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

THE SENATE INITIATIVE 145

be tensions and conflict between individuals and groups in society. How would these be resolved or kept in balance in the absence of a central state power to impose ‘law and order’ on society?

As regards the first issue, clearly one could not wave a magic wand and thereby transform the consciousness of other people. In order to ‘construct’ a tree it is necessary to plant a seed in the ground and let it grow. The full potentiality of the mature tree is contained within that seed, but it has to absorb material from the surrounding environment if it is ever to grow to full fruition. Likewise, to create an organic social order, a seed needed to be planted. A conscious human creation by a few individuals who carried within them the vision of a fully developed organic ordering of life. A vision which might grow into a small prototype example of the new society, as they sought to develop the new consciousness and the human relationships necessary for its realisation amongst themselves. A vision which they could communicate to others through their own example.

At the same time, those who carried within them this new consciousness, this seed of a new age, would also have to be prepared to nurture its growth in those around them. Just as in a natural organism there has to be some means of maintaining the necessary balance between all the different parts and functions, a similar function was required by the new social organism in the absence of a central state. This function Mitrinovié called Senate. It was the creative essence of the new order which was required from the very beginning of its birth, and which would eventually grow to supersede the mechanisms of state rule. The function of senate would be to possess a Clear vision of the necessary functions in the social state and their proper relationship to one another, and to steer the various groups in society towards a genuine functional relationship through devolution and federation. The senate, through providing each group with an interpretation of its own significance in the context of the whole, would perform the necessary integrating function whereby the requisite balance between groups might be maintained by mutual agreement rather than force. The senators who performed this function would be all-pervasive in the sense that they would serve to hold the balance between all persons and functions throughout the new social order and ultimately the whole of human life. In any association of persons at whatever level of purpose, there would be those who were committed to function as senators. The authority of such senators would not reside in their control of the means of violence or persuasion, but on the recognition by others of their impartiality and their ability to perform their integrating function. They would not constitute a new power group or élite with their own special interests. They were not to be conceived