Ortega
y
Gasset
THE SELF AND THE OTHER
I
My subject is
this:
Today people constantly talk of law
and legality, the state, the nation and internationalism, public opin–
ion and public power, good policy and bad policy, pacifism and
belligerency, country and humanity, social justice and social in–
justice, collectivism and capitalism, socialization and liberalism, au–
thoritarianism, the individual and the collectivity, and so on and
so on. And not only do they talk- in the press, at their clubs, cafes
and taverns-they also argue. And not only do they argue-they
also fight for the things which these words designate. And once
started fighting, they kill each other- by hundreds, by thousands,
by millions. It would be ingenuous to suppose that, in what I have
just said, I refer specifically to any particular people.
It
would be
ingenuous, because the supposition would be equivalent to believing
that these ferocious labors are confined to special parts of our
planet; when, on the contrary, they are a universal phenomenon,
which is spreading progressively and from which very few of the
European and American peoples
will
succeed in remaining immune.
Doubtless the cruel conflict
will
take a heavier toll among some
peoples than among others and it may be that one group or an–
other will possess the inspired serenity necessary to reduce the havoc
to a minimum. Because certainly it is not inevitable; but equally
certainly it is very difficult to avoid. Very difficult indeed, because
to avoid it will require the collaboration of many factors which
differ both qualitatively and in their rank in the hierarchy of
values--splendid virtues, together with humble precautions.
One of these precautions--humble, I repeat, but obligatory
1. This is a shortened version
of
an essay originally delivered as a lecture
in Buenos Aires, 1939.
