The Omaha morning bee., 1924-08-10
The Possibility of a
Social Renaissance


government took ever factories, un-
certain whether 1t meant to run them
under 4 quasi.military discipline or on
guild lines as free communities of
workers; 1t smashed money and
discovered 1t had no other way of
computing the mutual services and
obligations of men. It was touching
to sec Lenin in the Kremiin in 1920
struggling with childish projects for
the "e1ectrification of Russia" and
unable to explain what sort of town
center. IL any, his communist Russia
ideas that were worth a rap about
this very obvious matter. / left him,
sympathetic with him In the face of
his ttupendous task but a little
amazed at his extreme upreparedness
However, IL one may trust a virulent
article by Trotzky that has just been
published in English; he lost his tenn
per at being asked awkward questions
in true communist fashion and re.
sorted to Trotsky for comfort. UGH"
said Lenin. What q perfect petit
bourgeois" and so restored the men,
tai calm my entirely respectful scep-
ticism had ruffled. For In communist
circles II you can call anyone or
anything bourgeois" the question is
settled and discussion is at an end.
The emptiness of plan. the extreme
assurance. which distinguishes mod
ern communism Is tho secret alike of
its attractiveness in times Of social
trouble and its futility In construc-
tive effort. 1t does not worry the op.
pressed. the disconnected and the un-
happy, with difficult projects of hu.
man readjustment. 1t Jumps togeth-
er the complex and various disorders
Of social life, the muddls of human
prejudices and impulses, as one n1aiig-
nant thing. the capitalist system. !"
Destroy this legendary monster and
the millennium win ensue. Instead
of overcoming the fool In every man,
you must ob.truct, waste, sabotage all
the current services of the commun.
ity. Having convinced tho world
that nothing else viii work the die
~NtDA1 1tAp Va thV patty VIII CHSuc.
There could be no teaching more sue.
cessful In mass meeting and less
useful In bureau.
1t was Marx who created modern
communism. It Is the sterile mule of
socialism and a scientific ambition.
Socialism from the days of Robert
Owen onward was thing OF schemes
and projects. It was perpetualIy
seeking better arrangements. It's
methods were Utopian. But Marx was
bitten by an ambition to rival Oar
win: he was to be the Darwin of So
cial and political science. with none
of Darwin's modesty nor Darwin's In
tellectual patience. He had the mind
OF a theologian with the pretension
OF scientific inquirer and he had
the dull mans hatred and contempt
for the human Imagination. His move
ment was to be scientific" with all
the magic that word carried half
century ago. There was to be moth
ing imaginative and no confounded
ideals. It was all to be fatalistic. It
wss never going TO plan what would
happen because II was going to know
what would happen. He and his as
socrates produced q very sound and
ample analysis of the processes of
decay In the business life of the time
but with such ambitions and such
regulations they could produce no
scheme OF any replacement system.
They have no scheme to this day.
Even Russia has not taught the COM
munist the practical need of Utopias
At . certain level of intelligence
party communism II q very attractive
teaching indeed. Its self-assurancs Is
very reassuring. Any human being
not absolutely stupid. hates TO be
robbed OF freedom and educational
opportunity before Is or ~ and
thrust into uncongenial and hopeless
toll. Most employment IL bitter for
young people. Al the same time peo-
pie whose education Is truncated so
soon usually fail 10 develop sufficient
intellectual power 10 understand COM
plex industrial and financial proc
ssses. They develop an inferiority
complex about such things that clam.