Political Reflections Arising Out Of My Sojourn In Vienna

GENERALLY, a man should not publicly take part in politics before 30 years old, except for those who are naturally gifted with extraordinary political abilities.

This is because until he reaches that age, his mental development will mostly consist in acquiring and sifting the knowledge necessary for a platform from to examine the different political problems.

A man must first acquire a fund of general ideas and fit them together so as to form an organic structure of personal thought or outlook on life–a WELTANSCHAUUNG.

Then he will have that mental equipment to form his own judgments on questions of the day.

Such a man is now qualified, at least subjectively, to join the political conduct of public affairs.

If a man enters political life without this equipment, then his stand might be wrong.

He will now have to either:

• abandon his former position
• stick to it even if it is untenable

If he abandons it, he will appear inconsistent and will lose the loyalty of his followers who will see him as lacking good judgment.

If he sticks to his error, the public will no longer support him. This very frequently happens today.

Should such a person, to the misfortune of all decent people, succeed in becoming a parliamentary deputy, then his political activity merely consists in keeping his job for himself and his family.

• The more his wife and children are dependent on him, the more stubbornly will he fight to maintain the representation of his parliamentary constituency.

This is why his personal enemy is anyone who has political capacity.

When a man has reached 30 years old, he has still more to learn. But what he learns will amplify his basic ideas.

It will fit organically so as to fill up the fundamental WELTANSCHAUUNG which he already has. This organic growth results from the constant assimilation of new ideas

Thus, his colleagues will never feel that they have been hitherto falsely led by him.

On the contrary, their confidence is increased when they perceive that their leader’s qualities are steadily developing.

A leader who has to abandon his own platform upon realizing his mistake can act with honour only when he can accept the final consequences of his error.

In such a case he should refrain from taking public part in any further political activity.

But our public leaders nowadays do not do this. Instead, they resort to general corruption as a cabal.