During the war, those who understood something of what constitutes working for Principle expected eagerly and rightly that, with the coming of peace, there would be a very thorough overturning of the old systems of party politics in every country. This overturning has, of course, begun. Its manifestations, however, are so various and so different from what any one had foreseen that many people are as yet hardly aware of what is really taking place. The more cynical observe that the spoils of war seem to have stimulated the professional politicians to a grosser materialism than ever before. Even the most humanly optimistic find little to encourage them in such phenomena as American party conventions or European elections. It does indeed require more than mere human optimism, more than any attempt to look on some supposedly better side of material conditions, to comprehend truly important development. Exact knowledge of divine Principle, rather than any mortal theory about policies, must be the basis for discerning progress.
To the casual observer, it is evident that the great events of yesterday overshadowed rather than developed personalities. Hardly a notable person, no matter how great, his work appeared in the thick of the war activity, has escaped without being at one time or another the center of a storm of adverse criticism. Cooperation and coalition for war purposes seem to have come to an end. Instead, even the two or three main political parties in nearly every country have more or less disintegrated into many smaller groups which are continually recombining and realigning themselves. Indeed, each man of prominence is almost a party to himself, with little in common with any of his adversaries. A faction clings for the moment to one shade of opinion and the next moment reacts from it. In other words, the personal element in all human affairs, including especially political campaigns, is undergoing some sort of a vital readjustment. More of what this is remains to be seen.
Five hundred years ago, Machiavelli declared, "There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things; because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new." Now Machiavelli's whole treatise on government was based on a system of personal domination. Viewing the ways of princes from that standpoint, he naturally had to be pessimistic. Only as such a theory as his, which included the dogma that "it is necessary for a prince wishing to hold his own to know how to do wrong, and to make use of it or not according to necessity," is replaced by the understanding and practice of genuine Principle, can the politics of the present be purified. Every sense of personal manipulation and control is medieval and has to give way to the guidance of infinite intelligence.
