Gaetano Mosca
April 1, 1858—Nov. 8, 1941
Sicilian jurist and philosopher
There is no denying that a man's ability to maintain the standard of living to which he has been accustomed, and especially a sense of security for the morrow, are conditions that are indispensable to a certain well-being. But it is no less true that many other elements, objective and subjective, figure in individual happiness. The man who has a kindly disposition and a well-balanced temperament may be far more nearly satisfied with life than another man who has more wealth than he, and a better social position. The very fact that the world generally recognizes that the former has been inadequately rewarded may, along with the inner approval that he gets from his own conscience, contribute not a little to his greater felicity.
Other doctrines, other beliefs, have found themselves confronted with the grave and tormenting problem of life, in which the just and the good often succumb while the unjust and the wicked triumph. But the solutions they have found have been different from the solutions that socialism proposes. The Stoics realized that they could not banish unhappiness from the world. They therefore taught their disciples to endure it bravely. Unable to promise everyone the enjoyment of material pleasures, they urged even those who were in a position to enjoy them lavishly to scorn them. The same scorn of material pleasures and of the joys of the flesh we find in Christianity in its early days, and in all its moments of fanaticism. Exaggeration of that tendency may lead to a sort of mysticism, which sometimes alienates noble characters, souls that are predisposed to self-sacrifice, from the world and from life. Such teachings are not only morally higher; they are also more practical than the diametrically opposite teachings of socialists in general. These latter are likely to result in a lowering, momentary at least, of some of the noblest sentiments in human nature. Socialists are not the first to have preached equality and to have aspired to absolute justice in the world. But equality and absolute justice can be preached by urging toleration, mutual indulgence, brotherly love; and they can be preached by appealing to hatred and violence. One may bid the rich and the powerful to look upon the poor and unhappy as their brothers; and the poor and unhappy can be made to believe that the rich and powerful are their enemies. The first line was followed by Jesus, the Apostles, and St. Francis of Assisi, who said to the rich, "Give!" The second is followed by the majority of present-day socialists, who describe the pleasures of the rich as the product of the sweat of the poor man's brow and implicitly or explicitly say, "Take!" Such substantial differences in method can only lead to significant differences in practical results.
Reprinted from The Ruling Class by Gaetano Mosca, p.309-310, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1939
