Here, then, is the hope that takes the sting from the indictment of Plato, Ibsen and how many other critics of democracy.  Plato said, “Until philosophers are kings, . . . cities will never have rest from their evils,—­no, nor the human race, as I believe.”  Once, perhaps once only, Plato’s dream was realized:  in that noblest of philosopher emperors, wholly dedicated to the welfare of the world he ruled with autocratic power; yet the soul of Marcus Aurelius was burdened with an impossible task.  It is one of the tragic ironies of history that, in this one realization of Plato’s lofty dream, the noble emperor could postpone, he could not avert, the colossal doom that threatened the world he ruled.  So he wrapped his Roman cloak about him and lay down to sleep, with stoic consciousness that he had done his part in the place where Zeus had put him, but relieved that he might not see the disaster he knew must swiftly come.

How different our dream:  it is no illusion of a happy accident of philosopher kings.  We want no arbitrary monarchs, wise or brutal:  from the noblest of emperors to the butcher of Berlin, we would sweep them all aside, to the ash-heap of outworn tools.  Our dream is the awakening and education of the multitude, so that the majority will be able and glad to choose, as its guides, leaders and representatives, the noblest and best.  When that day comes, there will be, for the first time in the history of mankind, the dawn of a true aristocracy or rule of the best; and it will come through the fulfillment of democracy.  A long and troubled path, with many faults and evils meantime?  Yes, but not so hopelessly long, when one considers the ages of slow struggle up the mountain and the swiftly multiplying power of education over the mind of all.

XVIII

PATERNALISM VERSUS DEMOCRACY

The contrast between paternalism and democracy in aim and method is thus extreme.  Paternalism seeks directly organization, order, production and efficiency, incidentally and occasionally the welfare of the subject population.  Democracy seeks directly the highest development of all men and women, their freedom, happiness and culture, in the end it hopes this will give social order, good government and productive power.  It is willing, meantime, to sacrifice some measure of order for freedom, of good government for individual initiative, of efficiency for life.  Paternalism seeks to achieve its aims, quickly and effectively, through the boss’s whip of social control.  Democracy works by the slower, but more permanently hopeful path of education, never sacrificing life to material ends.  Paternalism ends in a social hierarchy, materially prosperous, but caste-ridden and without soul.  Democracy ends in the abolishment of castes, equality of opportunity, with the freest individual initiative and finest flowering of the personal spirit.  Which shall it be:  God or Mammon, Men or Machines?