40 Years of It

Forty Years of It

The history of democracys progress in a mid-Western cityso, to introduce this book in specific terms, one perhaps inevitably must call it. Yet in using the word democracy, one must plead for a distinction, or, better, a reversion, indicated by the curious anchylosis that, at a certain point in their maturity, usually sets in upon words newly put in use to express some august and large spiritual reality. We all know how this materializing tendency, if one may call it that, has affected our notion and our use of the commonest religious terms like faith, grace, salvation, for instance. Their connotation, originally fluid, spiritual and subjective, has become concrete, limited, partial, ignoble. So, too, in our common speech, even above the catchpenny vocabulary of the demagogue or politician, the word democracy has taken on the limited, partial and ignoble connotation of more or less incidental and provisional forms of democracys practical outcome; or even of by-products not directly traceable to the action of democracy itself. How often, for example, do we see direct primaries, the single tax, the initiative and referendum posed in a kind of[viii] sacramental relation to fundamental democracy; or the essential movement of democracy measured, say, by the increased returns on the Socialist ticket at some local election! The permanent value of this book is that it proceeds out of a truly adequate and philosophical conception of democracy. That the collective human spirit should know itself, , that the state, the communal unit, should be, in Mr. Arnolds phrase, the expression of our best self, which is not manifold and vulgar and unstable and contentious and ever varying, but one and noble and secure and peaceful and the same for all mankind; here we have in outline the operation of democracy. One could not give this volume higher praise than to say, as in justice one must say, that it clearly discerns and abundantly conveys the spirit which works in human nature toward this end. How important it is to maintain this fluid, philosophical and spiritual view of democracy may be seen when we look about us and consider the plight of thoseespecially the many now concerned in politics, whether professionally or as eager amateurswho for lack of it confuse various aspects of the political problem of liberty with the social problem of equality. With political liberty or with self-expression of the individual in politics, democracy[ix] has, and ever has had, very little to do. It is our turbid thought about democracy that prevents our seeing this. The aristocratic and truculent barons did more for the political freedom of Englishmen than was ever done by democracy; a selfish and sensual king did more to gain the individual Englishman his freedom of self-expression in politics. In our own country it is matter of open and notorious fact that a political party whose every sentiment and tendency is aristocratic has been the one to bring about the largest measures of political enfranchisement. Now, surely, one may heartily welcome every enlargement of political liberty, but if one attributes them to a parentage which is not theirs, if one relates them under democracy, the penalty which nature inexorably imposes upon error is sure to follow. If, therefore, in the following pages the author seems occasionally lukewarm toward certain enfranchising measures, I do not understand that he disparages them, but only that he seesas their advocates, firmly set in the confusion we speak of, cannot seethat their connection with democracy is extremely indistinct and remote. Equalitya social problem, not to be worked out by the mechanics of politics, but appealing wholly to the best self, the best reason and spirit of man,this is democracys concern, democracys[x] chief interest. It is to our authors praise, again, that he sees this clearly and expresses it convincingly. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 67648
Author: Whitlock, Brand
Release Date: Mar 18, 2022
Format: eBook
Language: English
Publisher: D. Appleton and Company,1913
Publication Date: 1913
Publisher Country: United States