In what must be ranked as a foremost classic of
twentieth-century political philosophy, George Santayana, in the
preface to his last major work prior to his death, makes plain the
limits as well as the aims of Dominations and Powers: "All that it
professes to contain is glimpses of tragedy and comedy played
unawares by governments; and a continual intuitive reduction of
political maxims and institutions to the intimate spiritual fruits
that they are capable of bearing."
This astonishing volume shows how the potential beauty latent in
all sorts of worldly artifacts and events are rooted in differing
forms of power and dominion. The work is divided into three major
parts: the generative order of society, which covers growth in the
jungle, economic arts, and the liberal arts; the militant order of
society, which examines factions and enterprise; and the rational
order of society, which contains one of the most sustained
critiques of democratic systems and liberal ideologies extant.
Written at a midpoint in the century, but at the close of his
career, Santayana's volume offers an ominous account of the
weakness of the West and its similarities in substance, if not
always in form, with totalitarian systems of the East. Few analyses
of concepts, such as government by the people, the price of peace
and the suppression of warfare, the nature of elites and limits of
egalitarianism, and the nature of authority in free societies, are
more comprehensive or compelling. This is a carefully rendered
statement on tasks of leadership for free societies that take on
added meaning after the fall of communism.
The author of a definitive biography of Santayana, John
McCormick provides the sort of deep background that makes possible
an assessment of Dominations and Powers. He permits us to better
appreciate the place of this work at the start no less than
conclusion of Santayana's long career. For the author of The Life
of Reason himself admits to having led a life in unreason--deeply
impacted by the war of 1914-1918, DEGREESand then again,
1939-1945.
McCormick provides in his opening essay a careful story of
Santayana's exile from his Anglo-American homeland, a deeply
embittered figure in search of options to annihilation at the
military level and an alternative to false and fatuous ideologies
at the spiritual level. We know better now how to cope with this
profound, yet disturbing classic in political thought.
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