[Sidenote: Degeneration]
It is believed by many, that Society and Politics, at the present time,
are badly diseased. Mr. Max Nordau's diagnosis of them, which he
entitled _Degeneration_, has met with general approval. Legislative
(especially municipal) corruption, and the degradation of some of the
courts, are open evidence of the fact. Statesmanship and Politics have
been divorced, and are already strangers to each other. The marriage of
Might and Right, has been sanctioned by popular consent. Power is no
longer used as a lever with which to uplift the weak, but has been
transformed into a social crushing machine. Caste, ostentation,
dissipation, and insincerity, are the established idols that lure the
present generation towards greedy ambition.
[Sidenote: Ready to Break]
It is also believed, and is perhaps true, that the social ulcers have
been so irritated by ostentatious rivalry, and the commercial ulcers
are so distended with the pus of ruinous competition and corruption,
that they must soon come to a head, and that convalescence and cure may
be possibilities of the future.
While these symptoms of disease are visible to all, and are tolerated
as necessary evils, they fortunately do not cover the whole body
politic; but yet, they seriously disfigure its face, and grievously
affect the healthy action of its heart.
In the political world, many agents are actively at work to effect cure
of the evils which flaunt unblushing in the face of the public. The
Committee of Seventy in New York, The Civic Federation in Chicago, and
the National Municipal Reform League of the United States, are all
doing good temporary work, but they do not reach the root causes of the
evils they aim to correct; and it is doubtful if the reforms they
accomplish will be any more permanent than were those of their equally
zealous predecessors.
[Sidenote: Slow Repression Futile]
In the moral and religious world, much the same futile methods of cure
through repression are in use that obtained during the Dark Middle
Ages.
In the individual, phantoms of the imagination, whose presence impose
stagnation and disease, are created and clothed with the authority of
masters, under the belief that they are the curses which bind fallen
men to earth; and this in contradiction of every assurance and promise
of Christ; in opposition to all intelligent methods of culture used in
connection with animals and plants; and contrary to common sense.
These are strong statements, but they are indisputable; and if they are
true, what then, is the remedy?
As previously stated, _the only cure is the germ cure; and, beginning
with the individual._
[Sidenote: Task not Difficult]
The task is not a difficult one. Appreciation of the limitations of the
power of the depressing passions, and one's strength to extirpate them,
and to be superior to them, are the only necessary prerequisites to
victory. There is no tedious discipline, as in the various methods of
repression in vogue; and dividends are immediately and continuously
collectable on the fair face of the investment. No rule of conduct is
necessary; for, out of Emancipation, only _good_ conduct, to fit
environing circumstances, can be expected; and yet, every Christian,
every Jew, every Buddhist, every Mohammetan, every Free Mason, and
every Odd Fellow, can accept Emancipation as a rule of life, without
renouncing his other faiths and affiliations, because it is the
fundamental principle of them all, expressed in terms of present
knowledge, and unclouded by the shadows of ignorance and superstition,
which gave the name of Dark Ages to a period of our history.
[Sidenote: Skeptics Interested]
And outside of these devotees, there is the great mass of men, the
so-called Skeptics, who claim to adhere to logic, and scientific sense,
for their light on spiritual, as well as on material subjects. To
these, Emancipation will be a haven of repose for their spiritual
yearnings; and, unimpeded growth, under Divinely natural conditions,
"will do the rest" for them all.