Raymond Aron
THE REVOLT OF THE MASSES
I should confess my uneasiness at commenting on the
ideas of the master of Spanish thought in our century, Ortega y
Gasset. Why conceal my nervousness or, better yet, my troubled
conscience ? I have no position that entitles me to this task. Ortega y
Gasset was obviously known in France, but I must admit with
shame that he seemed to share the destiny of Benedetto Croce. The
latter dominated Italian culture for more than half a century, but his
works are only partly translated into French , and his influence has
not gone beyond limited areas, mostly of the Italianists. It is the
same with Ortega y Gasset. Two of his major works,
Ideas and Beliefs
and
The Revolt oj the Masses,
have been translated, but these hardly
represent the range of his ideas, let alone the nucleus of his
philosophy. A few good French works have been dedicated to
Ortega , but they fai led to place him in the circle of foreign philoso–
phers whom our philosophers consider fit , though not necessary, to
discuss . Accepting the opportunity to address the Institute in honor
of this great man , whom I met only once, I wanted to make a per–
sonal , if not a collective, act of contrition.
I vividly remember
The Revolt oj the Masses,
which I read for the
first time in a German translation half a century ago, in 1931 or
1932 , coinciding with the rise of Hitler. At this tragic moment in
European history, speculation on the masses and the elites belonged
to the zeitgeist; if my memory serves me correctly, men of opposing
political opinions referred to Ortega's thesis. Was it necessary to
consider Hitler a member of the elite who reestablished the sense of
obedience in the masses? Or, on the contrary, was he
par excellence,
himself, a man of the masses, primitive, violent, separated from the
culture? Those who understand Ortega do not hesitate to respond to
such a question, although Hitler's is a unique case that probably
escapes all classification.
Editor's ote: This essay, translated and reprinted with permission from
Commen–
laire
(Number 40/Winter 1987-88), was first presented as an address given at the
Ortega y Gasset Institute in Madrid on May 6, 1983.
