THE RESULTS OF DEMOCRATIC EVOLUTION
1.The Influence upon Social Evolution of Theories of no Rational Value.
We have seen that natural laws do not agree with the aspirations of democracy.We know, also, that such a statement has never affected doctrines already in men's minds.The man led by a belief never troubles about its real value.
The philosopher who studies a belief must obviously discuss its rational content, but he is more concerned with its influences upon the general mind.
Applied to the interpretation of all the great beliefs of history, the importance of this distinction is at once evident.
Jupiter, Moloch, Vishnu, Allah, and so many other divinities, were, no doubt, from the rational point of view, mere illusions, yet their effect upon the life of the peoples has been considerable.
The same distinction is applicable to the beliefs which prevailed during the Middle Ages.Equally illusory, they nevertheless exercised as profound an influence as if they had corresponded with realities.
If any one doubts this, let him compare the domination of the Roman Empire and that of the Church of Rome.The first was perfectly real and tangible, and implied no illusion.The second, while its foundations were entirely chimerical, was fully as powerful.Thanks to it, during the long night of the Middle Ages, semi-barbarous peoples acquired those social bonds and restraints and that national soul without which there is no civilisation.
The power possessed by the Church proves, again, that the power of certain illusions is sufficiently great to create, at least momentarily, sentiments as contrary to the interests of the individual as they are to that of society--such as the love of the monastic life, the desire for martyrdom, the crusades, the religious wars, &c.
The application to democratic and socialistic ideas of the preceding considerations shows that it matters little that these ideas have no defensible basis.They impress and influence men's minds, and that is sufficient.Their results may be disastrous in the extreme, but we cannot prevent them.
The apostles of the new doctrines are quite wrong in taking so much trouble to find a rational basis for their aspirations.
They would be far more convincing were they to confine themselves to making affirmations and awakening hopes.Their real strength resides in the religious mentality which is inherent in the heart of man, and which during the ages has only changed its object.
Later on we shall consider from a philosophical point of view various consequences of the democratic evolution whose course we see accelerating.We may say in respect of the Church in the Middle Ages that it had the power of profoundly influencing the mentality of men.Examining certain results of the democratic doctrines, we shall see that the power of these is no less than that of the Church.
2.The Jacobin Spirit and the Mentality created by Democratic Beliefs.
Existing generations have inherited, not only the revolutionary principles but also the special mentality which achieves their success.
Describing this mentality when we were examining the Jacobin spirit, we saw that it always endeavours to impose by force illusions which it regards as the truth.The Jacobin spirit has finally become so general in France and in other Latin countries that it has affected all political parties, even the most conservative.The bourgeoisie is strongly affected by it, and the people still more so.
This increase of the Jacobin spirit has resulted in the fact that political conceptions, institutions, and laws tend to impose themselves by force.Syndicalism, peaceful enough in other countries, immediately assumed in France an uncompromising and anarchical aspect, which betrayed itself in the shape of riots, sabotage, and incendiarism.
Not to be repressed by timid Governments, the Jacobin spirit produces melancholy ravages in minds of mediocre capacity.At a recent congress of railway men a third of the delegates voted approval of sabotage, and one of the secretaries of the Congress began his speech by saying: ``I send all saboteurs my fraternal greeting and all my admiration.''
This general mentality engenders an increasing anarchy.That France is not in a permanent state of anarchy is, as I have already remarked, due to the fact that the parties by which she is divided produce something like equilibrium.They are animated by a mortal hatred for one another, but none of them is strong enough to enslave its rivals.
This Jacobin intolerance is spreading to such an extent that the rulers themselves employ without scruple the most revolutionary tactics with regard to their enemies, violently persecuting any party that offers the least resistance, and even despoiling it of its property.Our rulers to-day behave as the ancient conquerors used; the vanquished have nothing to hope from the victors.
Far from being peculiar to the lower orders, intolerance is equally prominent among the ruling classes.Michelet remarked long ago that the violence of the cultivated classes is often greater than that of the people.It is true that they do not break the street lamps, but they are ready enough to cause heads to be broken.The worst violence of the revolution was the work of cultivated bourgeoisie--professors, lawyers, &c., possessors of that classical education which is supposed to soften the manners.It has not done so in these days, any more than it did of old.One can make sure of this by reading the advanced journals, whose contributors and editors are recruited chiefly from among the professors of the University.
Their books are as violent as their articles, and one wonders how such favourites of fortune can have secreted such stores of hatred.
