¶6 Here, a few explanations will not be useless in order to bring out, on the one hand, the sophisms that hide beneath the ‘democratic’ idea, and, on the other hand, the links that connect this same idea to the whole ensemble of the modern mentality;1 moreover, it is almost superfluous, given the point of view from which we approach these matters, to point out that these observations will be formulated apart from all party questions and all political quarrels, with which we have no intention of involving ourselves, either near or far.2 We envisage these things in an absolutely disinterested fashion, as we might do for any other object of study, and seeking only to realise as clearly as possible what lies beneath all this, which is, moreover, the necessary and sufficient condition for the dissipation of all the illusions that our contemporaries form on this subject.3 Here also, it is truly a question of ‘suggestion’, as we said a moment ago with respect to somewhat different but nevertheless connected ideas;4 and as soon as one knows that it is only a suggestion, as soon as one has understood how it acts, it can no longer exercise itself; against things of this kind, a somewhat thorough and purely ‘objective’ examination (as one says today in the special jargon borrowed from German philosophers)5 proves to be far more effective than all the sentimental declamations and all the party polemics, which prove nothing and are only the expression of mere individual preferences.6
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Summary

Guénon explains that some clarification is needed to uncover the sophisms hidden beneath the ‘democratic’ idea and to show how this idea connects to the whole modern mentality. He stresses that his observations are made apart from all party politics and political quarrels, approaching the matter in a purely disinterested manner as any other object of study. He states that the goal is to dissipate contemporary illusions, and that here again the mechanism at work is ‘suggestion’. Once one recognises it as such and understands its operation, it loses its power. A thorough, objective examination, he argues, is far more effective against such things than sentimental declamations or partisan polemics, which prove nothing and merely express individual preferences.

General notes

  1. sophismes qui se cachent sous l’idée « démocratique » — Rendered as ‘the sophisms that hide beneath the “democratic” idea’. Guénon employs the term ‘sophism’ in its technical sense: a formally valid reasoning that rests on a false premise or a shift in meaning. The democratic idea rests on undemonstrated postulates (natural equality, popular sovereignty) that must be made explicit. ↩︎
  2. en dehors de toutes les questions de partis — Rendered as ‘apart from all party questions’. Guénon insists on his position of metaphysical ‘neutrality’: he does not take sides for one political camp against another, for that would amount to accepting the game of modern disorder. His examination is ‘disinterested’ in the sense that it serves no temporal interest. ↩︎
  3. se dissipent toutes les illusions — Rendered as ‘the dissipation of all the illusions’. Guénon affirms an epistemological principle: the simple intellectual understanding of the mechanism of illusion suffices to dissipate it. It is not a question of combating it with another illusion (sentimental declamation or partisan polemic), but of illuminating it through intellection. ↩︎
  4. suggestion — Rendered as ‘suggestion’. The term is taken from the preceding passage on ‘lay dogmas’. Democracy operates as a collective suggestion: it imposes its principles without demonstration, by repetition and by affective prestige. ↩︎
  5. jargon spécial emprunté aux philosophes allemands — Rendered as ‘special jargon borrowed from German philosophers’. Guénon alludes to the influence of German philosophy (Kant, Hegel, then positivism) on French intellectual vocabulary in the 19th century. The term ‘objective’ is placed here in quotation marks to signal that it is used in a modern and superficial sense, not in the scholastic or traditional sense. ↩︎
  6. simples préférences individuelles — Rendered as ‘mere individual preferences’. Guénon reduces ordinary political debates (left against right, progressives against conservatives, etc.) to subjective quarrels without metaphysical foundation. Only a ‘disinterested’ (that is to say, intellectual and non-affective) approach can attain the truth. ↩︎