An interesting article attributed to Blavatsky in her Collected Writings. The style doesn't seem to resemble Blavatsky. It's closer to Mabel Collins in style, but with themes closer to Annie Besant. However Collins had just left the magazine and Besant wasn't on board yet. Despite this difficulty, I think that it does give a decent basis and outline for strategies of social activism and is still quite relevant for today.
THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE
[Lucifer, Vol. IV, No. 20, April, 1889, pp. 104-111]
[It is not definitely known whether this article is from the pen of
H. P. Blavatsky. It has been ascertained, however, that she used several
pseudonyms in the early volumes of Lucifer. It is possible that the one
appended at the conclusion of the present essay is one of
them.—Compiler.]
The mother of life is death. Nowhere is this truth more conspicuous
than in the animal kingdom; the life of the stronger is prolonged by the
lives of the weaker, and the survival of the fittest is proclaimed by
the shrieks of the mangled and hapless unfit. Long has the western world
sought the solution of this grim riddle propounded to her lord and
master, man, by Dame Nature, the sphinx of the ages.
It has, therefore, been found necessary for the continuance of average
intellectual contentment to venture some guess which shall decently
dispose of this obnoxious problem, and the leading representatives of
the mind of the race, proceeding by the methods of the times, have
carefully labelled the riddle “The Struggle for Existence,” and having
done so, are wisely refraining from further unnecessary explanations,
knowing full well that their constituents, the public, who require their
thinking done for them, will gladly accept the label as a legitimate
answer to the riddle, and, by frequently repeating it with knowing
looks, be charmed, and in their turn charm others, with the magic of its
sound, and using it as a mantric formula, banish objectors to the limbo
of unpopularity.
And yet though the why of this great struggle remains as great a
mystery as ever, the attempted answer is of great value from the
conciseness with which it formulates the law of the Ever Becoming. Throughout all the kingdoms it obtains, and
especially in Man, the crown and synthesis of all. At this point,
however, a new development takes place, and when humanity reaches the
balance of its cycle of evolution, and each race and individual arrives
at the turning point of Ezekiel’s wheel, a new Struggle for Existence
arises, and we have God and Animal fighting for existence in Man. Now,
at the close of the nineteenth century, in our enormously over-populated
cities and in the accentuated individualism of modern competition, we
see this deadly struggle in the white heat of its fury.
Grand, indeed, and magnificent has been the childhood of the white
race in which material and intellectual progress have raced on madly
side by side; witness the conquest of nearly the whole world’s surface
by its spirit of enterprise and adventure, rejoicing as a giant in its
physical prowess, the subjugation of the henchman steam, and ever fresh
triumphs over the master electricity. But the child cannot be ever a
child, and the race draws nigh to its manhood; the God awakes and the
Struggle for Existence begins in grim earnest.
First the units of the race, some here, some there, wake dimly to the
feeling that they are not apart from the whole, they sympathize with
their kind, they rejoice with them. Even in the animal the faint
outlines of self-sacrifice have been shadowed forth by nature, as may be
seen in the mother love of the females and the formation of gregarious
communities. In inferior races, man repeats this lesson of nature, and
the animal being dominant, improves on her, but slowly; in races of
higher type, however, fresh areas of generous impulse, containing the
germ of self-sacrifice, are gradually developed. It must be remembered,
however, that the races are here mentioned in this order merely for the
convenience of tracing the development of self-sacrifice in a monad, and
not according to their natural genesis. Thus far the white race, as a
race, or in other words, the average individual of the race, has
developed the subtleties of his animal nature to their limit, and now
comes in contact with the divine; and it is only by extending this area
of interest and sympathy that the individual can expand into the divine to be at last one with universal love, the spirit of which is self-sacrifice.
From daily life we may take examples which clearly show forth the
evolution of this god-like quality. We see the purely selfish man, who
cares not if all rot so he have pleasure; the same man married, and an
area of generosity developed, but bounded by wife and children; in other
cases, the area increased by the extension of sympathy to friends and
relations; and still further increased in the case of the fanatic or
bigot, religious or patriotic, who fights for sect or country, as the
she-animal for her cubs, whether the cause be good or bad. And here we
may mention the instruments of national passions and cunning, necessary
evils; for the race being in its youth, and very animal-like, not yet
recognizing the right of self-sacrifice in the interrelations of its
constituent sub-races, requires the individual who serves his country in
her wars and political schemes to reduce his moral standard to the
race-level. These are types of the evolution of the animal man’s
affections, either in his individual development or modified by the
development of the race. In most cases such types represent the mere
expansion of selfishness or, at any rate, may be traced to selfish
causes, or the hope of reward.
Ascending, however, in the scale of
manhood, we come to those who shadow forth the latent God in man in
thoughts, words, and deeds of divine self-sacrifice; the prerogative of
their God-head first manifesting in acts of real charity, in pity of
their suffering fellow-kind, or from an intuitional feeling of duty, the
first heralding of accession to divine responsibility, and the
realization of the unity of all souls. “I am my brother’s keeper,” is
the cry of repentant Cain, and the divine summons of return to the lost
Paradise. With this cry the struggle for animal existence begins to
yield to the struggle for divine existence. By extending our love to all
men, aye, to animals as well, we joy and sorrow with them, and expand
our souls towards the One that ever both sorrows and joys with all, in
an eternal bliss in which the pleasure of joy and the pain of sorrow are
not.
Thus, in every man the mighty battle rages, but the fortune of the fight is not alike in all—in some the animal hosts rage madly in their triumph, in a few the glorious army of the god
has gained a silent victory, but in the vast majority, and especially
now, at the balance of the race cycle, the battle rages fiercely, the
issue still in doubt. Now, therefore, is the time to strike, and show
that the battle is not fought in man alone, but in Man, and that the
issue of each individual fight is inextricably bound up in that of the
great battle in which the issue cannot be doubtful, for the divine is in
its nature union and love, the animal discord and hate. Strike,
therefore, and strike boldly! These are no idle words, nor the utopian
imaginings of a dreamer, but practical truths.
For in what does man
differ from the natural animal? Is it not in his power of association
and combination? Therefore does he live in communities, and develop
responsibility. From whence spring the roots of society, if not from
mutual assistance and interchange of service? And if the race offers the
individual the advantages of such combination, perfected by ages of
bitter experience, do not those at least who are elder sons of the race,
and find themselves in the enjoyment of such organizations, owe a debt
of gratitude to their parent, and in return for the fortune amassed with
tears and groaning by their forbears, repay the boon, by putting the
experience of the past out to interest, and distributing the income
acquired among their poorer brethren, who are equally the sons of their
parent. And in this race family there are many poor, paupers physical,
paupers mental, and moral paupers. How, then, shall the richer brethren
help? Shower gold among the masses? Compel all to study the arts and
sciences? Display the naked truth to the world? Nay, then should these
poor children of the race be bound, not free!
Let us, therefore, enquire
into the problem. In the evolution of all human societies we find the factor of caste;
in the childhood of the race, caste is regulated by birth, an heirloom
from the past civilizations of older stocks. Gradually, however, the
birth caste wanes before the rising money caste, and hence material
possessions become the standard of worth in the individual, in that the
race is then plunged most deeply in material interests and has reached
its highest point of development on the material plane. But the zenith
of the material is the nadir of the spiritual; the law of progress moves calmly onward with the wheel of time, and
nature, who never leaps, develops a new standard of worth, the
intellectual, which we see even now asserting itself in proportion to
its adaptability to average comprehension and the material standard of
the times, and pointing to the development of a new caste standard, to
be in its turn superseded by the caste of true worth in which the
spiritual development of the race will be completely established.
This,
however, will be the work of ages and for humanity as a whole cannot
easily be quickened, for it is impossible to change the natural law of
evolution which proceeds spirally in curves that never re-enter into
themselves, but ever ascend to so-called higher planes. At certain
periods, however, of these cycles, a forecast or antetype is offered of
the consummation, whereby an example of humanity in its perfect state is
dimly shadowed forth. Such a period the white race is now entering
upon, and the earnest of perfect type humanity will be given by those,
whether of the money or mind caste, who, realizing the goal of evolution
and capable of destroying the illusion of time, by translating the
future into the present, freely extend the benefits of their caste to
the pariahs of the race, and approaching them in friendship, gain a
practical knowledge of their wretchedness and endeavour to awaken the
latent divinity that slumbers within.
With the sword of self-sacrifice, the rightful possession of the
God-man, and with the good of humanity as their watchword, they should
march against the forces of individualism and self, and, with this
watchword, prove all institutions of the race, especially those fresh
from the womb of time, and comparing them with this one ideal, ever
asking: “Does this, or this, tend to the realization of universal
brotherhood?” If it is not so, the effort should be to turn such forces
as act against the stream of right progress, gently and silently into
their proper course; but if the thing makes for the common good, they
should by all means and at all hazards foster the weakling and watch
round its cradle with loving care. Now the path of right progress should
include the amelioration of the individual, the nation, the race, and
humanity; and ever keeping in view the last and grandest object, the
perfecting of man, should reject all apparent bettering of the individual at the
expense of his neighbour. In actual life the evolution of these
factors, individual, race and nation, are so intimately interblended,
that it would be wrong to assume any progression from one to the other;
but since it is only possible to see one face of an object at a time, so
it is necessary to trace the course of progress along some particular
line, both for its simplification and general comprehension.
With
regard, then, to the individual, the great sanitary improvements which
the money caste enjoys, should be extended to all; public baths and
recreation grounds, free concerts and lecturers provided; the museums
and picture galleries thrown open at times when the worker can visit
them; the formation of athletic and mutual improvement clubs among the
poor encouraged. All of which reforms were easy of accomplishment if
only a small portion of the enormous wealth of the country, now lying
idle, were generously and self-sacrificingly expended. Unfortunately
there are few of the money caste who yet realize the latent unity of
man, and the promotion of such schemes is left to those who, lacking the
most potent power of the times, are unsupported, because there is no
“money” in the enterprise. But could such men be found and the
superfluous wealth of the country turned in such directions, how great
would be the progress of the individual ! Health would improve and taste
develop; healthy surroundings would favour healthy thought, the sight
of monuments of art and science would bring refinement and both engender
self-respect.
But it may be said, if wealth is withdrawn for such purposes, work
would be taken from other labour, and so the misery of the workers
increased, while the advantages offered to the masses would only
increase their demand for greater pleasures, and render them still more
dissatisfied. It will, however, be seen that not only the same amount of
labour would be required in works and institutions for the public good,
but even that such undertakings, being of a plain and sober nature,
would give employment to larger numbers, than money spent in finer or
more luxurious labour. Nor would dissatisfaction arise among the masses
as anticipated; for men large-hearted and -minded enough to inaugurate such reforms would display the same spirit in all things
and offer an example in private life of sober and abstemious conduct;
extravagance and display would cease, so that the brilliant toilettes
and luxurious habits of the money caste would no longer provoke the
miserable emulation of tawdry finery and debasing vices among the
pariahs; for the poor copy the rich, and if the fashionable bars of the
West End lacked patrons, the gin palaces of the slums would not drive so
roaring a trade.
It is the debased taste of the rich which has rendered
a surfeit of meat necessary for the maintenance of his powers in the
eyes of the artisan, and so, at a price far beyond his slender
resources, he adopts a diet which wastes the tissues and disquiets the
system. And if the advisability of a sudden change of diet is contested,
at least moderation in flesh eating should be recommended, and a proof
of the possibility of maintaining one’s full powers given by those who
desire the physical and moral sanity of the race. Setting aside all
argument drawn from not generally accredited sources, such as the codes
of the great teachers of the past, and the synthesis of all experience,
physical, psychic, and spiritual, we may bring into court the medical
faculty who are unanimously of the opinion that a reduced quantity of
meat would improve the general health, and that many of the common
ailments are due solely to excess in the use of animal food in
particular, and to overfeeding in general; while chemical analysis
proves conclusively that vegetable food, especially cereals, contain
nutritive qualities vastly in excess of animal.
Moreover, if the false feeling of degradation in the performance of
so-called menial offices, were removed by the example of the money and
mind castes performing such offices themselves, or at least encouraging
every invention and supporting every effort for minimizing such labour,
many of the troubles which are daily taxing the resources of our
housekeepers to the utmost, would be removed, and a solution to the
difficult problem of the servant question arrived at; the present
absurdity of domestic service would find no place, and instead of one
thousand little backs bent over one thousand little kitchen ranges
preparing one thousand little dinners, we should have a sane cooperative
system whereby the small worries of domesticity which destroy the harmony of so many homes, would be banished.
If such sanitary measures, therefore, were adopted, we should have
physical and mental powers continuing into old age, instead of a general
belief that fifty or sixty years terminates the average man’s
usefulness and there then remains nothing for him but a life of
inactivity and general feebleness. Of course this applies to the average
individual; for we have sufficient instances of mental giants who
continue their labours till the closing hours of life; these, however,
intuitively or naturally practice moderation and plainness in eating,
and often give striking proofs of extraordinary abstemiousness.
If, then, such moderation of private life was practised by the
accredited leaders of society, no inducement to excess would offer
itself to their followers; or even if the animal still rioted in the
masses, it would not be shamefully encouraged in its madness by the
excesses of respectability.
Thus the necessary physical requirements of all classes would be
reduced to a level, and a basis obtained on which to build a firm fabric
of national progress towards the realization of human unity. Meantime
the mental evolution of all classes would also make vast strides, and
the impulses given to study and the development of artistic tastes,
would bring the real genius of the nation to the front and not confine
the recruiting of professions to the money caste, irrespective of
individual capacity. The present false standard of taste would fall out
of date as completely as the wonderful cottage ornaments of the near
past, and neatness in private decoration would, by harmonious
surroundings, induce a harmony of thought and feeling.
Who, for
instance, could indite a poem or work of inspiration in an
over-ornamented drawing-room of the modern style, with its heterogeneous
and multicolored collection of bric-a-brac and trifles? But with
harmonious surroundings and following such a mode of life, the
individual would develop within him the larger instincts of his nature,
and the flower of self-sacrifice, then finding a congenial soil, would
blossom in the hearts of the many and thus, destroying all narrowness of
judgment and begetting an ever widening interest in the general welfare, would develop new social organizations and
institutions; the tone of the nation would be elevated and true worth
become the standard of judgment among its citizens.
Moreover, seeing that we have already proof of such an ideal being
dimly sensed in all nations of the white race in the increasing
discontent of nearly all classes with the existing state of affairs, no
nation would stand alone in this, but the wave of progress would sweep
simultaneously through all the sub-races of the race and beget a general
desire to establish healthy relationships between nations and to foster
every effort to unite the larger units of the race into one harmonious
whole. Further, a belief in the essential unity of all souls would
create stronger dissatisfaction with the existing state of social
relations between the sexes, the potentialities of woman would be
studied and opportunity given for that development which has previously
been denied to womankind. Plain justice would demand the same ostracism
of male harlots which is now meted out with so much severity to the
female sex alone, and either the same leniency extended to women as is
now given to men, or the higher moral standard and wisdom of awakened
humanity, would compel the supply in harlotry to cease by the extinction
of the demand.
To prepare, therefore, a ground in which this
consummation could be achieved, it would be necessary to extend the full
benefits of intellectual training to women; to encourage and advocate
the necessity of athletic exercises for girls and to provide for the
same in the schools of the state; to jealously guard the health of the
women working classes by sanitary improvements in all manufactories and
labour establishments, and to kill out the evil of over-long hours of
sedentary occupation in vitiated atmospheres. Moreover, it should be
made possible for women in the position of the present daughters of the
lower middle classes and of parents with limited incomes to follow a
calling in life, instead of being forced, against their wills and finer
instincts, into the matrimonial market, to gain their bread and cheese
at the price of discontented motherhood.
No doubt the establishment of international leagues for mutual help and on a basis other than that of self-interest will, at the present time, appear to the majority the acme of folly;
but when the race has, in its social institutions, given valid proof of
the efficacy of the method, the change of base becomes a possibility.
The spread of education and the ability to study original authorities
and to get at facts at first hand would rapidly clear away the clouds of
national and sectarian prejudice, and the birth of the God within would
render it impossible to poison the young minds of the race by
inoculating them with the virus of dogmatism and of past national pride
and passion as treasured in the orthodox theological and historical
textbooks of the times; the past triumphs of the animal in individual
nations would be regarded merely as the obscuration of the spiritual and
yet so ordered in the economy of nature that the sun of humanity should
finally shine forth more gloriously in contrast to the darkness of the
past. Thus the necessity for keeping up large armies and fleets would
cease, and the enormous wealth so saved could be turned into channels of
national improvement, thus pointing the way for the desertion of
national forces from the ranks of the animal to the standard of the
divine.
It would be long to trace, even roughly, the possibilities of
international cooperation which, in its turn, would be extended to
racial cooperation of which the potentialities almost surpass
description and reach that consummation of which the Theosophical
Society has planted the first openly conscious germ, in endeavouring to
form the nucleus of a universal brotherhood of humanity, without
distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or colour; what the
potentialities of this glorious humanity may be, none but the student of
the Science of Life can dream, as he alone can sense the labours of the
Eldest Brothers of the Race for their poorer brethren.
Let us then, aspiring to the divine, now and within, fight down the
animal, that so we may be enabled to tell friend from foe in the greater
battle, and, awakened by the cry, “Thou art thy brother’s keeper,” gird
on shield and buckler for the cause of the divine Unity of Humanity in
the struggle for existence.
PHILANTHROPOS.
