114 Foundations of Democratic Dogma
I think, history has shown is always a movement in a circle.
It simply reinstates in another form the very tyrannies it
would destroy. Ideas can be fought only by ideas.
What then of the fortunes of this fight? Who shall say?
It is possible of course that it is a losing fight—that the
degradation of democratic dogma represents a permanent
trend in history. It is possible that the logical foundations
of this dogma are indeed gone, that Nietzsche is right and
men will abandon it for other ends and values. It is possi-
ble that, as some philosophies of history are telling us, the
dogma of progress in which our democratic culture has so
firmly believed must also be abandoned. However this may
be, these questions bring us to the topic of the third and
last lecture, “Progress or Regress: The Philosophy of His-
tory.”