A World of Ideas, Essay Example

Abstract

The paper reviews and discusses Jose Ortega Y Gasset’s essay ‘The Greatest Danger, the State’. The paper creates and discusses a causal line between masses, violence, the State, and discrimination. The paper assumes that, according to Gasset, the relationships between masses and the State create a causal circle of relationships, in which masses express themselves through violence and in which the State, as the higher administrative order, results in the subsequent suppression and discrimination of these masses.

A World of Ideas: Gasset and the Greatest Danger

The State is considered as the brightest and the most advanced form of public order and administration in the modern world. The State is believed to be an effective form of organizing and disciplining the mass around one political goal. The State seems an excellent means to limit the mass in its self-expression, and to make it follow a set of predetermined political and behavioral norms. However, is the State as advanced and civilized as the mass may want it to be? What does it cost for the State to preserve and maintain public order? In his work, Gasset provides a novel look at the issue. Gasset implies that the State and the mass form a vicious circle of relationships, in which the mass expresses itself through violence and must be directed and organized, while the State as the higher form of public order and administration results in suppression and discrimination of the mass.

According to Gasset, the mass never acts of itself but must be influenced, directed, represented, and organized. The mass never comes to this world to do everything by itself and should subject itself to a high court, or a higher order to retain and maintain its stability (Gasset). Regardless of the form the higher order may choose to take, the mass cannot preserve its essentials without being ruled by superior individuals (Gasset). Whenever the mass claims itself to act, it exemplifies a form of rebellion against its own destiny, and the only way for it to prove its position and to establish itself as the source of the major decisions is through lynching (Gasset). As a result, the mass does not have a chance to rebel against its destiny other than through violence. Rebellion is the first step to violence, and the State, as an organized form of civilization and an example of higher public order and administration, must suppress these violent attempts to be able to maintain peaceful relationships in its territory.

Yet, where the mass causes violence, the State itself becomes the cause of discrimination and suppression (Gasset §16). Striving to impose strict behavioral norms on its citizens, the State often applies to radical means, including the establishment of police (Gasset §17). For Gasset, the state is the best-known product of civilization and works to fulfill the role of the masses’ safeguard. However, is the State always a perfect form of a higher authority, which can organize, direct, and rule the masses? Gasset is confident that state intervention is the gravest danger to present day civilization. The mass believes to be ruled by an anonymous state and identifies itself with this very state. As a result, any attempt to limit its self-expression will reflect in mass discontent and is likely to fuel further violence. State intervention will break up spontaneous social action, turning the State into a form of the government machine, which cannot satisfy the mass (Gasset). To reduce this discontent, the State will convert its people into the fuel and food for its state machine (Gasset). The use of police forces is the brightest and the simplest example of how the State chooses to make the mass pursue its goals. That is why the relationships between the mass and the State create a paradoxical circle of causes and effects, in which freedom of the mass causes violence, while the State as the higher authority applies to suppression and discrimination to convert its people into the food for its state machine.

Conclusion

The State is believed to be the ultimate form of civilized order in the modern world, and an effective means to organize, direct, and rule the mass. Gasset offers a novel insight into the mass-state problem. According to Gasset, the mass cannot express itself through means other than violence. The mass does not act for itself and must be directed, ruled, and organized. Through the prism of Gasset’s work, the State and the mass create a paradoxical circle of causes and effects, in which the mass causes violence, while the State, as a higher authority, applies to suppression and discrimination to convert its people into the food for its state machine. Years may pass before the State and the mass can maintain an appropriate balance of forces, to help them meet their needs and goals.

References

Gasset, J.O. The greatest danger, the State. pp. 91-97.