Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-05

CnN OlSlnJRRIdLlOn cannon ne
arrested, even If We would" It is Just
as we'll that it Is taken for granted, for
it would be rather difficult to give any
reason for 1t. Or, again, in the phrase
I have quoted about the doom Of the
European family. about that do not
think there is any occasion for us to
argue" Is 1t possible that we" might
get the worst of the argument?
Says Doom Is Doomed.
However. If Wyndham Lewis likes, I
can tell him what really Is doomed.
Doom is doomed. All this old nine
tenth century notion of the inevitable
in politics Is doomed. The one person
for whom there is no future is the fu-
turist. especially when the futurist Is
a fatalist. The notion of things being
inevitably doomed has disappeared with
the nineteenth century, as the notion
OF people being inevitably damned dis
appeared with the seventeenth century
In very short time all this sociological
determinism will be entirely dead 1t
has been going on, In one form or an
other, for nearly hundred years. and
]. grew up in the very middle of it, or
rather toward the end of 1t, when
H. G. Wells was already breaking into
those last magnificent books of Apoca-
lypse, which were the end of its divine
revelation. The man Of the future Is
going to feel little more free than
that, and he will not be so easily
doomed or damned against his will
II men would only open their eyes
and look at the real things in front of
them, they would see that the dooms
have already been defied and reversed
For instance, all through my youth and
early manhood 1t was predicted and
proved over and over again, by all the
prophets and all the professors, that all
nations would be absorbed by a few
great empires; that it was reactionary
to liberate Ireland because its only flu
ture was the British Empire: that 1t
was sentimental to bother about Poland
or Hungary or Bohemia because their
only future was with the German EN-
pire or the Russian Empire.
We have seen with our own eyes an
earthquake that has streVn Europe with
smaller independent states: with new
nations that are also the old nations
The European nation was doomed
just like the European family. 1t is
great fun, being doomed It seems TO
give you new lease on life. Perhaps.
OF all the relatively small nations. the
most remarkable and arresting is the
very smallest. II there was one thing
that was quite finally and irrevocably
doomed lin the old DAYS Of nv youth
when people believed in Gooms) it was
that particular ecclesiastical power
that has just recently rearisen upon the
Tiber and bears the name of the Vati-
can State.
Foxes Fun at GeneraIities.
The point is perhaps worth mention
ing, because I have noticed that really
brilliant philosophers like Wyndham
Lewis are often remarkable for the
breadth OF their generalization and the
narrowness Of their experience They
imagine that the ethics of the whole
modern world are on the exact model of
Reno which is rather like thinking
that the economics of the whole world
are on the model Of Monte Carlo. There
is a good deal of gambling, of course;
but there is such thing as production:
there is such a thing as procreation:
and there is such a thing as the sane
recognition OF the facts of sex
You cannot abolish the family until
you can make 1t as easy for the oaby
10 nurse the mother as for the mother
TO nurse the baby. And there are at
least three hundred million people. as
we'll as millions more. who have not the
smallest intention of allowing the fam
lily to be doomed" They admit that
1t has got into mess, especially on the
borders Of civilization; but they are per-
fectly convinced and comfortable. thank
you, about their own power of perpetu-
Attng their own creed within their own
culture; and the extreme probability of
their own culture surviving all the mar
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