The hierarchical principle is the recognition that men are not equal in type or in capacity and that a healthy order arranges them according to those differences. The higher is not defined by wealth or by force alone. It is defined by proximity to a spiritual and qualitative standard. The lower finds its proper place and its dignity within a structure that acknowledges the higher.
Modern thought treats hierarchy as an artificial and oppressive arrangement. The Traditional view treats it as the natural reflection of reality. When the hierarchical principle is denied, the social form that replaces it is either the rule of pure number or the rule of pure force. Neither can generate a durable and elevated civilization.
The young man who accepts the hierarchical principle does not thereby claim a place at the summit. He accepts that rank exists and that his own task is to discover and to form the rank that corresponds to his nature. That acceptance is already a departure from the leveling atmosphere of the age.
Hierarchy begins within. The man who has no interior order of command and obedience will never understand or sustain an exterior hierarchy. The first application of the principle is therefore the establishment of a clear rank among the forces of one’s own being. From that interior hierarchy a different relation to the world becomes possible.