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

THE FINAL YEARS 177

balance between these functioning parts of the world organism must be maintained by free mutual agreement and accommodation. There was therefore, as in the human organism, need for an integrating function which might bring about and hold the balance between all the various functions in society and throughout the world. This was the function Mitrinovi¢ called Senate. He illustrated it by the symbolism of the circle. In this the circumference could be taken to represent the world, and the centre to represent the individual. The individual cannot directly identify himself or herself with the world as a whole, just as the centre and the circumference are apart from one another. They need the intermediation of a radius. There exist an indefinitely large number of radii, which can be taken to represent all the various possible groupings in the world: nations, races, professions, religions and so on. But these are all partial groupings, purusing their own interest. A different kind of radius is necessary which can be visualised as a spiral radius starting from the centre and going out spirally towards the circumference so that it cuts through every other radius and finishes up on the circumference opposite the place where it started from the centre. This Mitrinovié called the Senate radius. It symbolised the notion that Senate would not be a special élite of persons above the ordinary groupings of life, but consist of those within each grouping who took upon themselves the function of relating their different groupings to one another and keeping the balance of the whole, performing the necessary intermediating function in all walks and levels of life between the individual and humanity as a whole.

The function of Senate was to be one of reconciliation between conflicting groups and interests, but it was not one of trying to solve or avoid all conflicts. Mitrinovi¢ recognised that there are necessary conflicts of principle and values between the different functions of an organism. If these cease the organism dies. However, he maintained that many of the conflicts in the world were dysfunctional ones arising from an imbalance or wrong relationship between the different world elements. These cannot be dealt with in the context in which they arise, but need to be seen within the wider context of the whole organism. This approach Mitrinovié called “Third Force.’ The first and second forces each provoke one another as their opposites. Third Force is that force which, because it looks to the needs of the organism as a whole, does not provoke its contradiction. So the role of Senate was not to be one of passive neutrality, a mere ‘patching up’ of differences that leaves both sides disgruntled and frustrated so that the problem recurs. Those who act as Senate are themselves in the conflicting groups, but they are those persons who are able to maintain an attitude of ‘creative neutrality’