American essays -- 20th century; State, The; World War, 1914-1918
There is, of course, in the feeling towards the State a large element
of pure filial mysticism. The sense of insecurity, the desire for
protection, sends one’s desire back to the father and mother, with
whom is associated the earliest feelings of protection. It is not for
nothing that one’s State is still thought of as Father or Motherland,
that one’s relation towards it is conceived in terms of family
affection. The war has shown that nowhere under the shock of danger
have these primitive childlike attitudes failed to assert themselves
again, as much in this country as anywhere. If we have not the intense
Father-sense of the German who worships his Vaterland, at least in
Uncle Sam we have a symbol of protecting, kindly authority, and in
the many Mother-posters of the Red Cross, we see how easily in the
more tender functions of war-service, the ruling organization is
conceived in family terms. A people at war have become in the most
literal sense obedient, respectful, trustful children again, full
of that naïve faith in the all-wisdom and all-power of the adult who
takes care of them, imposes his mild but necessary rule upon them
and in whom they lose their responsibility and anxieties. In this
recrudescence of the child, there is great comfort, and a certain
influx of power. On most people the strain of being an independent
adult weighs heavily, and upon none more than those members of the
significant classes who have had bequeathed to them or have assumed the
responsibilities of governing. The State provides the convenientest of
symbols under which these classes can retain all the actual pragmatic
satisfaction of governing, but can rid themselves of the psychic burden
of adulthood. They continue to direct industry and government and
all the institutions of society pretty much as before, but in their
own conscious eyes and in the eyes of the general public, they are
turned from their selfish and predatory ways, and have become loyal
servants of society, or something greater than they--the State. The
man who moves from the direction of a large business in New York to a
post in the war management industrial service in Washington does not
apparently alter very much his power or his administrative technique.
But psychically, what a transfiguration has occurred! His is now not
only the power but the glory! And his sense of satisfaction is directly
proportional not to the genuine amount of personal sacrifice that may
be involved in the change but to the extent to which he retains his
industrial prerogatives and sense of command.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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