History moves in epochs, led by bold and narcissistic leaders. If none appears, nothing happens to qualify as history. They don’t need to be moral or virtuous, but they must be perceived so by the masses.

So wrote Thomas Carlyle in “On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History.” It has come to be known as the “great man” theory of history, and prepared the way for Stalin, Hitler and maybe Trump.

Carlyle appeared in an age when the U.K. and U.S. were demonstrating the merit of allowing society to take its own course without direction or interference. Slavery was on the wane, women obtained equal rights, universal opportunity and material progress were becoming the norm.

Carlyle wanted no part of it. He called for the restoration of the ruling class and firm and uncontested power. Some were meant to rule and the rest follow. He was the forefather of fascism and power as the organizing principle of society.

How did he describe great men? “They were the leaders of men, the great ones; the modelers, creators of whatsoever the general mass of men contrived to do or to attain.”

He tells us of great men, wars, revolutions and invasions. The commoners were irrelevant. Nothing was more silly than Adam Smith’s pin factory, where people made something to improve peoples’ lives. Making war was important.

Real greatness came with being the head of state.

“The Commander over men; he to whose will our wills are to be subordinated, and loyally surrender themselves, and find their welfare in doing so, may be reckoned the most important of Great Men.”

The exercise of such power requires the primacy of the nation state and protectionist and nativist impulses of the fascist mindset.

Does Donald Trump understand his 19th century progenitor?

C. F. Baumgartner

Mercer Island