ABSTRACT
Peter Viereck saw the portents of political disorder in the cultural ascension of the mass-man, a disease he labeled overadjustment. The thesis of Metapolitics-that the imagination has a substantial impact on politics-is the central theme uniting all of Viereck's work. In Metapolitics, Viereck utilized the historical record to illustrate that ideas determine how a particular individual or community responds to all material factors because of the imaginative nature of human life. A major influence upon Viereck's imagination was the work of Irving Babbitt, whose ideas are also clearly discernible in Metapolitics. Babbitt constantly argued that political phenomena cannot be adequately understood without considering the existential importance of the imagination. Likewise, both Babbitt and Viereck emphasized the need to consult experience in making ethical distinctions. While Viereck and Babbitt were certainly affected by the entire gamut of the Western heritage, it is clear that the humane traditionalism of this Dublin-born Englishman strongly influenced their political philosophies.
