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first were only an idea of the minorities who discovered that every
human being, through the mere fact of nature, and without any
special qualifications, possesses certain fundamental political rights.
All rights inherent in special gifts were condemned as privileged. But
even in the nineteenth century, the masses who were enthusiastic
about the idea of rights continued to live and feel, under democratic
legislation, as they had under the old regime. The people did not feel
that it was sovereign. It knows and feels this today . The feeling of
sovereignty of the unqualified individual, of the individual as such ,
has become one of the fundamental psychological conditions of the
average man.
Ortega ironically addresses himself to those who deplore the
consequences of their own ideas: "The rationale of these rights was
to take human souls from their interior servitude and to awaken in
them a certain free conscience. Wasn't that what they wanted - that
the average man would feel master of himself and of his life? That is
already accomplished. So what have these liberals, these democrats,
and progressives been complaining about during the last thirty
years? Like children, they want the thing but not its con equences."
On the positive side, however, the average man now has all the op–
portunities that once were reserved for the ruling minorities. On the
negative side, mass man, the man without qualifications, imposes
his will, his tastes, his mediocrity.
One can state without hesitation that Ortega accepts the
democratic revolution and knows of the increasing realization of the
ideal of the rights of man, the principle of equality. He notes that the
spiritual state of the average man, which existed in America since
the eighteenth century, has become dominant in Europe. Not that
the latter was Americanized, as is being said, not that there was,
under American influence, a moral rapprochement of Europeans
and Americans: "The triumph of the masses and the magnificent rise
in the level of vitality came about in Europe for internal reasons,
after two centuries of progressive mass education and the parallel
economic enrichment." These lines were written in 1926, at a time
when the seeming Americanization was not due to the influence of
Americans.
A Liberal
Ortega mentions several times in his book that he is not
engaged in politics. But, as you know, in France such a claim im–
mediately is suspect. I have often quoted Alain's remark: "When I
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