Party and Patriotism; Or, the Degeneracy of Politics (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. PARTY ORGANISATION AND THE CAUCUS. "The present civilisation tends so strongly to make the power of persons acting in masses the only substantial power in society that there never was more necessity for surrounding individual independence of thought, speech, and conduct with the most powerful defences, in order to maintain that originality of mind and individuality of character, which are the only source of any real progress and of most of the qualities which make the human race much superior to any herd of animals." J. S. Mill. Organisation is a legitimate method of securing co-operation and of giving force and effect to public sentiment. But in politics especially it can never be an unmixed good, and if widely extended is likely to prove a decided evil. Apart from its immediate mischief it must sooner or later act injuriouslyupon both electors and representatives, and as it grows and spreads will inevitably tend to over-organisation. And with over-organisation we shall learn the real temper of the English people. For either they will tamely acquiesce in the loss of all their old proud spirit and independence, or they will rise in revolt against a system which has subtly and imperceptibly robbed them of their freedom. The chief objection to political organisations is, that though they profess to give expression and effect to public opinion, they in fact do much to control and stifle it. Public opinion is the growing, fluctuating, ever-varying sentiment of society. It is a highly-sensitive and impressionable entity, swayed at times by a breath or moved deeply by a thought, liable both to gradual change and to violent transformation. It is obvious that no permanent organisation with fixed aims can ever hope to represent so intangible a quantity. Nor can ...