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

66 LIFE AND IDEAS OF MITRINOVIC

It was this search by Orage for something other than wordly success, this quest for spiritual insight, that made him such a ready collaborator with Mitrinovic. More than anything else Orage aspired to attain some higher state of consciousness, and in the Serb he recognised someone who could help him. He appeared amongst The New Age circle at a time when these aspirations of Orage were being frustrated by his commitment to Douglasism: Mitrinovic emerged phoenix-like

out of the centre of what one feared was now the flaming wreck of European

civilization, proclaiming a gospel of world salvation inspired by the perennial

philosophy and the Christian revelation. He spoke like a prophet with a mission to convict the nations of sin and call them to righteousness, preaching in a language of transcendental idealism to which Orage’s mind was well attuned.!¢

According to Mairet, an intimate of both men, Mitrinovi¢ became “the predominant figure in Orage’s world for two or three years, and possibly more.”

By 1920 the relationship between the two men had developed to a point where Orage felt prepared to place the columns of the weekly at Mitrinović's disposal. This was the opportunity that he had been waiting for, a means of communicating his vision of the world and the future development of humanity to a new and wider audience, one which might be receptive to his urgings. In fact, the readership of The New Age by this time had declined considerably from its peak in 1909 when its circulation reached 22,000. By 1913 sales were down to 4,500, and by 1920 the paper had been reduced to twelve pages and the circulation figure was probably less than 2,000. The appearance of Mitrinovic’s weekly column, “World Affairs,” between August 1920 and October 1921 thus coincided with the least successful phase of the magazine’s history. Indeed, it has been argued that the publication of these commentaries caused the decline in circulation during this period. Willa Muir claimed that Mitrinovic “finally helped to smk The New Age by the dead weight of the columns he contributed.”!’ A more balanced assessment is that of Wallace Martin who, whilst acknowledging that Mitrinovic’s columns did contribute to the fall in circulation, argued that the loss of the weekly’s popularity could be traced to the decline of its commitment to guild socialism and the turn to social credit, accompanied as this was by the loss of much of the support previously provided by the social movement that had arisen largely as a consequence of the magazine’s promotion of guild socialism.!°

That Mitrinovic should be accused of bringing about the demise of Zhe New Age, is, in fact, quite understandable when one considers the style that he adopted to convey his ideas and images. Even so devoted a follower