The Washington times., 1934-02-14
True To
Type
Unfit for Utopia
Coming Soon
by Order
BY GILBERT SELDES

10y UAADGgA \ OGADG6
The approach Of Utopia
frightens me. Not exactly .
worm in my own estimation, I
stin feel that I am not fit to
live in q perfect society and I
certainly do not feel eager to
put myself in the hands Of
those who are preparing people
for Utopia.
When Secretary Ickes sug-
gests that a good time is COM
ing for all, I catch a faint over
tone of religious enthusiasm,
probably the same that inspired
the old Progressive Party when
Roosevelts were known as Theo-
dores; and I know that most
religions put the perfect state
Just far enough away-when we
will all be dead-a state, ac-
cording to the Greek dramatist,
better than any on earth, ex-
Cept never having been alive.
But the other Utopians are far
more practical: they are going
to prepare us for leisure and
prepare us for prosperity, and
analyZe us and condition us
and change us so we won't
know ourselves.
There T balk.
It isn't that I like the way I
am so much, but I dislike the
way the scientists want me to
be pretty thoroughly. Their
promises are good. They will
adjust you and me to the con-
'ditions Of life; they will make
us happy by removing from US
the causes Of misery.
In the end they will make 1t
possible for us to enter room
(probably full of friends) with
out embarrassment.
No More Advice
In that happy day there will
be no more work for The Voice
Of Experience and very little for
advisers on questions Of deport-
ment or the conduct Of love
affairs.
The courts Of domestic rela-
tionS will cease to exist; people
will pass the old criminal
courts building, now used as
a combination beer hall and
adult study school, and wonder
what was the matter with us.
The very word complex" will
have disappeared from the Ian
guage-and that is the only
happy thought in the whole
business.
I do not know enough about
DR.. Daniel H. Kulp's new clinic
in "sociatry" to say whether it
is a menace or a promise, but
the first report is unSettling.
DR.. Klup, according to SEN
sible account, has developed a
treatment to prevent break
downs and to adjust human be-
ings by changing their social
world and modifying their own
ideas, feelings and attitudes Of
mind. Its purpose is "to enable
a person to get along with peo-
pie satisfactorily"
We have suffered, DR.. Kulp
rightly says, drastic personal
ity shocks" in the depression
and defeatism and unhappiness
have resulted. All science is to
be brought to our aid.
Glands and Climate
What bothers me is that five
years from now we may have
this sort of thing taken over by
the Government. A few psychol-
ogiSts may have good ideas for
the future and know what hu-
man beings out to be like; but
I would rather not have a Gov
ernment official decide that the
inferiority complex is unpatri-
otic and the Oedipus complex
bad for business.
When overnmen gets
through with economics, it will
discover that only two things
matter as much as money: the
weather and our personal rela-
tionS. And I am sure that a
government which has pulled us
out of an economic crisis will
not hesitate to take over control
Of both Of these factors in our
happiness.
My guess is that it will have
an easier time regulating the
weather.