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behind whom lurk the truly subversive forces-the proletarian revolu–
tionaries, who want to reduce man to the status of an ant, and the
uniformed regiments of the League for Economic Peace, founded by
the demagogic power-seeker, Urban.
·
By analogy with the actual history of Germany, Urban would take
control. But in Borchardt's story he is blocked, beaten to the punch,
and finally decisively K.O.'d by a new social group which Borchardt
has invented for just such a contingency-the League of Carpenters,
a sort of medieval guild in modern dress, the "ideal Christian common–
wealth in vest-pocket form."
The Carpenters are Christian working men who will have no truck
with the specious equality-theories of the liberals. They know their
place and mean to keep it, insisting on their right to be ruled firmly
by those whom Nature and God has set above them. By fighting,
burning and killing they succeed in protecting the community which is
built upon their hacks, and provide their superiors with an example
of
how true masters should behave.
Such in barest outline is Borchardt's fable. The philosophy be–
hind it
is
clear.
Let
the Christian virtues of humility, reverence for
authority, and love of order take on flaming militancy among the lower
orders and the day of political chicanery and base phrasemongering is
over.
Mr. Borchardt has something here. All that is necessary in order
to convert any community into a City of God is that those at the bottom
of society, who might think of themselves as badly treated, should
instead become filled with enthusiasm about being at the bottom and
being ruled by those at the top. Through
this
one psychological
stroke, everyone is at once made happy---and it would not be surprising
if the self-subjugation of the ruled brought about an all-around Improve–
ment of social life. For the rulers, now sure of themselves, must
become, or at least ought to become, calm, peace-loving and charitable,
even developing a Jovian moral stature and an infallible sense of
justice-the justice which is perfect because it comes from above,
that is to say, from them.
Of course, nothing is a greater obstacle to this "brotherhood"
than the tradition of democracy and individualism, whose spirit is
enthusiasm for humanity and for oneself, and which has identified
itself historically with Liberty and Equality, as well as with Fraternity.
All such heresies as progress, scientific knowledge, written constitutions,
etc., flow from the daem•mic principles of freedom and equal rights.
So Borchardt's fable of the triumph of the Carpenters is an asser–
tion of the authoritarian principle against the values of democracy and
the free individual. In his dense and overpopulated dream, he touches
on one of the most serious issues of modern culture. The hierarchial
idea which wins in his Republic reflects the actual drag of the past
