Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-09-13
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Continued From First Page)
generation under the impression that
we are at the cross roads, and that the
old ideas. the ideas of the ideas of the
nineteenth century. are giving place TO
triumphant new IDEAS Of different pur-
port Youth loves to go crusading. and
the new generation, fired by an abso-
lutely pure idealism, is out to champion
these new ideas.
The new generation fcrgets. on the
ono hand. that Anticipated though most
of the ideas Of the nineteenth century
are. they represent much that is perma-
nent and cannot be discarded; on the
other hand. they fail to perceive that
the ideas offered to them by their lead
ers and misleaders represent a great
deal that is retrograde, inimical to life,
and worthy of nothing but condemna-
ton
Freedom and democracy, the politi-
cal achievements of the nineteenth
century. are things which cannot be
abolished without a conscious denial
of inner realities. 1t is not possible TO
60 back on freedom and democracy.
All attempts to do so spring from an
unnatural desire to relieve a period
of dead history, to reconquer aban-
doned territory. 1t is abundantly
clear that, allied with defiant national
ism, the so-called new ideas repre-
sent retrogression to the past, and
not, as the new generation believes, an
advance.
Even from the nationalist point OF
view democracy represents the only
possible and thinkable political con-
stitution today AS the offspring of the
bourgeois revolution. democracy is his
torically intertwined with the national
idea With democracy all-powerful
war is an impossibility.
You may be surprised to hear me
championing the cause of democracy
seeing that I am citizen of coun-
try which for some time past has
eliminated parliamentary government
and is being governed by means OF So
called emergency decrees-that is to
say, almost dictatorially.
Sees No Contradiction.
However. therein lies no contradic-
ton. Many years ago, in an account Of
my visit to Paris after the war. I eX-
pressed the opinion that in certain cir
cumstances an enlightened dictator
ship was the most suitable means of
insuring progress in the right direction
II is quite certain that had they had a
free hand, and had they not been
obliged constantly to take into con-
sideration nationalist-public opinion at
home. BRAND and Stresemann could
have advanced the cause of Franco
German understanding and therefore
insured European consolidation to an
incomparably greater extent than they
we're able to do under the sway OF con-
f1icting forces.
The German government. too. would
possibly have progressed farther toward
Franco German Cancellation during the
recent negotiations but for the fact that
it had reason to fear its overthrow at
the hands of the opponents OF concllla-
ton Viewed from the angle of foreign
politics. the German governments
power is therefore far from complete,
while it's policy at home is nothing
more than a makeshift for the purpose
of steering democracy through an
economic crisis which, exploited to the
full by demagogues, is producing an
unhealthy radicalism of the masses and
at the same time threatening the pres
ent form Of government.
AS matter Of fact, democracy today
is a classical conception, far nopler
than the system of brute force. Whlch
threatens to overthrow and replace
",
mean the downfall of Europe. In this
connection 1 would call especial atten-
ton to Jose Ortega Y Gasset's recently
published Revolt of the Masses.
work of exceptional critical insight
dealing with the psychology OF the mob
type as a new land from cultural
point of view menacing phenomenon.
AS Ortega so convincingly says. 1t is
this mob type who, having found mod
ern civilization ready at hand, regard
1t is a gift of nature; who, ignoring the
human effort that has gone to It's crea-
ton, deride the ideas out OF which IL
has grown and who, incapable OF COM
pretending that political and technical
achievements partake of the same char
acter. value the latter and abuse the
Torment is this mob type which con-
stitutes the backbone of the antl-hu-
man movement which threatens to de-
stroy democracy. They listen to the
theorists who say that democracy is
doomed, they lap up the information
that 1t is an Anticipated set OF ideas
and that the future belongs to BAR
barous system after their own hearts.
Points to Differences.
That takes me back once more to
the mock revolution have already
national socialism to delude the slow
witted. This name Is a lie in itself, for
one need not be a party politician to
know that socialism and national1sm
are not only two different things, but
are, in the present state of affairs, dia-
metrically opposed to each other, and
that the mixing of two conceptions can
only lead to confusion and deception.
This so-called national-socialism IN
Germany is a reactionary mass move
ment which f1atters itself that 1t Is
revolutionary and thereby attracts mil
lions of hot-heads who have nothing to
lose, but whose social vanity neverthe-
less prevents them from joining the
Socialistic proletariat. The vast ma.
tority Of the National-Socialis electors
consists Of these declasse people who
do NOT SZish 10 h regarded as members