ATTITUDES TOWARD HUMAN NATURE 9 



the red ant in all its activities to procure its captives. Ideas do 

 not make a hero out of him, but he makes heroes of ideas, be- 

 cause they serve him in his ascent. 



Because he is the most subtle, the most complex and the most 

 deceptive type of careerist, he is the most dangerous to the adven- 

 ture and speculation in intellect which mankind is. To say that 

 he is a wolf in sheepskin is to be unjust to him, since he is most 

 successful when he is most unaware of his own charlatanry. He 

 is most sincere when he is most insincere, and most truthful when 

 he lies best. A little self-consciousness of hypocrisy is a corrupt- 

 ing thing, much of it completely incompatible with the most suc- 

 cessful careerism. TartufTe is always applauded by the world 

 when he plays Hamlet, if he really believes in himself as Hamlet. 

 And, as all he has to do, if he is at all talented, is to look into 

 his glass and see himself in the part, he carries it off very well. 



Why the Statesman Fails 



Slaves and careerists, subnormals and abnormals, are the im- 

 portant elements of the constituency of every modern statesman. 

 The financial and social careerists as business men, professionals, 

 artists, publicists, presidents of countries, politicians, philosophers 

 dominate his outlook, his plans, his horizon. The slaves, the 

 inferiors, the subnormals exist merely to be exploited by them. 

 No one questions the causes of the multiplicity of them. No one 

 asks why there are so many little lives. For a fundamentally 

 minded statesman the control of the production of the careerist, 

 why he is produced, and how he may be prevented, becomes the 

 primary problem of his art. 



Well, you say, what are you going to do about it? That is 

 human nature. The Evils of Human Nature! There is the 

 perpetual answer to be repeated by our clever editors unto Eter- 

 nity. You cannot get away from human nature. It is human 

 nature to be a careerist. It is human nature to put the immediate 

 triumphs of the self and its pleasures above the more indirect, 

 the more remote and distant benefits of a great, wonderful, free 

 community. We are all careerists. In so far as democracy has 

 succeeded as a form, it has persisted because there was in it for 

 the common man the promise of his getting more out of life that 

 way than any other way. For himself. And the devil take the 

 others. The myopia of such crude selfishness continues to deter- 

 mine his politics to this very day. And so he proceeds to vote for 



