Quote of the Week: José Ortega y Gasset, “Revolt of the Masses”

José Ortega y Gasset

The mass-man regards himself as perfect. The select man, in order to regard himself so, needs to be specially vain, and the belief in his perfection is not united with him consubstantially, it is not ingenuous, but arises from his vanity, and even for himself has a fictitious, imaginary, problematic character. Hence the vain man stands in need of others, he seeks in them support for the idea that he wishes to have of himself. So that not even in this diseased state, not even when blinded by vanity, does the ‘noble’ man succeed in feeling himself as in truth complete. Contrariwise, it never occurs to the mediocre man of our days, to the New Adam, to doubt his own plenitude. His self-confidence is, like Adam’s, paradisiacal.

▪ José Ortega y Gasset, Revolt of the Masses (Norton & Co., 1993; 1930) extract from page 69.

SydneyTrads is the internet portal and communication page of the Sydney Traditionalist Forum: an association of young professionals who form part of the Australian independent right (also known as “dissident right” or “outer right”).

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