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

THE SENATE INITIATIVE 157

that the structure of an organic social order would be as complex as the individuals from which it was constituted. In attempting to create the prototype of such a structure Mitrinovi¢ was playing for real—hence the sense of urgency to which Peacock referred. It was crucial to the future of humanity that he and the people around him confronted these organisational problems as they occurred in their group life—not only as a means of developing possible blueprints for the future, but also for the sake of the personal development of the individuals around him over whom he exerted such a powerful influence. Performing the function of Senate to the group as a whole, a considerable portion of Mitrinovi¢’s time was devoted to trying to get the right relationship between personalities and functions; trying to create the contexts in which the members might begin to learn how Senate should act in different situations, start to acquire the qualities and aptitudes required of the potential senator.

The role of senators was to intervene at all levels of human life in the interests of humanity as a whole. If humanity is considered as an organic whole with individuals as cells of this organism, then there lies within every individual the potentiality to become aware of the whole of human nature within themselves, to become a universal individual. The person who is most aware of all the different elements within their own nature is the person who is most aware of all the different aspects of human nature within themselves. To the extent that such people are not only aware of these different elements but are also able to control and choose which aspect they will express at any time, then those people are best able to get on with a wide range of other people, able to embrace and understand their perspectives and points of view, and hence able to fulfil the integrative function of Senate. It followed then that the training to develop such a capacity required the creation of as many different contexts as possible within which potential senators would have to relate to many different types of people, relating to them not as abstract performers of functions but as complete and complex individuals with their own foibles and failings. As one of those who was involved in this process observed, it was too easy just to relate with those people that you liked, “what was far more difficult was to see every other member of the group as an individual, to see their specialitiesall the ways that each one of us could work with one another. These were the different contexts he was trying to create so that we all knew in what different ways we could meet together and integrate.”

Mitrinovic was continually proposing new and different constitutions and group formations within the wider group, endlessly rearranging the personnel and the functions for which they were responsible. As in life, nothing was