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Title: Causes & Movements Author: Dora Marsden Date: 1915 Language: en Topics: activism, egoism, The Egoist Source: Retrieved on 09/26/2021 from https://modjourn.org/issue/bdr521389/ Notes: Originally published in The Egoist Volume II Number 9 (September 1, 1915). Title is unofficial and derived from the text.
The handbook of the British Association which holds its annual meeting
in Manchester next week, has an article on "Manchester of To-day," which
suggests that an extremely interesting; article on that subject might be
written by someone who possessed the necessary details. Among the
observations on its temper and tradition, Manchester is given
distinction particularly as being the breeding-ground of Causes and
Movements: a distinction for which the two crusades in favour of Low
Diets cited—the Temperance and the Vegetarian Movements—seem only a
meagre basis. The writer, doubtless, has his reasons for this economy of
illustration, but it is an economy which must strike anyone who has even
a slender acquaintance with that city. Perhaps the war makes it
inopportune to emphasize Pacifism, and the rising Cult of the Masculine,
which is the immediate consequence upon it, makes mention of the
Insurrectionary Feminine seem dowdy and antiquated, if not actually
undignified; but it is difficult to see what prevents Manchester's
cradling of the Labour Movement, and the lead it has taken in the
nineteenth century Democracy at least obtaining adequate mention.
---
It is just possible that the differences hinted at between the mental
atmosphere of Manchester and that—say—of London could have been
indicated with more point in a comparison drawn between the
"Intellectual" as he appears in Manchester and the "Intellectual" as he
appears in London—if by "Intellectual" one may mean the articulate
persons who can and like to talk about the things to which their souls
move them. The Manchester Intellectual is above all things the "Earnest"
Young Man and still more "Earnest" Young Woman, whereas with the London
Intellectual it is as the breath of his aspiration to be Tolerant rather
than Earnest. And he is accordingly far less exciting. The Earnest One
anxiously debates the Universe as one who seeks that sole "True Light,"
of which found, he is to be the devotee and servitor. That "lights" are
true or false not merely according to one's fleeting view of them but
eternally and absolutely he has no doubt. The "true blue" Manchester
Vegetarian, for instance, has no doubt whatever that the archangels in
heaven will on occasion discuss the problem with the seriousness of any
earthly convert, whether having forsworn the enjoyment of all dead meats
it remains '"right" to wear leather shoes: their only difference, and,
of course, advantage being that they are able not only to put the
question even as frail mortals, but can supply in full that answer which
mortals as yet know only in part.
---
It is this absolute point of view which makes the Earnest One so
splendid in Movements. He sees his Cause as the pivot on which the
Universe turns and from thence derives that momentum which is to carry
him past whatever distractions rise up between him and the one thing
worthy. Which explains why where the Earnest are, there the Movements
are also: and why he is found particularly in the provinces. An
"absolute" point of view requires additional room and scope, and this
the provincial city is best able to supply. Interests there not being so
varied and close packed as in the capital cities, the "absolute"
standpoint is not so liable to get nastily jolted. And in return for
this elbow-room as it were, the Earnest Ones invest the provincial
cities with what appears to be a greater degree of vigour: actually the
effect of an emphasis in assertion which their "Absolute" authority
permits them: an emphasis reiterated and ever yet again, in relation to
the one thing worthy. In the capital city where an effort has to be made
to make a greater number and a wider variety of powerful interests fall
in and work amicably together, such aggressive emphasis is far less
possible, and the wider spirit of tolerance, which is just this
diminution of an aggressive emphasis, is the consequence. Here, not only
is the force of emphasis lessened, but the total value set upon the
power of Discussion also is less. Where powerful interests are
negotiated alongside and in amongst competing strong interests, it is
understood that these cut deeper than any argument can, and an air of
folly appears to hang over the squandering of temper and energy upon
verbal niceties. It is noteworthy that the Tolerant kind not merely
tolerate the Earnest, but often appear genuinely to admire them: perhaps
in the maimer that grown-up people admire the serious play of children
as an enjoyment more abandoned and whole-hearted than their own. In
neither case do they admire to the point of imitation, however: whether
because they are not able to catch the "Absolute" point of view, or
because they feel that they cannot afford the luxury, or because they
know that Time metes out retribution to players who abandon themselves
too utterly to the game, and never fails to make clear sooner or later
that the World does not really split in twain over the ethics of Eating
Meat or the Numerical Constitution of the Trinity, or the right of Women
to Vote or the "Absolute" view of anything. With the Earnest the value
of full "free" Discussion is placed at its highest, and everything is
arguable. It is the first article of faith that all differences of
interests—being arguable—are therefore convertible, and that God is
always to be found—through Talk.
---
Everything, therefore, seems to be put on the easy side of discussion,
but they promptly set about recovering stability by placing their own
special view under direct patronage of the absolute. This relation to
the Absolute is as essential to a "true believer" as faith in the
efficient power of discussion. The two supplement each other like the
two blades of a pair of shears. Robbed of either a belief can cut no
way. That is why Movements which seem quite alive and robust in
Manchester grow sickly or die in London. They rind readiness to discuss
in plenty: what fails them is the "absolute" point of view, which
thrives really well only in those favoured spots of the provinces where
there is in addition to the animation and leisure required for the
discussion, the space which is necessary to accommodate its somewhat
unwieldy bulk. Hence the diversion of Movements remains the specially
distinctive sport of the intellectual grown-ups of the provinces. The
designation "Starting of a Movement" is a rather interesting piece of
mal-nomenclature. Rather that to "Start a Movement," to "Engineer a
mental Standstill," and draw out the pleasure of the "static" would be a
fairer description. For Movements have to do not so much with definite
activities as with states of mind: with "Beliefs": that is with some
arbitrary stage in an unfinished and arrested thinking process. A Belief
is essentially a Doubt: an Uncertainty. The aim of the people who start
Movements in connection with any particular Doubt is to get their
particular one for various reasons acclaimed as a Certainty. Though
definite knowledge about it is not available, there will be found some
few ready to say "Yea" and others to say "Nay." The Movement is to
convert those who deny into those who affirm. To "win people to the
Cause" is to persuade them to adopt the affirmative attitude towards the
particular belief. One may examine to -the end that one believes, but
examine to the end that one denies and you make yourself an enemy of the
Cause. This "giving beliefs a run," which is what is meant by "pushing"
a Movement, is comparable to the booming of a specific for some hitherto
incurable disease, while experiments with it are yet only in their early
stage: and before those working on it can come to any decision. The
workers actually interested in the experiments are usually far more
anxious to get on with the inquiry and arrive if possible at some
definite certainty concerning it—favourable or otherwise—than to force a
doubtful cure on a credulous public. But with the hawkers it is quite
different, and just as they desire first and foremost that the public
shall buy: the leaders of a Movement desire above all things that the
people shall believe: what they desire is Credence; definite knowledge
or activity is asked for only at a considerable way behind that. The
idiosyncrasies of the "movemental" mind are responsible likewise for a
strain in the meaning of "Loyalty." A Movement forces loyalty—which is
steadfastness of attention—into a curious dilemma. Steadfastness of
attention directed towards a definite End, and steadfastness of
attention fixed upon a Belief is calculated to produce very different
effects. It will succeed in the ordinary course of affairs in
successfully accomplishing the End, but the belief it will almost
inevitably destroy. In the pursuit of an End the movement and change,
which close attention always produces, take place within the line of
effort, which brings the End nearer attainment; but in a Movement which
is concerned mainly with Belief the action takes the form of making an
ever increasing number of people affirm the one idea. The idea thus
lives constantly under attention, and given attention an idea—any
idea—must develop. Thus, it is not the people, but the idea itself which
is most in danger of being converted: a state of affairs due to the
attempt to bring together two incompatible conditions. Keen mental
energy and beliefs are mutually destructive: the one diminishes in
direct proportion as the influence of the other increases, and the
thinker who subjects beliefs to energetic thinking develops them rapidly
to the point where they disintegrate. So followers of Movements find
themselves sworn to devotion to a fixed idea, whereas no idea can remain
fixed, if one devotes one's mind to it. Unless one's mind is
inordinately dull.
---
It is therefore because, being inclined to Causes and yet having more
mental energy than the prosecution of a Cause warrants, a provincial
city like Manchester or a vast province like America becomes a seething
mass of Movements and Beliefs. Loyalty to a thought in the sense of
refusing to allow attention to develop it, makes prompt diversion of
thinking energy an urgent necessity, and the energy which is in excess
of the amount which is "good" for the Cause thins itself out by
spreading over a vast number of similar half-developed arrested
Thoughts. The penetrative lengths to which loyalty forbids it to go are
made up for by a comprehensive sweep over the surfaces of a number of
such. So the crank—the believer—usually is streaked by a whole bunch of
beliefs. To make the stationariness demanded by the Cause feasible the
believer takes out in variety for what he may not incline after in
penetration, and is forced by the nature of things to appear as the
intellectual frivoller.
---
The Causes which have achieved renown, however—and their number is more
than considerable—are those which have managed to attach themselves to
people of first-rate temper if of slightly second-rate intellect: the
Martyrs and Leaders. They are men who, while having energy above the
ordinary yet fail to strike oil on their own account, and fall just
short of the intellectual clearness which would enable them to direct
their energies upon purposes of their own. Their capacity being far too
great for them comfortably to "sit up" with it, they are impelled by the
necessity of finding something upon which to expend it, and end by
harnessing it to some "Belief," which is lacking a champion: to a Cause.
Thus, whereas men of first-rate temper with intellect and experience to
match have an attitude toward Opinions and Beliefs which sees in them
possibly useful instruments to be shaped so as to assist their own main
ends, a man with a high temper but less intellect will adopt an Opinion
in order to provide himself with a purpose: and in the remaining part of
his activities he will become a servant to that. An Opinion for him has
become a Cause, and he, the Cause's adornment; and where necessary also
its slave, courting all attendant martyrdoms. It is not a question of
temper or of tenacity or of character which divides the two, but mental
virility. In the sequel it resolves itself into the question: who is to
remain master—the Thinker or the Thought? With the Worldly it is always
the Thinker: but for the Earnest—the Follower after the Absolute, it is
the Thought.
D . M .