RIVAL IDEALS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9820, 17 November 1917, Page 4

RIVAL IDEALS

GERMAN AND BRITISH THE SHAM DEMOCRACY OF THE HUN. 11. Germans write much on German “democracy.” To British “ideas, thc.ro is little enough democracy in Germany. And not only to British ‘ideas.... “Initiative comes from above, never from below, it never ’ springs*'-from the people”; this was written bf Germany by; M. Millioud, a Swisis. . ' It' gives what to us., seems to bo'the, radical difference between tho two peoples: In Britain you start doing -things for yourself ; in Germany?they are : started for you, and perhaps finished for you, by authority. Wo have already given some instances.of this; let us take one, other. Germans have, had-to be taught patriotism; a long succession of ■■writers and teachers has drilled it into them that Germany is worth dying for. Lt has-been well done, ..but ,tho. point is, it had to be. dono. Nothing of the sort was ever done in Britain; everybody there knows-that Britain is worth dying, for, in the same sort of way as they know that they exist. The reasori is, that the German people are not Ger-‘ many; above them, guiding and direct-' ing them, is. the thing they call the State, which, as they are taught, is something other than and above themselves. They learn . thoir duty -to the State ;.ibut they are not tho State, and no one in_ Germany oven pretends that they are." But, we, tho whole people of Britain, are the .British' State; ivo may .say.we are Britain, though in another sense Britain is-.an ,ideal, all of good that over all'.thp, centuries .Las gone to making label and pebple what they are. - THE TRUE SPIRIT - OF DEMOCRACY.

Wo are not democrats because wo have a popular franchise,’ or; our Con stitution, or certain legal rights; . wo. have these things .because wo ,are democratic. . Democracy is a spirit, the spirit of our own free- will and solfrespect. ' It is the result of a slow growth which ha s gone ,on for , centuries, now slower, now, quicker, . but unbroken. Even some‘Germans recognise this; for .instance,, .the. .Majority Socialist ■writer, Dr Paul Leusch, who heartily dislikes Britain, tells us that tho great difficulty in reconciling Ger man Socialists to the new. world-policy ha s been their belief in England, as tho free country. same. way.„_, thp Gorman is not .thg'reverse, of a democrat merely because. ho has no, proper Parliamentary .government, ,because his is a police Stat^,,,mqnagep by irresponsible officials, and, sb f orth ; but because he is a ,complete-stranger to the democratic spirit, and,- -there-, fore, has theso things. -■ All. through* - his history tilings have been .arranged for him from above. "Wo are not n political people,” said Prince Bblow. The answer to this is that they : have never tried.' It must he one ...thing, or the other: either you are.'citizens and responsible for your own destiny, or you arc irresponsible subjects. There is no half-way-house, as some Germans pretend. BRITISH AND GERMAN FREEDOM. For tho answer of the Gorman generally is, that he baa freely chosen the particular organisation;-of his State, and is therefore just as free as the Briton; it makes no difference whether you decide that the will of the people shall be expressed through representatives in Parliament or through a Kaiser and his officials; indeed, the latter is preferable, as you secure experts in the various branches. , Philosophers like Scheler passionately uphold this theory; but it begs the two vital questions. One is that the Gorman people never did decide ; things have always been so; they have known nothing hotter, and they", do not ’ imagin’d j unless they are taught.. The other is* this: In Britain, if you disagree with the ' ac-'-cepted order, you have all the machinery for't-he expression of your will, provided a reasonable-number, of,, people agree with you. In Germany you cannot 'effectively disagree. You can argue as much as you like about tho things that do not matter; but you can take no action (short of a revolution) over the things that do matter; there is no way of doing it. The best definition of democracy in action remains that of Abraham Lincoln : ' Government of the people, by the" people, for the people.” A German therefore has no right to apply the term “‘democracy” to anything in his State, a State of organised gradations of suhordinatitm, in which, hy some process only comprehensible to philosophers, the'‘Kaiser’s word is supposed to: .express tho will of tho people because, they have willed to have a Kaiser.., .If you are not a citizen, you must bo , a subject; and a subject tho German is. His Government looked after him very well in peace, and things, went very nicely, tdLlay ho pays the price of his peaceful acquiescence in a vicious eys-.-tcm. GUIDANCE BY THOUGHT AND BY CONVENTION. This, very briefly put, is how the question of democracy appears to stand as between Britain and Germany. There is, of course, one other very common German argument on the subject ot great intcre-st; that the Briton may be freer in ext-cniats, but the German is freer in the real life of a man, the inner life of thought; -a. Briton does not think what ho chooses, but what public opinion and conventions dictate. It is too big a subject to discuss here. There are plenty of conventions in Britain, no doubt; but anyone who is prevented by them from thinking for himself is not-likely to be a man who,- under - any ‘conditions, would think much ‘that was worth while. Bub the idea of, German thought to-day—or, say,, before the war—being “free” can, only provoke a smile from those who know Germany and know how thouglit-ran .on* certain lines, and how the public service, the schools, tho Universities, were, all controlled Tn thp interest of “orthodox” political opinion. You .might think what you would about.iJulius*

-Caesar or the Gospels true; but you must r . not ‘'think what yon would about the State. No one “got on’’ either in education or. the public service who was not known to be politically orthodox (gesinnungstuchtig); and orthodoxy in this sense meant deference to the opinions of those who know better than you, the generals and the, bureaucrats, who, with the ■Kaiser,- governed Germany. Few phonomona have ever appeared in tho world that were less democratic.—Forwarded by the Royal Colonial Institute,