he slave to his
collective stupidity, as a hundred thousand generations ago he was a
slave to matter.

"There are two theoretical methods whereby man may become the master
of society, and make of society an intelligent and efficacious device
for the pursuit and capture of happiness and laughter. The first
theory advances the proposition that no government can be wiser or
better than the people that compose that government; that reform and
development must spring from the individual; that in so far as the
individuals become wiser and better, by that much will their
government become wiser and better; in short, that the majority of
individuals must become wiser and better, before their government
becomes wiser and better. The mob, the political convention, the
abysmal brutality and stupid ignorance of all concourses of people,
give the lie to this theory. In a mob the collective intelligence
and mercy is that of the least intelligent and most brutal members
that compose the mob. On the other hand, a thousand passengers will
surrender themselves to the wisdom and discretion of the captain,
when their ship is in a storm on the sea. In such matter, he is the
wisest and most experienced among them.

"The second theory advances the proposition that the majority of the
people are not pioneers, that they are weighted down by the inertia
of the established; that the government that is representative of
them represents only their feebleness, and futility, and brutishness;
that this blind thing called government is not the serf of their
wills, but that they are the serfs of it; in short, speaking always
of the great mass, that they do not make government, but that
government makes them, and that government is and has been a stupid
and awful monster, misbegotten of the glimmerings of intelligence
that come from the inertia-crushed mass.

"Personally, I incline to the second theory. Also, I am impatient.
For a hundred thousand generations, from the first social groups of
our savage forbears, government has remained a monster. To-day, the
inertia-crushed mass has less laughter in it than ever before. In
spite of man's mastery of matter, human suffering and misery and
degradation mar the fair world.

"Wherefore I have decided to step in and become captain of this
world-ship for