We witness attempts, often ingenious and powerful, to get form without consenting to form, and then we see the beginnings of reaction in symbolism and abstract art.
Egotism in work and art is the flowering, after long growth, of a heresy about human destiny. Its abhorrence of discipline and form is usually grouped with the signs of “progress.” It is progress for those who neither have a sense of direction nor want responsibility. The heresy is that man’s destiny in the world is not to perfect himself but to lean back in sensual enjoyment.
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When masses of men reach a point at which egotism reigns so blandly, can their political damnation be far distant? They have rejected their only guaranty against external control, which is self-discipline, taught and practiced. If they no longer respect community and direct their efforts according to a common understanding, they fall out. Programs like the Four Freedoms, with their vague political unrealism, instead of helping the situation, serve only to codify error. It is the presumption of egotism which renders people unfit for the philosophic anarchy they appear to think of. An ancient axiom of politics teaches that a spoiled people invite despotic control. Their failure to maintain internal discipline is followed by some rationalized organization in the service of a single powerful will. In this particular, at least, history, with all her volumes vast, has but one page.