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

Chapter 6

PUBLIC INITIATIVES: NEW EUROPE AND NEW BRITAIN

According to Philip Mairet, the various public projects set in motion by Mitrinovié and his followers, such as the Adler Society, can really only be understood as instruments or vehicles for the personal development of the participants. He suggested that the publicly proclaimed goals of such organisations were subordinate to their real purpose—the furtherance of the initiation process through which Mitrinovic was guiding his intimate associates, observing that:

every one of the public projects launched by DM came to an end, usually chaotic, after a brief life of intense activity and sacrificial expenditure. But this is the way with most, if not all authentic esoteric schools; any enterprise or organisation they undertake in the outer world must be of some public value or interest, but that is not the primary purpose. It is a communal exercise, which the teacher ordains for the development of the pupils as individuals: they must not be allowed to identify themselves with it, still less must the school or the teacher himself become committed to that exoteric work. It must achieve some success; but then it must be dissolved or abandoned.!

There is much in the life of Mitrinovié, especially during the decade prior to World War II, that lends support to such a thesis. During the 1930s his followers were involved in a myriad of public ventures on a variety of fronts. Most of these enjoyed only a brief, if active, life before they became transformed into some new organization with a new name, a slightly different emphasis in the public programme and image, but composed largely of the same personnel.

There was an apparent refusal on his part to commit himself to any public initiative for any lengthy period of time. Often it would seem that he had no sooner directed his own energy and that of others into one project before he had abandoned it for some new scheme. Mairet explained this

101