circumstances and temperamentally incapable of disciplined cooperation.


3.11. OF AN ORGANIZED BROTHERHOOD.

The idea of organizing the progressive elements in the social chaos into
a regular developing force is one that has had a great attraction for
me. I have written upon it elsewhere, and I make no apology for
returning to it here and examining it in the light of various
afterthoughts and with fresh suggestions.

I first broached this idea in a book called "Anticipations," wherein I
described a possible development of thought and concerted action which I
called the New Republicanism, and afterwards I redrew the thing rather
more elaborately in my "Modern Utopia." I had been struck by the
apparently chaotic and wasteful character of most contemporary reform
movements, and it seemed reasonable to suppose that those who aimed at
organizing society and replacing chaos and waste by wise arrangements,
might very well begin by producing a more effective organization for
their own efforts. These complexities of good intention made me
impatient, and I sought industriously in my mind for a short cut through
them. In doing so I think I overlooked altogether too much how
heterogeneous all progressive thought and progressive people must be.

In my "Modern Utopia" I turned this idea of an organized brotherhood
about very thoroughly and looked at it from this point and that; I let
it loose as it were, and gave it its fullest development, and so
produced a sort of secular Order of governing men and women. In a spirit
entirely journalistic I called this the Order of the Samurai, for at the
time I wrote there was much interest in Bushido because of the capacity