THE COMING CAESARS

The prospect Riencourt conjures up is a black one- with America paralleling in all essentials the fate that overcame the republicanism of Rome. The need for centralized authority, for Caesarism, is a result both of the vast world power of this country (a power democratic institutions can no longer effectively wield) and of the increasing de-individualization of the masses. Under the banner of egalitarianism, mankind agglomerates, and losing its sense of initiative, of struggle and ambition, develops a supine reliance upon a Roosevelt or Eisenhower. These leaders become progressively stronger masters, and all the while the masses weaken, disintegrate, and at last go down the drain of history. Such is the awful process- a process already well indicated by Spengler and Ortega y Gasset- but which is here fortified with new historical findings, particularly parallels between America and Rome. Riencourt, author of Roof of the World, sometimes seems like more of an undertaker than a prophet, despite the slender hope he offers that it is still possible to reverse or modify the process.