{"id":3169,"date":"2013-07-13T01:46:26","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:46:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3169"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:46:26","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:46:26","slug":"29-the-peril-of-the-world-state-vol-the-ideal-of-human-unity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/02-other-editions\/the-ideal-of-human-unity\/29-the-peril-of-the-world-state-vol-the-ideal-of-human-unity","title":{"rendered":"-29_The Peril of The World-State.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

\nCHAPTER XXVII<\/b> <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nTHE PERIL OF THE WORLD-STATE<\/b><\/font>
\n<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nT<\/font>HIS<\/font> then is the extreme possible form of a World-State,
\nthe form dreamed of by the socialistic, scientific, humanitarian
\nthinkers who represent the modern mind at its highest point of
\nself-consciousness and are therefore able to detect the trend of
\nits tendencies, though to the half-rationalised mind of the ordinary man whose view does not go beyond the day and its immediate morrow, their speculations may seem to be chimerical and
\nUtopian. In reality, they are nothing of the kind; in their essence,
\nnot necessarily in their form, they are, as we have seen, not only
\nthe logical outcome, but the inevitable practical last end of the
\nincipient urge towards human unity, if it is pursued by a principle of mechanical unification,\u2014that is to say, by the principle of
\nthe State. It is for this reason that we have found it necessary to
\nshow the operative principles and necessities which have underlain the growth of the unified and finally socialistic nation-State,
\nin order to see how the same movement in international unification must lead. to the same results by an analogous necessity of
\ndevelopment. The State principle leads necessarily to uniformity, regulation, mechanisation; its inevitable end is socialism.
\nThere is nothing fortuitous, no room for chance in political and
\nsocial development, and the emergence of socialism was no accident or a thing that might or might not have been, but the inevitable result contained in the very seed of the State idea. It was
\ninevitable from the moment that idea began to be hammered out
\nin practice. The work of the Alfreds and Charlemagnes and other <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-247<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\npremature national or imperial unifiers contained this as their
\nsure result, for men work almost always without knowing for
\nwhat they have worked. But in modern times, the signs are so
\nclear that we need not be deceived or imagine, when we begin
\nto lay a mechanical base for world-unification, that the result
\ncontained in the very effort will not insist on developing, however far-off it may seem at present from any immediate or even
\nany distant possibilities. A strict unification, a vast uniformity,
\na regulated socialisation of united mankind will be the predestined fruit of our labour. <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nThis result can only be avoided if an opposite force interposes and puts in its veto, as happened in Asia where the State
\nidea, although strongly affirmed within its limits, could never go
\nin its realisation beyond a certain point, because the fundamental principle of the national life was opposed to its full intolerant
\ndevelopment. The races of Asia, even the most organised, have
\nalways been peoples rather than nations in the modern sense.
\nOr they were nations only in the sense of having a common soul-life, a common culture, a common social organisation, a common
\npolitical head, but not nation-States. The State machine existed
\nonly for a restricted and superficial action; the real life of the
\npeoples was determined by other powers with which it could
\nnot meddle. Its principal function was to preserve and protect
\nthe national culture and to maintain sufficient political, social
\nand administrative order\u2014as far as possible an immutable order\u2013 for the real life of the people to function undisturbed in its own
\nway and according to its own innate tendencies. Some such
\nunity for the human race is possible in the place of an organised
\nWorld-State, if the nations of mankind succeed in preserving
\ntheir developed instinct of nationalism intact and strong enough
\nto resist the domination of the State idea. The result would then
\nbe not a single nation of mankind and a World-State, but a single
\nhuman people with a free association of its nation-units. Or it
\nmay be the nation as we know it might disappear, but there
\nwould be some other new kind of group-units, assured by sonic
\nsufficient machinery of international order in the peaceful and <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-248<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nnatural functioning of their social, economical and cultural relations. <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nWhich then of these two major possibilities would be preferable? To answer that question we have to ask ourselves, what
\nwould be the account of gain and loss for the life of the human
\nrace which would result from the creation of a unified World-State. In all probability the results would be, with all allowance
\nfor the great difference between then and now, very much the
\nsame in essence as those which we observe in the ancient Roman
\nEmpire. On the credit side, we should have first one enormous
\ngain, the assured peace of the world. It might not be absolutely
\nsecure against internal shocks and disturbances; but, supposing
\ncertain outstanding questions to be settled with some approach
\nto permanence, it would eliminate even such occasional violences
\nof civil strife as disturbed the old Roman imperial economy and,
\nwhatever perturbations there might still be, need not disturb
\nthe settled fabric of civilisation so as to cast all again into the
\nthroes of a great radical and violent change. Peace assured, there
\nwould be an unparalleled development of ease and well-being.
\nA great number of outstanding problems would be solved by the
\nunited intelligence of mankind working no longer in fragments,
\nbut as one. The vital life of the race would settle down into an
\nassured rational order comfortable, well-regulated, well-informed,
\nwith a satisfactory machinery for meeting all difficulties, exigencies and problems with the least possible friction, disturbance
\nand mere uncertainty of adventure and peril. At first, there
\nwould be a great cultural and intellectual efflorescence. Science
\nwould organise itself for the betterment of human life and the
\nincrease of knowledge and mechanical efficiency. The various
\ncultures of the world\u2014those that still exist as separate realities
\n\u2014would not only exchange ideas more intimately, but would
\nthrow their gains into one common fund and new motives and
\nforms would arise for a time in thought and literature and Art.
\nMen would meet each other much more closely and completely
\nthan before, develop a greater mutual understanding rid of many
\naccidental motives of strife, hatred and repugnance which now <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-249<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nexist, and arrive, if not at brotherhood,\u2014which cannot come by
\nmere political, social and cultural union,\u2014yet, at some imitation
\nof it, a sufficiently kindly association and interchange. There
\nwould be an unprecedented splendour, ease and amenity in this
\ndevelopment of human life, and no doubt some chief poet of
\nthe age, writing in the common or official tongue,\u2014shall we
\nsay, Esperanto?\u2014would sing confidently of the approach of the
\ngolden age or even proclaim its actual arrival and eternal duration. But after a time, there would be a dying down of force, a
\nstatic condition of the human mind and human life, then stagnation, decay,
\ndisintegration. The soul of man would begin to wither in the midst of his
\nacquisitions.  <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nThis result would come about for the same essential reasons I
\nas in the Roman example. The conditions of a vigorous life would
\nbe lost\u2014liberty, mobile variation and the shock upon each other
\nof freely developing differentiated lives. It may be said that this
\nwill not happen, because the World-State will be a free democratic State, not a liberty-stiffling empire or autocracy, and because liberty and progress are the very principle of modern life
\nand no development would be tolerated which went contrary
\nto that principle. But in all this, there is not really the security
\nthat seems to be offered. For what is now, need not endure under
\nquite different circumstances and the idea that it will is a strange
\nmirage thrown from the actualities of the present on the possibly
\nquite different actualities of the future. Democracy is by no
\nmeans a sure preservative of liberty; on the contrary, we see today the democratic system of government march steadily towards
\nsuch an organised annihilation of individual liberty as could
\nnot have been dreamed of in the old aristocratic and monarchical
\nsystems. It may be that from the more violent and brutal forms
\nof despotic oppression which were associated with those systems,
\ndemocracy has indeed delivered those nations which have been fortunate enough to achieve liberal forms of government, and
\nthat is no doubt a great gain. It revives now only in periods of revolution and of excitement, often in the forms of mob tyranny or a savage revolutionary <\/b> or reactionary repression. But there is     <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-250<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\na deprivation of liberty which is more respectable in appearance,
\nmore subtle and systematised, more mild in its method because
\nit has a greater force at its back, but for that very reason more
\neffective and pervading. The tryanny of the majority has become
\na familiar phrase and its deadening effects have been depicted
\nwith a great force of resentment by certain of the modern intellectuals;* but what the future promises us is something more
\nformidable still, the tyranny of the whole, of the self-hypnotised
\nmass over its constituent groups and units.\u2020 <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nThis is a very remarkable development, the more so as in
\nthe origins of the democratic movement individual freedom was
\nthe ideal which it set in front both in ancient and modern times.
\nThe Greeks associated democracy with two main ideas, first, an
\neffective and personal share by each citizen in the actual government, legislation, administration of the community; secondly,
\na great freedom of individual temperament and action. But
\nneither of these characteristics can flourish in the modem type
\nof democracy, although in the United States of America there
\nwas at one time a tendency to a certain extent in this direction.
\nIn large States, the personal share of each citizen in the government cannot be effective; he can only have an equal share
\nillusory for the individual although effective in the mass, in the
\nperiodical schedule of his legislators and administrators. Even
\nif these have not practically to be elected from a class which is
\nnot the whole or even the majority of the community, at present
\nalmost everywhere the middle class, still these legislators and
\nadministrators do not really represent their electors. The Power
\nthey represent is another, a formless and bodiless entity, which
\nhas taken the place of monarch and aristocracy, that impersonal
\ngroup-being which assumes some sort of outward form and
\nbody and conscious action in the huge mechanism of the modem
\nState. Against this power the individual is much more helpless <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n* Ibsen in his drama, "An Enemy of the People." <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\u2020 There was first seen the drastic beginning of this phenomenon in
\nFascist Italy and Soviet Russia. At the time of writing this development could
\nbe seen only in speculative prevision. It assumed afterwards the proportions
\nof a growing fact and we can now see its full and formidable body. <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-251<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nthan he was against old oppressions. When he feels its pressure
\ngrinding him into its uniform moulds, he has no resource except either an impotent anarchism or else a retreat, still to
\nsome extent possible, into the freedom of his soul or the freedom
\nof his intellectual being. <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nFor this is one gain of modern democracy, which ancient
\nliberty did not realise to the same extent and which has not yet
\nbeen renounced, a full freedom of speech and thought. And as
\nlong as this freedom endures, the fear of a static condition
\n<\/b>of
\n<\/b>humanity and subsequent stagnation might seem to be groundless,\u2014especially when it is accompanied by universal education
\nwhich provides the largest possible human field for producing an
\neffectuating force. Freedom of thought and speech\u2014the two necessarily go together, since there can be no real freedom of thought
\nwhere a padlock is put upon freedom of speech,\u2014is not indeed
\ncomplete without freedom of association; for free speech means
\nfree propagandism and propagandism only becomes effective by
\nassociation for the realisation of its objects. This the third liberty
\nalso exists with more or less of qualifying limitations of prudent
\nsafeguards in all democratic States. But it is a question whether
\nthese great fundamental liberties have been won by the race with
\nan entire security,\u2014apart from their occasional suspensions even
\nin the free nations and the considerable restrictions with which
\nthey are hedged in subject countries. It is possible that the future
\nhas certain surprises for us in this direction.* Freedom of
\nthought would be the last human liberty directly attacked by the
\nall-regulating State, which will first seek to regulate the whole
\nlife of the individual in the type approved by the communal
\nmind or by its rules. But, when it sees how all-important is the
\nthought in shaping the life, it will be led to take hold of that too
\nby forming the thought of the individual through State education and by training him to the acceptance of the approved communal, ethical, social, religious ideas, as was done in many
\nancient forms of education. Only if it finds this weapon ineffective,<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n* A surprise no longer, but more and more an accomplished fact. At this
\nmoment freedom of speech and thought exists no longer in Russia; it was
\nentirely suspended for a time in Germany and Southern Europe. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-252<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nis it likely to limit freedom of thought directly on the plea of
\ndanger to the State and to civilisation. Already we see the right
\nof the State to interfere with individual thought announced here
\nand there in a most ominous manner. One would have imagined
\nreligious liberty at least was assured to mankind; but recently we
\nhave seen an exponent of new thought advancing positively
\nthe doctrine that the State is under no obligation to recognise
\nthought; it can only be conceded as a matter of expediency, not
\nof right. There is no obligation, it is contended, to allow freedom
\nof cult; and indeed this seems logical; for, if the State has the
\nright to regulate the whole life of the individual, it must surely
\nhave the right to regulate his religion, which is so important a
\npart of his life, and his thought, which has so powerful an effect
\nupon his life.* <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nSupposing an all-regulating socialistic World-State to be established, the freedom of thought under such a regime would
\nnecessarily mean a criticism not only of the details, but of the
\nvery principles of the existing state of things. This criticism, if it
\nis to look not to the dead past but to the future, could only take
\none direction, the direction of anarchism, whether of the spiritual Tolstoian kind, or else the intellectual anarchism which is
\nnow the creed of a small minority but still a growing force in
\nmany European countries. It would declare the free development of the individual as its gospel and denounce government as
\nan evil and no longer at all a necessary evil. It would affirm the
\nfull and free religious, ethical, intellectual and temperamental
\ngrowth of the individual from within as the true ideal of human
\nlife and all else as things not worth having at the price of the
\nrenunciation of this ideal, a renunciation which is described as
\nthe loss of his soul. It would preach as the ideal of society a free
\nassociation or brotherhood of individuals without government
\nor any kind of compulsion. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n* It was an error of prevision to suppose that the State would hesitate for
\na time to suppress freedom of thought altogether. It has been done at once and
\ndecisively by Bolshevist Russia and the totalitarian states. Religious liberty is
\nnot yet utterly destroyed, but is being sternly ground out in Russia, as it was
\nin Germany, by state pressure. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-253<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nWhat would the World-State do with this kind of free
\nthought? It might tolerate it so long as it did not translate itself
\ninto individual and associated action; but the moment it spread
\nor turned towards a practical self-affirmation in life, the whole
\nprinciple of the State and its existence would be attacked and its
\nvery base would be sapped and undermined and in imminent
\ndanger. To stop the destruction at its root or else consent to its
\nown subversion would be the only alternatives before the established Power. But even before any such necessity arises, the
\nprinciple of regulation of all things by the State would have
\nextended itself to the regulation of the mental as well as the
\nphysical life of man by the communal mind which was the ideal
\nof former civilisations. A static order of society would be the
\nnecessary consequence, since without the freedom of the individual a society cannot remain progressive. It must settle into
\nthe rut or the groove of a regulated perfection or of something to
\nwhich it gives that name because of the rationality of system and
\nsymmetrical idea of order which it embodies. The communal
\nmass is always conservative and static in its consciousness and
\nonly moves slowly in the tardy process of subconscient Nature.
\nThe free individual is the conscious progressive: it is only when
\nhe is able to impart his own creative and mobile consciousness to
\nthe mass that a progressive society becomes possible. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-254<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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