The false assumptions of "democracy"

INDEX

Abstract terms, importance of, 12;
have no uniform meaning to-day, 13, 14, 19;
to teach meaning of, leads to instruction in true ideas, 149.
Advertisement, unscrupulous, of commercial foods, 188, 189.
Æsthetic values disregarded to-day, 205.
Agitators, their unscrupulous use of words, 181, 182.
Ale, old English, the value of, 195, 196;
the brewers’ objection to, 196.
Amputation, resorted to in desperation by the weary, 30.
Aristotle, on the desirability of a liberal education, 127 n.
Beer, impure, 193;
harmful properties of, 195;
utterly worthless, 196.
Beliefs, see Ideals.
Bishop of London, his misuse of words, 16.
Bolshevism, a conspiracy against life, 35;
insists on compulsory labour, 93;
offers only material ideals, 162.
Bolshevist, the, an invalid, 31;
a determined opponent of life, 36.
Brahmin, the, highly respected though poor, 40.
Bread, pure loaf of, unobtainable in many parts of England, 190.
Cabbage, should be eaten raw, 192.
Catachresis, the rule in journalism, 16;
much false doctrine is, 134.
Charles I., an ideal monarch, 122.
Charwomen, charitable, do not go out on missions of comfort to the rich, 168.
Church, the, its failure to teach sound views about life and humanity, 129;
of the Middle Ages protected the poor and ignorant, 135;
had a sense of responsibility, 135.
Cities, large, breed misanthropy, 174, 175;
mistake of allowing, to spread indefinitely, 211-213.
Citizen, the desirable, must be well conducted, 126.
Cleavage, the industrial Age has worked upon the principle of, 208;
the expedient of the vulgar rich, 210, 211;
must be abolished if harmony is to be restored, 211.
Communism, a conspiracy against Life, 35;
its unscrupulous appeal to malcontents, 112;
offers only material ideals, 162.
Condorcet, not a thinker but a mathematician, 67.
Cro-Magnons, doubtful whether modern man is better or better off than the, 158.
Culture, a common, produces a common tongue, 11;
might be saved by a re-definition of words, 26.
David, his moral insistence on justice, 47, 48.
Decline, means retrograde development, 34.
Definition, of words desirable, 21;
and might avert revolution, 25, 26.
Degenerates, hate Life as she is, 59.
Democratic institutions, put a damper on superiority, 174, 203.
De Quincey, on poetry, 83.
Despondency, prevalent to-day, 153;
national, leads to social unrest, 156;
not due to a material cause alone, 157;
but to a lack of satisfying ideals, 158, 159, 161;
the only cure for, new values and a new faith, 161;
economic changes cannot cure, 163;
due to false values, 173;
cannot be cured by social reform, 177.
Development, the law of higher life, 33, 34.
Disease, European attitude of toleration towards, totally wrong, 173.
Disraeli, his speech on the Compensation for Disturbance Bill, 95.
Education, failure of modern, 123;
the object of State, the rearing of worthy citizens, 126;
should be a training in manners rather than in the acquisition of facts, 127, 128;
elementary, does not teach sound views about Life and Humanity, 129-131;
does not even succeed in teaching means of intercourse, 131;
importance of knowledge of native tongue in, 132;
elementary, an expensive farce, 143.
Education Act of 1870, introduced cheap literature, 15.
Emigration, the violence of, 107.
English, importance of teaching, 145;
better teachers wanted for, 146.
Equality, quite meaningless to-day, 24;
the cry of, can provoke real emotion, 61;
originally borrowed from mathematics, 62;
and has no meaning except in mathematics, 65, 76;
of opportunity, the fallacy of, 67-71;
not desired by the beautiful, able or desirable, 72;
a powerful weapon in the hands of the discontented, 73;
due to indolence and a belief in Justice, 74;
had a definite meaning at the end of the 18th century, 75;
a decoy cry when superiority is extinct, 210.
Errors, do not right themselves, 194.
Eugenists, their moral interpretation of phenomena, 47, 48.
Fatalism, the, of modern Europe, 95.
Feminism, has broken valuable domestic traditions, 192 n.
Food, inferior, purveyed to the masses, 123;
ill-prepared, at bottom of physiological causes of ill-health and social unrest, 188, 189, 190, 194, 197;
unscrupulous advertisements of commercial, 188, 189;
suggested reforms in, 195;
question of, should lead to discouragement of urban development, 212.
Freedom, Rousseau’s misunderstanding of, 17;
now meaningless, 21, 23;
but provokes wild enthusiasm, 22;
Rousseau’s idea of, 22;
a wildly fantastic idea, 77;
babies have no, to choose their destiny, 78;
a will o’ the wisp in manhood, 80;
nonexistent even in childhood, 81;
strength has no, 83-85;
the cry of the weak, 84, 85;
the only circumstances when it can have any meaning, 86-89, 92, 94;
the frequency of these circumstances, 88;
real, greater under the Tudors than new, 90;
political, a deception, 90-92.
Gambetta, his “justice immanente,” 44, 45, 182;
a sentimentalist, 57.
Gissing, George, on the comparative happiness of the poor, 169.
Happiness, is relative, 169;
has little to do with material conditions, 170, 172.
Humanitarianism, an inverted form of cruelty, 174.
Ideals, lack of satisfying, leads to social unrest, 158, 159, 161;
loss of, makes words connected with them meaningless, 160;
tyranny of, the most powerful, 179, 180, 183.
Ill-health, Lloyd George on national, 186, 204;
a fundamental cause of social unrest, 187, 188, 194;
great in rural districts owing to bad food, 189;
an inevitable static condition of the masses, 191.
Indolence, may avert disaster in England but not on the Continent, 24;
demands equality, 74.
Industrialism, creates besotting occupations, 89.
Institutions, often outlive the quality of men, 199-202.
Japan, suicide in, 175.
Jefferson, imbibed much nonsense from France, 61 n;
a disciple of Condorcet, 67.
Journalism, a cause of present day muddle, 15;
makes catachresis the rule, 16.
Justice, quite meaningless to-day, 24;
necessary for belief in equality, 44, 74;
the abstraction of a moralist, 45;
Gambetta’s justice immanente, 44, 45, 182;
modern idea of, 46;
and its moral basis, 46-50;
meaningless when applied to the universe, 52;
unknown outside human society, 53, 54;
a myth, 57, 58;
reign of, a visionary ideal, 181.
Labour, dissatisfaction of, 155.
Language, confusion of, leads to revolution, 14, 15, 17;
and to impossibility to lead or be led, 15;
disease of, everywhere rampant, 25;
importance of understanding one’s own, 133, 134;
a knowledge of, the only means of curbing the press, 136;
the English, should be chief subject in State schools, 137, 140.
Liberty, quite meaningless to-day, 24.
Life, has a descending tendency, 33;
development the law of higher, 33;
hopelessly unjust and unmoral, 51-53;
as she is, hated by degenerates, 59;
the enjoyment of, largely æsthetic, 117;
inequality necessary to the charm of, 118;
itself attacked by the Socialist, 119.
Lloyd George, on national ill-health, 186.
Locke, John, put learning last in education, 127 n.
Love, cannot be produced by word of command, 175, 176.
Luther, a slave to his own strength, 83.
Man, Rousseau’s misunderstanding of, 17, 18, 23;
modern, tired in body and spirit, 27-29;
his sickness and degeneracy responsible for decline of our institutions, 31;
made responsible by moralists for the injustices of Life, 50;
his moral interpretation of the world, 51;
modern, essentially democratic, 96;
and suffering from exhaustion, 156;
man, not his institutions wrong to-day, 201-202;
all reform should begin with, himself, 206, 207.
Manners, education in, most essential, 127;
no attention given to, in elementary education, 128, 129, 131;
lack of, falls with greater severity on poor than on rich, 129.
Margarine, vegetable, almost useless to the body, 190.
Mathematician, the, a hopeless psychologist, 62;
dangerous as soon as he deals with humanity, 67.
Mediocrities, alone “free” to choose a calling, 80.
Mediocrity, can only rule in a mediocre way, 184.
Middle Ages, had a common culture, 12;
protected the poor and ignorant, 134.
Mill, John Stuart, proved that Parliament is not representative, 91, 92 n.
Misanthropy, bred by overcrowding of large cities, 174-175.
Monks, the mendicant, lost power when they became rich, 41.
Napoleon, on the cause of the Revolution, 72;
and the lawyers, 82;
a slave to his own strength, 83;
what freedom meant to, 86.
Nature, misunderstood by Rousseau and the Victorian poets, 17, 18;
utterly immoral, 51-53;
innately unjust, 55, 59;
violence supreme in, 99.
Negro slaves, committed suicide on British ships, 175.
Parliament, quite unrepresentative, 91, 92.
Pessimism, takes form of economic struggle among the masses and madness and religious fervour among the rich, 162.
See also Despondency.
Pessimist, the, can alone logically assail Private Property, 36.
Physical conditions, disregarded by modernity, 186.
Poor, the, know certain truths owing to their contact with reality, 130;
social reform directed towards, alone, 165;
not more unhappy than the rich, 166-169.
Population, problem of growth of, 213;
definite policy necessary regarding, 214;
a ruthless policy regarding, probably necessary, 215.
Poverty, to-day entails besotting and heartrending work, foul surroundings and ignorance, 39.
Power, the proper equipment of, 42.
“Practical,” the password of the stupidest beliefs, 178 n;
the foolishness of, reforms, 216.
Press, the, its enormous power to-day, 134;
does not protect the poor and ignorant, 135;
has no sense of responsibility, 136;
a knowledge of language the only means of curbing the, 136;
modern education leads to omnipotence of, 137.
Private property, assailed by present Muddle Age, 31;
a principle of Life, 32, 35;
the principle of, still believed in by the masses, 32, 35;
can be logically assailed only by the pessimist, 36;
among animals, 36;
abuse of, to-day, 37;
the oldest of human principles, 38;
evil results of, to-day, 38-39;
but these not inherent in the principle of, 40.
Procreation, injustice rooted in the very act of, 56, 57;
means violence, 102-113, 125;
society cannot regulate, 109;
inadvisable to meddle with, 112;
limitation of, or deliberate sacrifice can alone eliminate suffering, 114;
“Down with,” should be the cry of the Socialist, 120;
modern lack of responsibility concerning, 215.
Profiteering, an act of violence, 122.
Progress, stupidity a form of, 14;
the last 19th century ideal to perish, 158;
belief in, natural to those who believe in a beneficent deity, 159.
Psycho-analysis, revelations of, in cases where procreative instinct has been checked, 109 n.
Reading, should involve discernment, 139;
real, not taught in State schools, 139;
teaching of English necessary for, 145.
Religion, comforts people for the sufferings of others, 50.
Renaissance, a period of social unrest, 155.
Revolution, due to confusion of language, 14, 15, 17, 19.
Rich, the, their truth-proof environment, 130;
show their misery in neurasthenia, hedonism, etc., 165;
as unhappy as the poor, 166-169.
Right, quite meaningless to-day, 24.
Romanticism, destroys happiness and order, 183;
romantic not to suspect physiological causes for unrest, 188.
Rousseau, his misunderstanding of words led to French Revolution, 17;
falsifies evidence, 23;
a sentimentalist, 52;
his meaningless phrase about freedom, 77, 82.
Rulers, their duty to assuage violence, 122.
Russia, revolution in, fomented by starvation, 185.
Schools, elementary, curriculum in, 141-144;
suggested reform of curriculum, 145-151;
probable good results of this, 151, 152.
Socialism, a conspiracy against Life, 35;
must if honest insist on compulsory labour, 93;
offers only material ideals, 162.
Socialist, the, an invalid, 31;
a determined opponent of Life, 36;
compassionate for the sufferings of mankind, 97;
his desire to eliminate violence, 98;
does not reckon with the basic natural element of procreation, 110;
cannot accept the means by which alone violence can be eliminated from society, 115;
wars against Life itself, 119;
exploits stigma attaching to modern success, 124.
Social Reform, the only question on which modernity is unanimous, 164;
but directed only towards the poor, 164;
aims only at elevation of standard of living of the poor, 165;
directed towards one class only, 172;
cannot cure despondency, 177;
falsely thought to be “practical,” 178 n.
Social unrest, due to despondency, 155, 156;
caused by ill-health, 187, 188, 194, 197.
Starvation, foments revolt, 185.
Strength, has no choice, 82;
or freedom, 83-85;
except in certain cases, 85.
Stupidity, increasing, 14.
Suffering, necessary so long as society is based on violence, 113, 114;
can only be eliminated by restricting procreation, 114;
in modern society not borne by the unworthiest, 124.
Success, is not to-day connected with superiority, 43 n;
stigma attaching to modern, 124.
Sweating, an act of violence, 122.
Tea, in every way deleterious, 191.
Temperance movement, a helpless and Puritanical solution of the liquor question, 195.
Tyranny, of ideas, the most powerful, 179, 180, 183.
Ugliness, increasing, of modern Europe kills love, 177.
Values, transvaluation of, still possible, 42, 43;
the vulgar, of modern society, 124, 125;
survival, alone too ardently followed to-day, 204, 205.
Vanity, responsible for revolution, 73.
Victorian Poets, their misunderstanding of Nature, 171.
Violence, the, of modern wealth, 42;
the desire of Socialists to do away with, 98, 100;
supreme in Nature and essential to life, 99;
cannot be eliminated even from Socialist State, 102, 104;
inherent in procreation, 102-108, 125;
the, of emigration, 107;
necessarily entails suffering, 113;
necessary for the charm of life, 116;
man-made deeds of, 122, 123.
Voluntary actions, generally associated with weak and useless people, 82.
Vote, the, does not secure freedom, 91.
Wealth, to-day tends to get into the hands of the unworthy, 38;
and those who use it unscrupulously, 39;
was not always respected per se, 40, 41;
to-day a curse owing to false values, 42;
connected generally with vulgarity since the 17th century, 209.
Women, the supposed injustice of their lot, 46;
less social than men, 48;
the ignorance of English, about cooking, 191.
Words, may be used as missiles, 13;
may inspire uniform action, 20.
Working-classes, their inarticulateness, 132, 133;
their women’s ignorance of cooking, 191.

The false assumptions of "democracy"

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