Initiation and initiative : an exploration of the life and ideas of Dimitrije Mitrinović

70 LIFE AND IDEAS OF MITRINOVIC

with the notion of the world and humanity as an organic whole—this could lead to world peace and justice only if people had sufficient faith in its efficacy to act upon it to make it real. Hence, once having put forward the organic notion as a way of thinking about the world, as a hypothetical model, as a basis for action which would thereby reveal its efficacy, Mitrinovi¢ proceeded to treat the idea as dogmatically true, because only by doing so, and convincing others of its veracity, would the sought-for consequences in terms of human action towards world peace ensue. In this sense, it would have been counter-productive to constantly remind the reader that the functioning of the world as a single organism was merely an idea, a mythological construct.

The essence of the organic notion is not its physical nature but the relatedness of the parts to one another and to the whole; each part operating according to its own principles whilst performing a function that contributes to the maintenance of the whole. If the equilibrium of the organism is disturbed by an outside stimulus or by the malfunctioning of one of its parts, then all the other parts adjust correspondingly to restore the balance and proper functioning of the whole. The portrayal of the world as an organism thus enabled Mitrinovi¢ to see the differences and conflicts between different groups, nations and races as comparable to the tensions between separate parts of an organism which were, at the same time, constituent elements of a single whole and contributing to the development of the whole, rather than as signs of fundamental incompatibility that could be resolved only by force and violence. Thus, he wrote, early on in the series of articles:

We have already indicated our conception of the world as one great mind in process of becoming self-conscious; and from this point of view the various races and nations may be regarded as rudimentary organs in course of development within the great world-embryo. If such a view is correct—and any other seems sooner or later to involve itself in tragic contradictions—not only would it follow that there must be a natural world process which it is the duty of all individuals to discover, and the duty of all individuals, nations and races alike, to assist, but it would also follow that there cannot be any rea/ antagonism between the proper functions assigned by the world-process to its various developing organs. The heart does not quarrel with the lungs in a healthy organism; and in a healthy state of world-development it is impossible that the proper function of any race or nation should be incompatible with the proper functions of its interrelated companions. Where there is war there is, therefore, something wrong . . . War is, in fact, at once an evidence of misunderstanding and an attempt, more or less blundering, to clear it up.