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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Naofumi" data-source="post: 47502" data-attributes="member: 39">in Germany, the disastrous World War, which pitted Germany against thewhole of Europe, would never have taken place.But though Schonerer succeeded in penetrating to the essentfa1s of aproblem, he was frequently mistaken in his judgment of men.And here, on the other hand, lay Dr. Lueger's strength.He had a rare gift of insight into human nature, and he was very carefulnot to take men as something better than they really were. He based hisplans on the practical possibilities that human life offered him, whereasSchonerer had only little understanding in that respect. All ideas that thispan-German had were theoretically right, but he didn't have theforcefulness or understanding necessary to put his ideas across to the broadmasses. He was unable to formulate them for the masses, whose powers ofcomprehension are limited, and will always remain so. Therefore allSchonerer's knowledge was only visionary wisdom; he never couldsucceed in putting it into practice.This lack of insight into human nature led him to err in estimating theforces behind certain movements and the inherent strength of old institutions.Schonerer indeed realized that his questions involved the nature of aworldview. But he didn't understand that only the broad masses of a nationcan make such convictions-which are almost religious in nature-prevail.Unfortunately, he only poorly understood how weak the fighting spirit ofthe so-called bourgeoisie is. That weakness is due to their business interests;they are much too afraid of taking risks, and this deters them from acting.And generally speaking, a worldview has no prospect of success unlessthe broad masses declare themselves ready to act as its standard-bearers,and to fight on its behalf-wherever and to whatever degree necessary.This failure to understand the importance of the lower strata of societyresulted in a very inadequate conception of the social question.In all this, Dr. Lueger was the opposite of Schonerer.His profound knowledge of human nature enabled him to correctly judgethe various social forces, and it saved him from underrating the power ofexisting institutions. And it was perhaps this very quality that enabled himto utilize those institutions as a means to serve the purposes of his policy.He saw only too clearly that, in our day, the political fighting power ofthe upper classes is quite insignificant; it is incapable of fighting for a greatnew movement until the triumph of that movement is secured. Thus hedevoted the larger part of his political activity to the task of winning overthose sections of the population whose existence was in danger, and tofostering a militant spirit in them rather than attempting to paralyze it. He</blockquote>

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