of the immediate +past whose historical place is now as assured +as was their acceptance during their lives. +Long after the contemporary list finds +“finis” written beneath, the other calendar +continues until its length is greater by tenfold. +Not only this, but there is unquestioned +difference in quality; as between +Harmsworth and Gladstone, Bryan and +Cleveland, Benedict XV and Leo XIII, +Wells and Emerson, Ornstein and Brahms. +The leaders that once were, found their following +through comprehension of their own +force and dominance, those that are now, +<i lang="fr">faute de mieux</i>, and because there are no +others to lead.</p> + +<p>Inch by inch the valleys are being filled +and the mountains brought low. More arduously +the man stronger than another lifts +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[6]</span>above the level uniformity; a few still continue, +lasting over from an earlier generation, +but in a year or two they also will +pass, and few indeed are rising to take their +place. Meanwhile “the hungry sheep look +up, and are not fed,” for the soul of sane +man demands leadership, and in spite of academic +aphorisms on Equality, a dim consciousness +survives of the fundamental truth +that without strong leadership democracy +is a menace; without strong leadership +culture and even civilization will pass +away.</p> + +<p>Now as always the great mass of men look +for the master-man who can form in definite +shape the aspirations and the instincts that +in them are formless and amorphous; who +can lead where they are more than willing +to follow, but themselves cannot mark the +way; who can act as a centripetal force and +gather into potent units the diffuse atoms of +like will but without co-ordinating ability. +So great is this central human instinct (which +was not only the foundation of feudalism +but harks back to the very beginnings of +society), that when the great leader is not revealed +he is invented out of the more impudent +element of any potential group, assurance +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[7]</span>taking the place of competence; or optimistically +assumed, the most available being +dragged from his obscurity and pitched into +a position, or burdened with a task, outside +the limits of his ability—as he himself only +too often knows.</p> + +<p>And as the supply of leaders diminishes +the more reckless becomes the desperate +choice. It is perhaps not so much that men +now reject all leadership as it is that they +blindly accept the inferior type; the specious +demagogue, the unscrupulous master +of effrontery. Men follow to-day as they +always have and always will, the difference +lies in the quality of those that are followed. +In default of the leader of the old type, the +man who first saw beyond the obvious and +drew others after him by force of vision and +will and personal quality, the group, and the +super-group which we call the mob, create +their leaders in their own image, and out of +their own material. Giolitti and Caillaux, +Ramsay Macdonald, Lenine and La Follette +are the synthetic product of a mechanical +process of self-expression on the part of +groups of men without leaders, but who must +have them and so make shift to precipitate +them in material form out of the undifferentiated +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[8]</span>mass of their common inclinations, +passions and prejudices.</p> + +<p>It is because of this that religion is no +longer marked by the dominance of figures +like St. Paul, St. Benedict, St. Bernard, St. +Francis, St. Catherine of Siena, or even like +Luther, Calvin, John Wesley, but rather +by the uncouth flotsam of the intellectual +underworld or the obscurantist <i>faquirs</i> of a +decadent Orientalism. It is because of this +that no longer a Plato or an Aristotle, a St. +Thomas Aquinas, or a Duns Scotus, a Kant, +a Descartes, or a Herbert Spencer controls +the destinies of philosophy, but semi-converted +novelists, jejune instructors in psychology, +and imperfectly developed but +sufficiently voluble journalists. It is because +of this that salutary movements like socialism, +trades-unionism and political reform +are betrayed by the leaders that, for lack of +better, have been pitchforked into pre-eminence, +and who, degraded and debased by +dulness, obliquity of vision and crude incompetence, +become not a benefit but a +menace.</p> + +<p>The argument that we are too near the +present (since we ourselves <em>are</em> the present) +to estimate greatness or establish our standard +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[9]</span>of comparative values, but that another +generation will find amongst our contemporaries +what we have missed, has no validity. +I am speaking of leadership, and leadership +is not posthumous. We knew, those of us +who entered into the activities of life about +1880, that we were “surrounded by such a +cloud of witnesses,” that the world was so +rich in leadership—either for wisdom or +folly—we lacked no possible followings for +our choice, but rather were confused by the +plethora of options. There was no doubt +then that there were great men around and +about us. We were all hero-worshippers +then, and there was sufficient reason for our +worship. I have made a list of the men who +were living in 1880, all of whom were great +captains, and who would be accepted by all +as leaders of men: there are sixty of them, +and I can add another hundred of only a +little less eminence, but whose claims some +might contest. All of these hundred and +sixty “immortals” had died before 1905, +and I challenge anyone to fill a tenth of +the places they left vacant with the names, +unknown in 1880, of men whose claim can +be unquestioned.</p> + +<p>A generation that contains such a group +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[10]</span>as Emerson, Carlyle, Ruskin, Matthew Arnold, +Herbert Spencer, Darwin, Bismarck, +Disraeli, Cavour, Wagner, Browning, +William Morris, Tourgeneff, Stevenson, +Leo XIII, Cardinal Newman, Karl Marx +and von Moltke is a generation that lacks +nothing in leadership, and when is added a +further century and a half of names, all +practically of the same grade and class, we +can only look back on those astonishing +years with admiration, and then around at +our own time, with the greatest issues in a +thousand years clamouring for solution and +almost none to lead in the solving, appalled +and despairing, while we reach out blindly +for some explanation of the cataclysm that +has occurred.</p> + +<p>There are those who will claim that +the leadership has not been lost but only +changed in direction. They will say that +the leaders are now to be found in the ranks +of applied science, of industrial exploitation +and organization, of high finance and +economic “efficiency.” They will offer as +their contribution Edison and Marconi and +Krupp; Sage, Rockefeller, Morgan, Carnegie +and the great Hebrew financiers of Europe. +They will offer Ford, Harmsworth, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[11]</span>Hearst; the packers of Chicago, the mill +magnates of New England, the coal and iron +barons of Pennsylvania. Their contention +may be admitted; the leadership exists, and +it <em>has</em> changed direction; the point is, however, +that this leadership, while it may conceivably +supplement that of an earlier day +in other fields, may, under no circumstance +whatever, be assumed to serve as a substitute.</p> + +<p>Mr. Abraham Flexner may well be held +to contribute something (its essential value +is not for the moment in question) to the +idea of education as it was expounded by +Cardinal Newman or Arnold of Rugby; +Mr. Carnegie’s vision of culture is not one +that came within the purview of Emerson +or Matthew Arnold or William Morris, +while the original and varied, if not always +edifying, religious cults of the last generation +open up possibilities not indicated by +Dr. Martineau or Bishop Brooks or even +Cardinal Manning. Certainly there is something +in <i lang="fr">vers libre</i> and post-impressionism +and the products of the cubist sculptors that +escapes one in Browning and Burne-Jones +and Saint-Gaudens. Considered in a supplementary +sense these protagonists of modernism +may be an extension of the principles of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[12]</span>their immediate precursors (even of all antecedent +creators and leaders during the entire +range of recorded history), but when it +is assumed that they take their place the +argument needs fortifying by something +other than either the dictum itself or their +own accomplishments.</p> + +<p>In any case the day of great leaders has +passed. If we take the Cardinal of Malines +as a standard, as one man at least who measures +up to the great controlling and directing +agencies of the last quarter of the nineteenth +century, we shall find it hard to pick +others to place in his class. Certainly not +the successor of Leo XIII and Innocent III, +of Gregory VII and Gregory the Great; +nor any of the present College of Cardinals. +Honour and devotion, learning and piety +are not wanting, but where is the vision, +where the qualities of command and domination, +where the power and the will that +mark the captains of men? Neither from +Rome nor Moscow nor Canterbury, neither +from the Episcopal Church nor from the +Protestant denominations, comes the high +call for men to rise up and follow along the +lines revealed by clear vision and under the +dynamic force of personal leadership. Halting +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[13]</span>and hesitant, bewildered by opportunism +and expediency, dumb before a crisis +beyond their powers to meet, the shepherds +and pastors of flocks already more than decimated, +shake in their indecision, put the +great issue to one side, and while they wait +helplessly for a time more in scale with their +abilities, turn to the old round of theological +argument and disciplinary bickerings, leaving +the fate of their sheep to be determined +after a fashion they cannot control, and the +humbler clergy busy themselves with parochial +routine or, to their honour, find on the +blazing and thundering battle fronts of all +Europe opportunity for heroic service in the +trenches and often a glorious death.</p> + +<p>Nor in philosophy is the condition very +different. There were not wanting, in the +immediate years before the war, men of +“light and leading,” though apart from +Bergson, James and Chesterton (though it +may seem strange to name the last in this +connection), they were hardly of the calibre +of their forebears. James is dead, Bergson +almost completely silent, while Chesterton, +perhaps under the compulsion of his grave +illness, fails to meet the standard of his earlier +period, except perhaps in “The Crimes +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[14]</span>of England” and “A Short History of England.” +Dr. Jacks comes well to the fore on +occasion, and Dr. Figgis and March Phillips, +but Bernard Shaw has silenced his philosophical +cynicism and Wells alone insists +on his own narrow vision, brought over from +the ante-bellum epoch, with all its mechanistic +formulæ and indeterminate determinism.</p> + +<p>Of all the ruined sanctuaries, that of statesmanship +is the most desolate. It was sufficiently +laid waste in the years just before +the war, when diplomacy, degenerate and +incompetent, toiled along the dishonoured +road that led from the Congress of Berlin. +Into the coil of cynicism and trickery, Edward +VII and President Cleveland brought +some elements of honesty and good sense, but +the chancelleries of Vienna, Berlin, Paris, +London, Petersburg were united in one +thing, and that their devotion to the secret, +the serpentine and the oblique. The “Balance +of Power,” poisonous heritage from +the Treaty of Berlin, controlled all that was +thought or done, and under its malignant +spell considerations of honour, justice and +righteousness vanished from the secret deliberations +of the various and ever-changing +groups of inferior conspirators. Since the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[15]</span>opening of the war small men, pitched neck-and-crop +into big places, have struggled +against this legacy, and with scant success. +Government in France at the opening of +the first of the Seven Seals, was a tangle +of political corruption complicated by terror +of what socialism would demand next; +the prolonged crisis has produced—Briand, +and no more, a small man, strengthened by +responsibility and opportunity, who bore +himself with firmness and honesty. He has +now been deposed through the machinations +of the still operative political cabals, to give +place to the venerable but neither stimulating +nor convincing Ribot, the colourless +Painlevé and the superannuated Clemenceau. +England offered Asquith, a somewhat +sinuous and agile mediocrity now smashed +by an extraordinary journalistic phenomenon +who has also been largely responsible for +Lloyd George, another small man, essentially +the middle-class demagogue of the first decade +of the century, who has also been fortified +and chastened by the compelling force of +anomalous circumstances. With him appear +men like Churchill, still bending under the +weight of tragic fiascos, Carson, whom the +war saved from becoming a rebel and an +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[16]</span>outlaw, together with a numerous clan of +financiers and industrial magnates, some of +whom had already exchanged their historic +Hebraic cognomens for others associated, +if not with their own genealogy, at least +with the Norman conquest. Italy, after +getting rid of her political hucksters and +demagogues, has produced none of even +moderate distinction to take their place. In +the Balkans Jonescu and the Cretan Venezelos +arrived with some heralding of trumpets, +but neither has succeeded in accomplishing +anything in particular, and both are +now relegated to the category of geniuses +“without the enacting clause.” Leaping +suddenly into the Russian limelight come +Miliukoff, Count Lvoff and Kerensky; the +revolution is effected, the exaltation of the +“Oath of the Tennis Court” is repeated, +and at once, from far down amongst the submerged +majority, anarchy and insane folly +rise up, insistent, not to be denied, and already +their power is in eclipse, extinguished +by the rising tide of nihilism and dishonour—leaders +who could not lead.</p> + +<p>As for the Teutonic Empires, from Kaiser +to Scheidemann there is only mediocrity +masquerading in the tarnished regalia of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[17]</span>Bismarck and Andrassy. Precariously von +Bethmann, with phantasmal Austrian nobles, +insecure Hungarian magnates and Osmanli +pashas, struggles to meet increasingly impossible +problems at home and abroad, and +the time is not far away when the final crisis +a Bismarck might victoriously have met, will +show them thin and evanescent, pale futilities +who could not lead, neither could they +control. And America? Well, when the +war broke we had three potential leaders, +the President, Colonel Roosevelt and Mr. +Bryan, together with the untried forces of +Cabinet, Congress and the State and municipal +governments. What had been the result +on these varied personalities of the unexampled +stimulus of a world in chaos if not +in dissolution? Thus far, apart from the +President, the three and a half years of universal +liquidation have neither produced a +leader unknown before nor raised the standard +of individuals or of the general mass of +politicians. On the whole the average has +been lowered. If on the one hand we have +the reliable honesty and ability of men like +Senators Lodge, Borah and Williams, with +the mysterious and promising figure of +Colonel House, we find on the other the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[18]</span>ominous figures of Stone, Cummins, Gronna, +Clark, Vardaman, La Follette, together with +the depressing personalities that dominate +and give its colour to the Cabinet. Outside +administration circles the reader may pick +from the several States such men as he considers +measure up to the old standard of +effective leadership, or even to that of the +era just preceding the war. Of the three +conspicuous figures first named, one appears +to have forfeited the position open to him +of great constructive leadership while honourably +refusing to follow up the sinister +opportunities revealed in the earlier days of +the war, and has retired into an oblivion +only broken in the beginning by sheer force +of ingratiating oratory. The second strove +for a renewal of that popular confidence and +to restore that popular following he so eminently +deserved, and failed, though in this +failure was less of discredit to him than to +a public somewhat defective in its powers of +perception and in its standard of comparative +values. And the third, the most august +figure of all? Here, if anywhere to-day, is +revealed the argument against the thesis I +adduce—perhaps as the exception that +proves the rule. The most astute politician +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[19]</span>America has produced since Andrew Jackson +(if not since Jefferson), with an infallible +sense for apprehending the unexpressed +will of a working majority, he pursued for +three years the standard method of contemporary +politics, gauging this will by impeccable +instinct, making it his own, and so +becoming the acceptable type of leader who +does not lead but obediently follows on +where the majority-will indicates the way. +Then almost insensibly this method changed; +little by little as the inclusive incapacity of +the democratic method revealed itself it was +relegated to the background while a very real +and equally constructive leadership took its +place. Step by step the advance has been +progressive and explicit; miraculously the +nation as a whole acknowledges and accepts, +while the influence of this novel and reassuring +leadership daily reaches further and +further into the other nations of the earth. +It is a single leadership: Cabinet and Congress +are granted little part therein and only +the mysterious influences of unofficial and +personal advisers shyly reveal themselves +from time to time. It is a real leadership, +of the old and almost forgotten type, and increasingly +is it bringing coherency out of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[20]</span>the debilitated confusion of democratic +methods and parliamentary incapacity that +have hampered our allies and imperilled +their cause since the beginning of the war. +And now opportunity opens before him; +opportunity not only national but world-wide. +If he wills he may become the +co-ordinating, the directing, and the constructive +force in the world, Arbiter of Democracy, +re-creator of the true democracy of +ideal. The old tradition of politics, the sensitive +appreciation of a vacillating majority-will +and the subtle following thereof in all +its tergiversations, has been abandoned in +favour of a daring and therefore true leadership +prefigured by some of the finest verbal +pronouncements of high principle the Republic +has thus far heard. The old days +when we were told of a “peace without victory,” +and that we as a nation had no quarrel +with the German people; the days when we +were assured that the aims of Germany and +those of the Allies were apparently much +the same; the days of experimental adventures +in compromise are now very far away. +Does this mean that from now on the course +followed will be increasingly exalted, high-spirited +and courageous? It may well be; +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[21]</span>if so, and to that extent, the present lack of +world-leadership will be corrected.</p> + +<p>Tested by every standard this leadership +is now deficient both in quantity and quality. +To what are we to attribute this anomalous +condition? Why is it that our lack is not +only appalling when compared with those +periodical moments of the past when, as in +the eleventh century, every nation of Europe +was following leaders as amazing in number +as they were commanding in ability, but +even in contrast with the last quarter of the +nineteenth century. This was not an epoch +to which future generations will look back +with any notable degree of pride, yet it left +us a heritage of great names that, as I have +said before, reached the number of one hundred +and fifty, a count that could be increased +to two hundred if the arbitrary +quarter century I have chosen, during which +all were still living, were extended by ten +years before 1880 and by five after 1905.</p> + +<p>The answer is simple, but it is an answer +that will be rejected with practical unanimity. +Democracy has achieved its perfect +work and has now reduced all mankind to a +dead level of incapacity where great leaders +are no longer either wanted or brought into +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[22]</span>existence, while society itself is unable, of +its own power as a whole, to lift itself from +the nadir of its own uniformity.</p> + +<p>“The world must be made safe for democracy” +is a noble phrase, but it is meaningless +without its corollary, “democracy +must be made safe for the world.” This +latter condition does not exist. For exactly +one hundred years democracy has suffered +a progressive degeneration until it is now +not a blessing but a menace.</p> + +<p>This categorical statement demands both +amplification and explanation. In the first +place the word “democracy” is used in its +current sense, as representing both the implicit +aim and the explicit result of individual +and community life during the last two +generations in Great Britain, France and the +United States; and in all other countries +where any portion of the democratic system +has been put in practice, including the very +recent “republics” of Portugal, China and +Russia. It covers not only political agencies +and methods but all those other forms of activity, +such as organized religion, education +and social life, where democratic principles +and devices have been increasingly adopted.</p> + +<p>It does not mean the real democracy, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[23]</span>which is the noblest ideal ever discovered +by man or revealed to him. True democracy +means three things: Abolition of Privilege; +Equal Opportunity for All; and Utilization +of Ability. Unless democracy +achieves these things it is not democracy, +and no matter how “progressive” its methods, +how apparently democratic its machinery, +it may perfectly well be an oligarchy, +a kakistocracy or a tyranny. The three imperative +desiderata named above may be +achieved under a monarchy, they may be +lost in a republic, the mechanism does not +matter. One of the chief faults with what +we call our democracy is our stolid failure +to understand that there is a democratic ideal +and a democratic method, that there is not +necessarily any connection between the two, +and that generally speaking the democratic +method (unstable, constantly changing its +form) is incapable of accomplishing the +democratic ideal.</p> + +<p>That “democracy” for which the war is +to make the world safe is of course the democracy +of ideal; it could not conceivably +be the democracy of method for this had +proved itself in the two generations before +the war corrupt, incompetent and ridiculous, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[24]</span>while during the war it has revealed +increasingly its almost sublime incapacity in +all matters where it has had a part; from +Westminster to Rome, from Washington to +Petrograd. The only thing that has thus far +saved the Allies from the utmost penalty of +their common democracy of method has +been the process which has proceeded everywhere +of eliminating the democracy and +substituting a pure and perfectly irresponsible +absolutism, whether of one man or a +very small committee.</p> + +<p>Now for the last hundred years the world +has abandoned itself to an insane devising +of new mechanical toys for the achieving +of democracy: representative government, +the parliamentary system, universal suffrage, +the party system, the secret ballot, rotation +in office, the initiative, referendum +and recall, popular election of members of +upper legislative houses, woman suffrage, +direct legislation. All have failed to obtain +abolition of privilege, equal opportunity +and utilization of ability, on the contrary, +they have worked in the opposite direction, +and so far as these three things are concerned, +the peoples are worse off than they +were fifty years ago, while during the same +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[25]</span>period government and society have become +progressively more venal, less competent +and further separated from the ideals of +honour, duty and righteousness. Meanwhile +so obsessed have we become by our +pursuit of new devices for obtaining democracy, +and by our search for nostrums to cure +the ills of our constant failures, we have +now wholly forgotten in what democracy +consists.</p> + +<p>In the year before the war the government +of the great democracies—Great +Britain, France and the United States—was +illogical, inefficient, and widely severed +from the one object of obtaining for all men +justice and the rule of law. It was profoundly +cursed by the incubus of little men +in great office, by chaotic, selfish and unintelligent +legislation, dull, stupid and frequently +venal administration, and by partial, +unscrupulous and pettifogging judicial +procedure. Everywhere the bulk of legislation +increased to preposterous proportions +as its quality degenerated. Superficial, +doctrinaire, and engendered by selfish +personal interests, it ceased to command respect +or even obedience in proportion as it +became vacillating and insecure. Legislative +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[26]</span>decrees, subject to sudden abrogation +or reversal, took the place of laws. With +the party system dominant (now severed entirely +from fundamental principle and become +simply the engine of spoils), democratic +administrative machinery became the +obedient agency of a partizan and irresponsible +committee, maintaining itself through +purchased “honours,” and exemption +from well-deserved penalties, in England; +through alliances with secret and equally +irresponsible cabals whose object was plunder +of one sort or another, in France; +and through deals, spoils and “pork,” in +the United States. Everywhere the standard +of personal ability sank lower and lower, +until all manner of ignorant, incapable and +frequently venal men, without culture, tradition +or principle, forced up from the submerged +strata of society, entered into the legislative +and executive and administrative +departments of government and took possession. +The kind of men rife in the +Chambre des Députés and in the short-lived +ministries were of the same type found in +the provincial <i lang="fr">mairies</i>, ignorant, doctrinaire, +self-sufficient, with the insolence of power +clouding even what flickerings of native intelligence +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[27]</span>or honour they may have possessed. +The full story of what happened in +England between the death of Gladstone +and the triumph of Lloyd George has not +yet been written, but the facts are known if +unavowed. Autocracy in its worst form, in +Byzantium, the Renaissance or the eighteenth +century, contains no more sordid examples +of base trafficking in honours, emoluments +and privileges, while never was the +personal quality of the beneficiaries so radically +unworthy and so malevolent in its influence +on the State.</p> + +<p>During the Middle Ages, when the ideal +of democracy was at its highest point, and +when it was most nearly achieved, it was +held as incontrovertible that the purpose of +political organization was primarily ethical +and moral, and that its function was the +achievement of righteousness and justice. +Authority was from God, and the power +also to enforce that authority, but both were +operative only when they were used for +right ends. “<i lang="fr">La dame ne le sire n’en est +seigneur se non dou dreit.</i>” Equally unquestioned +was the fact that law was not +made, but was the concrete expression of that +morality, right and justice that had grown +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[28]</span>with the life of the community, exactly expressing +the needs of society, and with the +moral sanction of communal life behind it. +“There is no King where will rules and not +law” was the Mediæval conviction as opposed +to the absolutism of the Renaissance +first expressed in theoretical form by +Machiavelli. Finally the Middle Ages +asserted that Government was a solemn contract +between ruled and rulers, to be broken +by neither without the abrogation of the +contract. Treason on the part of the sovereign +was then as clearly recognized a possibility +as treason on the part of the people.</p> + +<p>This great ideal, the noblest man has yet +conceived in the realm of civil law, was completely +destroyed by the Renaissance, and +absolutism took its place. This, having +made itself intolerable, was in its turn destroyed +in the latter part of the eighteenth +and the first quarter of the nineteenth century, +when once more the old ideals of Mediæval +freedom came to the front though +in a somewhat different verbal guise. The +Oath of the Tennis Court, the Declaration +of Independence, the Reform Laws of England +were all assertions of the true principles +of the real democracy, but they were +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[29]</span>destined either to fail of fulfillment or to +only a brief duration of power, partly because +of the shattering of the sense of right +and wrong by Calvinism and other Protestant +phenomena, partly because their birth +coincided with an industrial development +that blotted out for the time all considerations +except those of material benefit and of +selfish advancement. Here and there, for +brief periods of time, righteous impulses +made operative a true democracy, but by the +middle of the century the battle had been +lost: materialism, omnipotent in its power, +invincible through its self-created energies, +was everywhere supreme, and from then on +was recorded only the progressive development +of a conscienceless material imperialism, +the incessant invention of new and always +unsuccessful machines for the obtaining +of the old democratic ideals, the growth, +through rage and impotence at the solemn +mockery, of violent and revolutionary propaganda +along nihilistic, anarchistic or socialistic +lines, and finally the apotheosis of +inefficiency, injustice and unrighteousness +that held the democracies of the world when +the Teutonic Powers made their desperate +but perfectly logical attempt to establish the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[30]</span>hegemony of Europe under the dominion of +efficiency, materialism and force.</p> + +<p>That very wise Frenchman, Emile +Faguet, has said, “The sum and substance +of the Revolution was to substitute for +‘Votre Majesté’ ‘Votre Majorité.’” The +absolutism and the tyranny remained, only +its habitat and its personality were changed. +Something however was lost, and that the +possibility that legislation and the execution +of the laws might sometimes approach intelligence +and efficiency. In another place +the same author says: “Our examination of +modern democracy has brought us to the +following conclusions. The representation +of the country is reserved for the incompetent +and also for those biassed by passion, +who are doubly incompetent. The representatives +of the people want to do +everything themselves. They do everything +badly and infect the government and +the administration with their passion and +incompetence.”</p> + +<p>Democratic government for the last +twenty-five years has neither desired nor +created leaders of an intellectual or moral +capacity above that of the general mass of +voters, and when by chance these appear +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[31]</span>they are abandoned for a type that is not of +the numerical average but below it, and the +standard has been lowering itself steadily +for a generation. The strong man, strong +of mind, of will, of moral sense, the man +born to create and to lead, now seeks other +fields for his activity, or rather one field +alone, and that the domain of “big business” +and finance. Here at least he finds +scope for his force and will and leadership, +even if the opportunities to use his moral +sense to advantage leave something to be +desired. The world no longer wants or +knows how to use statesmen, philosophers, +artists, religious prophets and shepherds, +but rather “captains of industry,” directors +of “high finance,” “efficiency experts,” +shrewd manipulators of popular opinion +through journalism, or of popular votes +through primaries, political conventions, +and the legislative chambers of representative +government. Here also the demand +creates the supply.</p> + +<p>Tributary to this demand is the current +system of popular education, probably the +worst ever devised so far as character-making +is concerned. Secularized, eclectic, vocational +and intensive educational systems +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[32]</span>do not educate in any true sense of the word, +while they do not develop character but +even work in the opposite direction. The +concrete results of popular education, as this +has been conducted during the last generation, +have been less and less satisfactory both +from the point of view of culture and that +of character, and the product of schools and +colleges tends steadily towards a lower and +lower level of attainment. Why anything +else should be expected is hard to see. The +new education, with religion and morals +ignored except under the aspect of archæology; +with Latin and Greek superseded, +and all other cultural studies as well; with +logic, philosophy and dialectic abandoned +for psychology, biology and “business administration”; +the new education with its +free electives and vocational training, and +its apotheosis of theoretical and applied science +(a glory and a dominion mitigated +only by the insidious penetration of semiprofessional +athletics)—this new education +was conceived and put in practice for +the chief purpose of fitting men for the sort +of life that was universal during the elapsed +years of the present century, and this life +had no place for pre-eminence, no use for +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[33]</span>leadership, except in the categories of business, +applied science and finance. It did its +work to admiration, and the result is before +us in the shape of a society that has been +wholly democratized, not by filling in the +valleys and lifting the malarial swamps of +the submerged masses, but by a levelling of +all down to their own plane.</p> + +<p>The disappearance of religion as a vital +force in human life and society, during the +last century, has been a very potent agency +in urging political, educational and industrial +democracy towards its final triumph, +and in fixing the manacles of capitalism +and industrial slavery on the world. +Since the Reformation religion has been +only a dissolving tradition, without any real +force or potency in and over society. For +individuals it has, from time to time, possessed +all its old energy: over them it has +exerted all its old influence, and just as great +saints, confessors and even martyrs have shed +their glory over the last century as at any +time in the past. But since the Reformation +religion has gone back to the catacombs +whence Constantine had drawn it fifteen +centuries ago: it is now the precious possession +of the individual, hidden, cloistered, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[34]</span>fearful of coming to the light. As a dominating +influence over states, as a controlling +power in diplomacy, business, politics, philosophy, +education, art, or over communities +as such, it is now, and has been for a +long time, a negligible factor.</p> + +<p>This is true as well of Catholicism as of +Protestantism. For generations at a time +it has been the effective moral and spiritual +guardian of nations, and while this was true +civilization flourished as neither before nor +since. The Renaissance destroyed the claim +of the Church, as it was then, to such moral +and spiritual leadership, and the Reformation +and Revolution destroyed the fact. For +a time, as a result of the Counter-Reformation, +something of the old leadership was +restored in all its plenitude, where Protestantism +had not taken effect, but little by +little it surrendered to the new spirit in the +world, until now it is not only impotent +amongst the nations, it is as well conditioned +by the same considerations of materialism +and opportunism and a false democracy, as +Protestantism, industrialism and the capitalistic-scientific +state. The Church still +carries <i lang="it">in petto</i> all that was ever her possession, +including infinite possibilities of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[35]</span>beneficent action and influence; at present, +however, this is inoperative, and with the +rest of the world she stands hesitant and +diffident, rejected by the majority of men, +ignored by states and denied even the form +of leadership.</p> + +<p>Democracy in government and democracy +in education have each played their +part in the destruction of leadership and +the establishing of the reign of mediocrity. +There is yet a third aspect, or rather result, +of the same force, which may perhaps prove +in the end the most significant of all, and +that is the democratization of society by the +breaking down of the just and normal barriers +of race, first through the so-called +“melting pot” process, second through the +substitution of the mongrel for the product +of pure blood by reason of the free and reckless +mixing of incompatible strains. From +the beginning of modern democracy it has +been with its adherents a cardinal point of +faith that a “free country” should set no +limits to immigration of any race, class or +degree of cultural development. It is +equally a dogma that under a true democracy +there is no discrimination possible between +individuals on the score of difference +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[36]</span>in race, blood or status, and that therefore +no restrictions should be recognized or established +which would control or limit +absolute freedom of union in marital relations +and the legal procreation of children.</p> + +<p>The nineteenth century superstition, +erected by the doctrinaire protagonists of +“evolution,” that human progress was both +automatic and constant, through the acquisition +of new qualities by education, the +force of environment, and “natural selection,” +has been the scientific justification +for the supposedly “democratic” principle +of free immigration and free mating. Were +the theory demonstrably true it would indeed +negative the chief arguments for the scrupulous +recognition and preservation of race +values both in marriage and control of immigration. +If character is determined by +education and environment, and is transmitted +in substance generation after generation, +the question is manifestly only one of +enough education, of the right kind, and distributed +with sufficient generality. Mongol +and Slovak, Malay and Hottentot stand on +the same plane with Latin and Saxon and +Celt, for it is merely a question of education, +environment and continued breeding; +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[37]</span>good is cumulative, automatically transmitted, +and time is the answer to all.</p> + +<p>On this superstition has been erected the +great modern system of universal state +education. With a mechanical exactness it +has failed to produce appreciable results. +State education, secularized, standardized, +compulsory, has left native character untouched, +furnishing only a body of faculties, +used to good ends if such was the character-predisposition +of the individual, for base +ends if this race or family predisposition so +determined. Nor is there any evidence +whatever that what the father acquires the +son inherits. It is a commonplace of sociology +that the American-born son of the foreign-born +immigrant of a decadent race or +inferior blood who himself had reacted to +the stimulus of a new environment and unprecedented +educational opportunities, is +not in general an advance over his progenitor +either in character or capacity, but rather, +however great his educational acquirement, +a retrogression and a return to type.</p> + +<p>Empirical “science” of the nineteenth +century yields to the more exact science of +the twentieth century, and it is now admitted +that acquired characteristics are not +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[38]</span>heritable. That which persists is some indelible +quality of blood or of race, modified +by the conjunction of two germ plasms in +generation; while new species are not the +result of the building up of one characteristic +added to another by inheritance and the +process of “natural selection” and the “survival +of the fittest,” but of some cataclysmic +action the nature and source of which no +scientist has determined or dared to assume.</p> + +<p>With the breakdown of this once popular +theory, the factor of blood becomes no longer +negligible and the doctrine of the omnipotence +of education and environment falls +to the ground, yet we still continue debauching +race by free movement of peoples +through immigration, and by unrestrained +mating amongst men and women of alien +racial qualities. In large sections of America +society is now completely mongrel, and +the same is true of portions of Europe +where the process is of increasing force. +Through uncontrolled alliances the same +thing is happening in blood, and apparently +the whole world is about to repeat +what already has happened in Russia, the +Balkans and Central America.</p> + +<p>The appeal of the eugenist to biology and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[39]</span>the testimony of botany and zoölogy is dangerous +when carried too far—as it generally +is—for it leaves out of account the element +of the soul, which is a factor that +enters into the human consideration and is +not operative in the case of plants and beasts. +For those who deny its existence except as +a biological product of the working of +purely physical forces, the democratic principle +of the free movement, intercourse and +mating of peoples of every known blood, +race and status can only appear the blackest +and most imbecile crime in the human calendar. +Continued for another generation +or two the result can only be universal mongrelism +and the consequent end of culture +and civilization. Cross-fertilization and +the producing of special and higher types +thereby is a perfectly artificial process, and +however brilliant the result in the first instance +the tendency of reversion to type is +inexorable. Either the result is a hybrid +without power of propagation, or a precarious +phenomenon tending inevitably towards +a retrogression that in a few generations +comes back to the normal type.</p> + +<p>Nor is the situation much better when regarded +from the standpoint of those who +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[40]</span>postulate of each individual a spiritual factor +that is not the product of biological processes +but is something of a different nature +added thereto. This element in the human +entity works towards the negativing or +amelioration of the conditions consequent +on the predispositions determined by heredity—race +factors, blood tendencies, new +inclinations that are the result of the combining +of two different sets of parental characteristics—and +towards the utilization of +the possibilities inherent in education and +environment. It is, however, not omnipotent; +it is conditioned by the nature of the +various forces with which it deals, and it +can rise superior to them only when it calls +into play the energy of those kindred spiritual +forces that exist, are universally available, +and are the only sure instrument of +victory over the gravitational pull of a predetermined +natural handicap. Recognition +of, and reliance on, these remedial factors +decrease in inverse ratio to their necessity, +and this is true both of the individual and +the community as a whole. The time comes +for both when the power of the degenerative +forces becomes so great through poverty of +blood, hybridization of race and depravity +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[41]</span>of status, that the energy of the spiritual factor +is negatived, and the individual or the +community or the race declines, completes +the final surrender, and fails, disappearing +in ignominy and oblivion. There is no +tragedy greater than that of the human soul +full of the promise and potency and desire +of good things, imprisoned in the forbidding +circle of mongrel blood, inimical +inheritance and pernicious environment +against which it desperately rebels, but from +which there is no possibility of escape except +through the power of supernatural +assistance on which it no longer possesses +the impulse or the will to call.</p> + +<p>Democracy of method then, not democracy +of ideal, has not only failed to attain +the supreme objects for which, in its protean +forms, it has been devised, it has as well +brought into existence a system that has +practically eliminated sane, potent and constructive +leadership and has therefore betrayed +society, involving it in a profound +mediocrity which now confronts that fate +which always follows identical progress in +other categories of the organic world,—reversion +to type and ultimate sterility.</p> + +<p>And so we stand to-day where the Great +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[42]</span>War has revealed us, peoples without leaders; +helpless, inefficient and, barring the +miracle of redemption through bitter chastizement, +hurrying on to anarchy or slavery +as the fortunes of war may determine. The +true democracy of St. Louis, Edward I +and Washington is forgotten and a false +democracy has taken its place, employing +the old shibboleths but ignoring the +thing itself, while inventing one new device +after another to serve as a red herring drawn +across the trail pursued implacably by the +ever-increasing numbers of those who see +the inefficiency and deceitfulness of it all, +and maintain their pursuit so that in the end +they may establish what is to them democracy +pure and simple, but is in fact its +<i lang="la">reductio ad absurdum</i>.</p> + +<p>Whatever the issue of the war there is for +the world neither release from intolerable +menace nor yet a proximate salvation. The +war that is redeeming myriads of souls +leaves the organic system of society, both material +and spiritual, untouched. Were peace +to come to-morrow, after a brief period of +readjustment life would go on much as +before, with industrialism supreme and +capitalism <i>versus</i> proletarianism the conditioning +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[43]</span>clauses of its unstable equilibrium; +with the parliamentary system still in vogue, +and all this means of incapacity, opportunism +and the political survival of the unfit; +with religion in a condition of heresy against +heresy and all against a thin simulacrum of +Catholicity; with philosophy still clinging +to the shreds and tatters of evolution or remodelling +itself on the plausible lines of an +intellectualized materialism; with the mongrelizing +of blood and community going +steadily forward, and with education prowling +through the ruins of scientific determinism, +and struggling ever to build out of its +shreds and shards some new machine that +will make even more certain the direct application +of scholastic results to the one problem +of wealth production—with education +failing as before to produce leaders to +fill a demand that no longer exists.</p> + +<p>The best that one can say, if peace really +comes again and man returns once more to +his old ways of life, is that this return will +be for the briefest of periods. The war is +only the first of a series, for one war alone +cannot undo the cumulative errors of five +centuries. Either after a year or two for +the taking of breath, or merging into it without +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[44]</span>appreciable break, will come the second +world-wide convulsion, the war for the revolutionizing +of society, which will run its long +and terrible course in the determined effort +to substitute for our present industrial system +of life (in itself perhaps the worst man +has devised) something more consonant +with the principles of justice. And the +third, which may also follow immediately +after the second, or merge into it, or even +precede it, will be the war between the false +democracy, now everywhere in evidence, +and whatever is left of the true democracy +of man’s ideal. From these three visitations +there is no escape. The thing we have +so earnestly and arduously built up out of +Renaissance, Reformation and Revolution, +with industrialism and scientific determinism +as the structural material, is not a civilization +at all, and it must be destroyed in +order that the ground may be cleared for +something better. At first it seemed that +one war might do the work, when we considered +the glorious regeneration of France +and the heroism and self-sacrifice of all our +allies. We know better now. We can see +that the war has not touched the industrial +problem at all, nor the religious nor the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[45]</span>social nor the political. Capitalist on the one +hand, proletarian on the other, when they +stop to think of themselves in either capacity, +are just of the same old kidney as before, +and the problem of final solution only hangs +in abeyance. The same is true of government +in France, England, America. Patriotism +and devotion, genuine as they are in +many cases, serve only as a costume easily +laid aside, and underneath is just the same +old politician, learning nothing, forgetting +nothing. Nothing is added to the issue by +rotund phrases about the warfare for universal +democracy. When nations are +blindly and half unconsciously fighting for +the last shreds of honour and liberty left +over from an old Christian civilization, +their case is not fortified by suggestions that +they really are struggling to preserve and +extend representative government, universal +suffrage or direct legislation; rather +something is taken away from a holy cause.</p> + +<p>Great leaders could not have averted the +war, and when Lloyd George declares that +if Germany had been a democracy the war +could not have occurred, he is simply indulging +in the standard type of political +jargon. The issue was too great to be set +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[46]</span>aside by a change from imperialistic efficiency +to democratic incapacity.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, it is true that men competent +to see clearly, capable of thinking +constructively, and with will to lead capably, +might, at this juncture, make this +the last war and avert the grim terror of the +two others to come. “Mene, Tekel, Upharsin” +is on the wall in words of fire and +blood, and the Belshazzars of modernism +can neither understand them, nor, which is +worse, find their interpreter, therefore they +and we go on to our predestined fate.</p> + +<p>Democracy, without the supreme leadership +of men who by nature or divine direction +can speak and act with and by authority, +is a greater menace than autocracy. +Men and nations have been what they have +been, either for good or evil, not by the will +of a numerical majority but by the supreme +leadership of the few—seers, prophets, +captains of men; and so it always will be. +When, as now, the greatest crisis in fifteen +centuries overpasses the world, and society +sinks under the nemesis of universal mediocrity, +then we realize that the system has +doomed itself, since, impotent to produce +leaders, it has signed its own death warrant.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[47]</span></p> + +<p>What we confront through democracy <em>as +it is interpreted to-day</em> is a degradation of +the human potential through a double dissipation +of energy. With no defensible standard +of comparative values, all the spiritual +and mental force in men is turned towards +the realization of the unimportant, to which +accomplishment it is given with a prodigality +hardly equalled in the Middle Ages +when it was lavished on the realization of +the essential. Simultaneously man has been +dissipating the stored-up energy of the +world through his mastery of thermodynamics +and his precarious dominion over +electrical forces, at such a rate that physical +potential has been degraded in a hundred +years more than in the preceding hundred +centuries. Of what becomes of this fabulous +force, what the permanent contributions +may be to human life, he cares little. +It is sufficient for him to realize that he is +the arbiter of this gigantic power, and if it +is exploited and dissipated, with nothing of +lasting value to show, he cares no more than +any other type of spendthrift.</p> + +<p>As Henry Adams has said, with cold +irony, “Neither historians nor sociologists +can afford to let themselves be driven into +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[48]</span>admitting that every gain of power—from +gunpowder to steam, from the dynamo to +the Daimler motor—has been made at the +cost of man’s and of woman’s vitality.” Yet +the fact remains that this is true, and our +present deplorable estate is partly the result +of this very degradation and dissipation of +energy, which has been lavished on activities +totally unproductive so far as lasting +benefits are concerned, and spread out over +a vast area where it disappears without +results.</p> + +<p>It would seem that there is in the world +at any one time only a certain amount of +available spiritual energy, which may be +preserved and made effectively operative +through concentration, or lost through dissipation, +while the physical energy, stored up +out of endless ages, is limited in its original +quantity, and only added to, if at all, in a +very small degree. At the beginning of +each new era this spiritual force is precipitated +in the form of great leaders who translate +it, and transmit it in available form (and +directed toward productive ends) to the +general mass of men. Later, the specific +era having reached its meridian, the leaders +pass as the prophets before them, and the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[49]</span>force once concentrated in them, and made +operative, spreads thin and ineffective, and +at last is dissipated through the general +mass of men. At the end the prodigal majority, +having wasted its inherited substance +in riotous living, falls into puerile contests +and finally destroys itself, and another era +takes its place in history to the accompaniment +of war and anarchy. So Greece lost +its leaders and squandered its intellectual +heritage; so Rome dissipated its Imperial +force and succumbed to barbarism; so Mediævalism +played fast and loose with its +spiritual capital, and so modernism is now +wasting all it had inherited from these three +antecedent periods, and prepares to take its +place with antiquity.</p> + +<p>From the earliest Renaissance, great men +in whom were concentrated the dynamic +force of a crescent era, built up the imposing +and consistent thing called modernism. +Great men transformed this into the terms of +industrial civilization, when they had given +their commanding abilities to the discovery +and the utilization of the latent physical +forces inherent in the world, hitherto untouched +by antecedent generations. Then +they ceased, almost by a cataclysmic cutting-off, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[50]</span>and little men, little in spirit and crafty +rather than creative, took into their hands the +carrying out of the last phase of epochal development—the +establishing of the hegemony +of the world on a basis of physical and +intellectual force from which the last elements +of morality had been purged away. +Little men, blinded, puzzled and appalled, +met the crisis as best they could, and for +three years the world has been plunged in +carnage and destruction, while military, +political and psychological blunders have +followed each other in a witches’ sabbath +of incapacity.</p> + +<p>And now the victory of the shrewd, cynical +and definitely immoral forces, so long +held impossible even in thought, is more +clearly indicated than at any time since the +Battle of the Marne. The exploits of +Russia in its efforts to make the “world safe +for democracy” may very well prove the +determining factor. A miracle is of course +possible, but at present not predicable. A +Napoleon there, a Charlemagne in France, +a Washington here, even a Cromwell in +England, might avert the nemesis of mediocrity, +but a Kerensky, a Painlevé, a Lloyd +George does not fill the bill. With a German +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[51]</span>victory and a German peace, modernism, +supreme over all the world, may establish +a régime of mechanistic efficiency. +Imperial, Godless, temporally superb, but +without real leaders, it can only prove an +interlude of plausibility, a preface to sudden +degeneration, and the chaos of the end +of the century, when the world-slavery of +Teutonistic modernism goes down to its +final ruin, will leave the record of the +present war as that of a mere rehearsal.</p> + +<p>And if the miracle happens; if the leader +comes who can shatter the Brumagem efficiency +of Prussia, and so the world is saved +from a fate it richly deserves, can we say +that we have a better hope? Yes, if with +victory comes realization of what the war +means, and why it came upon us. For this +realization one of two things is necessary: +either such a spiritual regeneration of the +great mass of people, through suffering and +sorrow and privation and the bitter schooling +of the trenches, that they will follow up +their victory over the enemy in the field by +an even greater victory over the enemy at +home in religion, philosophy and society, +purging a chastened world of the last folly +and the last wickedness of modernism; or +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[52]</span>the coming once more of the great prophets +and captains of men who alone can lead as +their predecessors have always led, and so +build up a new life on the ruins of an old +that has passed in blood and flame and +dishonour.</p> + +<p>If none of these things happens, if there is +a German peace, or an inconclusive “peace +through negotiation,” or a victory in the +field for the Allies that is followed by no +attainment of a new vision; if in the end the +world returns to the same system, the same +basis of judgment, the same standard of +comparative values that held before the +war—what then?</p> + +<p>Russia already has given the answer.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[53]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="POSTSCRIPT"> + POSTSCRIPT + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Written in the spring of the year +1918, as it was, “The Nemesis of +Mediocrity” may very well have become +superannuated as to its estimates of +world-leaders by the time it was published, for +events moved as the avalanche and years were +compressed into days. I have been asked if I +should write differently now, and criticized for +ignoring some unquestionable leaders whose +glory has filled the consciousness of men since +that mysterious twenty-fifth of August, 1918, +when, in an hour, it would seem, overwhelming +German victory turned into inevitable and +crushing defeat, a defeat eternally recorded in +history ten weeks later on that epic Eleventh +of November.</p> + +<p>Yes, in one respect a different estimate would +be set down, but its nature makes only more +salient the lack of real leadership in the categories +of civil life and thought. Leadership +in religion and philosophy is perhaps a degree +less evident than it was nine months ago and +the achievement of “victory without peace” +instead of instigating constructive activity along +these lines seems rather to have acted as a further +deterrent. Lenine and Trotsky are more +to the front with a certain leadership that is at +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[54]</span>least striking, if one is disposed to accept what +they offer as constituting the sort of thing one +has in mind when thinking of the great leaders +of the past. So it may be admitted were Liebknecht +and Rosa Luxemburg until their summary +taking-off. In politics and statecraft the +world on the one hand has lost a real leader in +Roosevelt, while on the other a sort of merger +has been effected whereby—for the moment at +least—all issues have been pooled in one extraordinary +Personality who has become a kind +of super-leader, universal dictator, Manager +of the World—the adequate phrase does not +suggest itself. That here is leadership of Brobdignagian +degree no one could deny, but in a +way this supersession of the many by the one +would seem to argue in favour of the original +hypothesis that leadership, as a working fact +in society as a whole, has ceased. Never before, +except perhaps in the case of the Dark +Ages, when Charlemagne stood as the one lone +personality in the midst of blank incompetence, +has a phenomenon such as this presented itself. +Of the ultimate result for the world it is still +too early to venture a forecast. On the historians +of the far future must fall the burden +of estimate.</p> + +<p>At the present writing this singularity of +leadership would appear to be threatened by +M. Clemenceau who in the first edition of this +book was carelessly referred to as “the superannuated.” +Again the word was hardly descriptive, +but it was used at a time when the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[55]</span>once redoubtable “Tiger” had just made his +sensational re-entry on the scene where he was, +it appears, destined to play a part (at present +unfinished) that at the time was hardly subject +to anticipation. The word is hereby withdrawn +with sincere apologies: “superannuated” he +conspicuously is not. Whether his astute direction +of baffling affairs is, or may become, great +constructive leadership is another matter not +yet determined. By the time this “Postscript” +is published not his alone, but other salient +claims to man-mastership, may have been decided +either in the negative or the affirmative.</p> + +<p>There is one field however in which real +leadership has appeared, manifesting itself +very largely since this book was written: the +field of action. If it had not been so there +would have been no editions of this book subsequent +to the first, nor of any other for that +matter. Barring this miraculous emergence of +great captains, we should by now have become +a series of conquered peoples in vassalage to +Imperial Teutonism.</p> + +<p>To have omitted the name of King Albert +of Belgium was a blunder, but it was of carelessness +rather than of false measure. A great +captain he is, of an army and of a people, in +the sense of all historical greatness; and the +name of Marshal Joffre should also have been +set down in reverence and gratitude. Since the +great Eighteenth of July, men of action have +leaped to the front with a swiftness that is +matched only by quality. Set first the immortal +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[56]</span>name of Marshal Foch, the Great Captain of +the Great War, and then Field Marshal Haig, +Generals Pershing, Petain, Allenby, Castelnau, +Diaz; Admirals Jellicoe, Beatty, Sims and, +thank God, many others. In six months the +lack of four years was supplied, and had the +war gone on another three months to the final +annihilation of the enemy in the field, who can +doubt that the list would have run to four times +its present length? The quality of the men in +the trenches was a glory and an amazement; +on land and sea and in the air young officers +were finding themselves and revealing both +mettle and character as never could have been +during peace. What was is earnest of what +might have been—of what may be, and here +lies the great hope in a time of great doubt.</p> + +<p>In the field of action leadership at last has +shown itself. What democracy and universal +education and wealth and science and industrialism +had failed to make manifest was hammered +out on its hard anvils. Can this tempered +steel be turned from its original destiny; +can the fine swords of the new men of action +be beaten into pruning hooks to gather the ripe +harvest of mingled wheat and tares, and into +ploughshares for the ploughing of the war-fields +in preparation for the greater harvest +that is to come? It is the fateful question on +whose answer hangs all the future.</p> + +<p>The peril of war has given place (at least +for the moment) to the far greater peril of an +untimely “peace” wherein the masters of our +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[57]</span>destiny flounder as in the first years of conflict. +Paris at the present moment, or Europe for +that matter, can hardly be called a centre and +source of serene confidence. “Secret diplomacy” +has yielded to a confusion of words +which are again being employed with notable +success for the concealing of thoughts. Russia +and Germany are midnight mysteries with no +Sherlock Holmes to probe their sinister depths. +No one really knows anything about anything, +and he is told less—so far as the real things +are concerned. Meanwhile the old influences +become operative again; the old two alternatives, +conservatism and radicalism, or under +the new nomenclature, reactionism and Bolshevism, +offer themselves as the only choice, +while the third alternative (which always exists +and is always right, and is never recognized +or victorious) finds neither leaders nor adherents, +although the Great Alternatives represent +only a mean minority on either hand. Legislation +grows more leaderless and imbecile; +ridiculous individuals are increasingly chosen +for important executive and diplomatic positions; +organized religion is either silent on the +one hand or on the other offers as its great solution +the raising of some hundreds of millions +for the purpose of bringing the blessings of +Methodism or Puritanism to the benighted +peoples of the Catholic countries; philosophy +is merged in the sentimental pacifism or the +parlour Bolshevism of the weekly press; art +and letters wander in the “vast inane” and the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[58]</span>feeble gleams of an old liberty are extinguished +in the water-floods of doctrinaire legislation.</p> + +<p>One is impelled to pray for the quick return +of all the men of all the armies, for in them +alone seems the possibility of salvation through +leadership, if (and this is fundamental) they +bring back with them, operative and undiminished, +the vision and the idea of justice and the +good sense the war has revealed in them, and +to them, when all else has failed. Bring them +back and offer them in strong support. Without +this, the future is not entirely clear.</p> + +<p class="right"> + R. A. C. +</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Boston</span>, 12th February, 1919.</p> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78895 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/78895-h/images/cover.jpg b/78895-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..94c5193 --- /dev/null +++ b/78895-h/images/cover.jpg |
