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

186 LIFE AND IDEAS OF MITRINOVIC

In similar vein Dr. Morris Robb, who had been associated with Mitrinovic since the days of the Adler Society, observed that however long people knew Mitrinovic

they were always guessing because they could not reach his elevation, his breadth,

his depth; but always he knew them and this remarkable ability to know a person was something that I have never seen to that degree anywhere else . . .

Evidently Goethe once said of himself that there was no vice or crime of which he could not detect a similar tendency within himself. For Otto Weininger this was one of the hallmarks of ‘genius. For Weininger the genius was one who was so aware of their own inner experience that they were conscious of containing within themselves a far greater range of conflicting human qualities and dimensions than the average person. As a consequence the genius was one who could understand the nature—the virtues and the vices— of a far wider diversity of different types of people, because they were aware of possessing the same range of characteristics within themselves. From Weininger’s perspective, “the genius is the man who contains in himself the greatest number of others in the most active way .. .”!4 For Weininger the archetypal genius was Christ, who was actively conscious of containing within himself the whole of humanity; for “the great man contains the whole universe within himself; genius is the living microcosm.”!>

However, to the extent that each and every one of us possess the ability to feel some kinship, some degree of identification, with those around us, then we can be said to possess some of the quality of genius in Weininger’s sense, however latent such genius might be. It was this quality and capacity which was perhaps the distinguishing feature of Mitrinovic’s character. His almost uncanny ability to ‘see’ a person as if they were transparent, and the breadth and depth of his character to which Morris Robb referred, were part and parcel of the same highly developed level of self-awareness, and therefore awareness of others. As someone who was particularly conscious of the different elements within his own nature, he was acutely aware of the different aspects of human nature within and around him. Not only would it appear that Mitrinovi¢ was aware of these different elements within himself, he was able to consciously choose which aspect he would express at any one time. Therein lay his ability to get on with such a wide range of people. As one of his long-time associates tried to express it,

...he seemed to include so many nationalities and aspects of human beings in himself that he could be comprehended by different people—so that if you were English you saw ‘Englishness’ in him, if Serbian you saw Serbian . . . He