220 



ARISTO CRA C Y AND E VOL UTION 



Book III 

 Chapter 2 



And now let 

 us turn to 

 political 

 government. 



What can the 

 faculties of 

 average men 

 do when left 

 to themselves ? 



They can 

 accomplish 

 only the 

 simplest 

 actions, 



purely intellectual progress as the domain in which 

 the efficiency of the many stands absolutely at zero. 

 Let us pass now to the domain of political 

 government, and consider to what extent the 

 faculties of the many, as distinct from those of 

 the few, are capable of operating there. This 

 inquiry resolves itself mainly into the question 

 of how much the many can do to direct the 

 activity of the few, the activity of the few being 

 presupposed ; but it will be well to consider first 

 how much, if anything, the many can accomplish, or 

 the faculties of ordinary men can accomplish, without 

 any assistance from exceptional faculties whatsoever. 

 In the domain of politics, which is here meant to 

 include all organised action of a public and political 

 character, as well as the making and the administra- 

 tion of laws, the only positive functions or actions 

 which can be performed by the co-operation of the 

 average faculties of men, or by absolute and unadul- 

 terated democracy, are very simple destructive actions 

 and the formulation of, and the insistence on, very 

 simple demands. Of the destructive actions referred 

 to we shall find an excellent example in the lynching 

 of a negro who has outraged some white American 

 girl, or in such an act as the burning of the Tuileries 

 by the communists. In each of these actions the 

 feelings of those who take part in it are as nearly as 

 possible identical. In the first, all of the men are 

 equal in their sense of righteous indignation ; in the 

 second, they are all equal in their feeling of blind 

 rebellion ; and no special skill is in either case 



