THE FUTURE OF HERO WORSHIP.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 2019, 16 June 1885, Page 4

THE FUTURE OF HERO WORSHIP.

Tiik spectacle, which Geimany presented on Prince Bismarck's bit Inlay, of a gio.it nation piostiatmg its>elf in worship at the feet of its gieatest man, is calculated to excite the most diverse feelings on tlio p,irt of those who look on with any rifle itiveness at this astounding demonstration. Foi it l.ii&es the whole question of the dcsuabtlity of one-man rule, even if the one man in question be admittedly the best man. And this is fast becominc the root question of Euiopean polities. If heio- worship is indeed the means by which nations arc to bo saved, it would seem tli.it the woi Id stands a good chance of iiipidly attaining to salvation. But then that is just the question. Is heroworship the true means of grace for modem nations ? The pioblem docs not present itself only in Germany. Piincc Bis maick'.s is the most conspicuous case in point at the present moment, but that is only because he is the most univeisally Miocebaful statesman. A similar tendency has for some time been vciy marked in our ovvu country. It will be remembered that on Mr Gladstone's last birthday, as perhaps on many previous ones, he was approached by tome of his admirers (and his admirers are half the nation) in language similar to that which the frainers of our liturgy considered adequate for addresses to the Supreme Being. What is the political controversy sv hich most divides England to-day ? Is it the difference between Liberals and Conservatives ? between non interven tionists and believers in a "forward policy ?" Such may seem to be the great points of debate, but in teality theie is an usue vaster than these, which stirs men to the depths of their convictions and accounts to a great extent foi the increasing bitterness of political controversy. It is the difference between those who welcome and those who dread the increasing tendency to political hero worship. We are not thinking now of the umeasoning crowd by whom the heioworbhip is pet formed, but of men who, themselves untouched by the enthusiasm, foi m conflicting estimates of its value. The diffeience to which we lefer is that existing between those who think it a gi.md thing that the English people should stick to Mr Gladstone, in spite of everything, and those who are simply tilled with helpless rage and despair at seeing that, in spite of everything, the meip mention of his name is still a conclusive argument with great popular assemblies. And precisely the .same division exists among thinking men in (tcimany, as it did in France while Gam betta was still alive, as it must exist everywhere where the new remedy of hero worship is being tiied on a great stale. Nobody who knows any t lung ,ibr ut German politics can contend that Pi nice Bismarck's action, in home afr.mn at any iato, lias always been the wisest or the most successful. His pie-cnt economic policy has still to be judged by results, but the manifold enors of the Kulturkampf are matter of history. And almost all that his staunchest political opponents ask is that these mistakes should be taken to heart, and used as a warning, tint his liability to error should be recognised. They, too, aie among his admirers, but they wish to subsitutc critical admiration for unquestioning worship us the attitude of the national mind. Yet when their feeble remonstrance is swept away befoio the ieM«tlcss tide of national enthusiasm, there aie otheis, and plenty of them, men who in all oidinary matters have their full share of German cynicism, who rejoice at the spectacle, and think it a sign of tair pion.ise for the national future. Bismarck is not a god, they bay, <is we know very well ; but it is good that the people should think him so. It is healthy foi them to woiship, it is necessary that they should submit. The excessive exaltation of some great man is under modern conditions the only chance of a vigorous policy abroad, a strong government at home. The mass of mankind cannot ap predate a principle ; they can adoie a person. And with the increasing power of numbeis, which is universal, whether j our form of government is democratic or not, it is the impression on the minds of the multitude which ih all nnpoi taut. The men who argue thu-> may support themselves by an appeal to the present position of afia,»s throughout Europe, in which there is no strong Government visible anywhere that ib not one-man Government. They may be right in thinking that one-man Government is necessary to organise the new social forces for the performance of indispensable w ork. Yet let us on this High Feast of HeroWoiship, which very appiopri.itely fell on All Fools' Day (for is not the exaltation oi the one man necessitated by tho folly of the mass of men ' was not the prophet of Hero- Worship albo the author of the saying about "twenty millions of Englishmen, mostly fools "?), let us just give a passing thought to the drawbacks of tuc new CiL-iansm. To worship a man, accoiding to the popular practice, -neaii* worshipping all of him, and thpiefoic woishipping his faults. " Bismarck," it was once said by one of his admircis, "has made Germany a great couutry, but he has made the German a reiy little man." Be that as it may, but he has made many Germans moie cynical, more inateiuihstic, less scmpulous thin they vveie wont to be. The idealism which once charaetensed the national thought and habits is a thing of the past. Nor ib that the only or the gieatebt disadvantage that has to be faced. It may be all very well to worship your great man; but once organise political life on the one-man system, and you will presently be compelled to worship a little one. It is often said of a man like Bismarck or Gladstone that the woist of him is that his supremacy is unfavourable to the grow th of others, that he w ill leave no one fit to be his successor. That is ti ue enough, but it is not tho worst. The worst is that, though he may leave no one behind him fit to fill his place, the tendency will certainly be to put some one in, fit or unfit. The habit of rallying round a single man, once acquired, generates a dependence which it is difficult to get rid of. We have seen what came of the " Gambetta h pitit " in France. No Bismarckian German can feel easy when he thinks what may happen without Bismarck. No Gladstonian Englishman can ponder without a shudder the momentous question, on which of Mr Gladstone's colleagues ho would be content to sec the mantle of his popularity fall Heio-worship without the hero is an unpleasant prospect— only better, perhaps, than Its alternative, gom*ra\ confusion and tV>c absence of all stable government wlion the hero lias gone.— Pall Mall Budget.