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Man is by nature a political animal. He cannot live his life alone with his ideas, his outlook, and his faith. An inner force compels him to associate others in his ideas and strivings, to combine with those who themselves hold views similar to his own. When those who hold scientific ideas in common combine into one association, they form a school of thought; in the sphere of religious faith they constitute a religious sect, while when men combine in the name of similar political or economic ideas, they create a party. It is precisely in this sphere that no man who is psychically healthy can separate himself from the community and adopt, throughout his life, a neutral attitude, aloof from any political trend. That is the neutral state of mind of the individual. And if you find a healthy man who boasts of not belonging to any party, it is certain that he has reached this attitude only by means of an effort at self-education and as in all education, a neutral attitude in politics is attained only with difficulty.
Every political outlook or trend denominates itself by a specific name, quality or colour: conservative, radical, liberal, right, left, black, red, and so forth. These names or qualities are not chosen at random. They are meant to express or emphasize some quality and there is no doubt that they are needed as means of recognizing the nature and political direction of any particular party. However, it would be a mistake to regard these names as denoting the essence of the real differences between the parties. What really does divide one man from another in this sphere is, one might say, his individual formulation of things, his specific psychical structure which determines the way in which he looks at the world, and especially in political matters. For in fact, no programme has any existence outside the mind of the individual. Outlooks and principles are merely ways of regarding the world and this observation is determined and directed by a man's inward make-up