Germany -- Foreign relations; Germany -- Intellectual life; Germany -- Politics and government; World War, 1914-1918
The first inevitable outcome of the German race heresy has been to
stimulate the belief in the supremacy of the Teuton and to transform
the natural conceit of patriotism into an odious megalomania. Once the
Germans assumed in accordance with the race dogma that some European
races are born to rule and others to obey, it was inevitable that they
should draw the further inference that they of all races were the
dominant race. It is true that the belief of the Calvinist in
religious predestination may lead to a pessimistic as well as to an
optimistic conclusion. The believer in predestination may assume that
he is predestined to eternal damnation as easily as he assumes that he
is predestined to eternal salvation. But the pseudo-scientific mind
and the materialistic mind is not so easily addicted to humility and
pessimism. The slave morality of the Christian may lead to meekness
and charity and to all the negative virtues of a degenerate
Christianity. The master morality of the Anti-Christ Nietzsche must
lead to the ruthless assertion of power. The belief in race
predestination can therefore only result in megalomania, and in
Germany it has certainly resulted in the most acute, the most insane,
inflation of nationalism and imperialism recorded in modern history.
Of that megalomania the Kaiser has been, in innumerable speeches, the
eloquent and insolent spokesman.
X.
Even as race heresy must result in racial megalomania, it must result
in political reaction and in the government of caste. The principle
which is true of the nation as a whole is as true of every section of
that nation. And the pride of race in a nation is substantially the
same thing as the pride of birth in a class. If amongst the races of
man there is one particular breed, the Teuton, which constitutes the
born aristocracy of humanity, so amongst those Teutons there is one
special caste which is the born aristocracy of Teutonism. It is the
rooted belief in the race theory which has maintained the rule of
Junkerthum. On the race theory an exclusive aristocratic government
recruited and maintained by artificial selection is the only logical
and sensible government, and democracy is bound to be considered as a
principle of decay. The Kings of Prussia select their rulers on the
same principle on which King Frederick William selected his regiment
of six-foot grenadiers from the military caste.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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