Imperial Valley press., 1940-03-11
CHAPTER THREE


In his recent book, After the De-
huge" Leonard Woolf makes the
following statement. The kind OF
lives men lead and the civilization
which they enjoy are determined
by the equilibrium or lack of eQuili-
brium between these factorS-pOliti-
cal institutions. the economic Struc-
ture of their society and its social
ideas and ideals"
In our day and age when the So
called Economic Interpretation OF
History seems on the point of drlV-
ing out every other theory and phil
osOphV. it is pleasant to come OcrOSs
that bit of sound common sense.
Man is not and probably never
will be an entirely logical being. He
will be influenced in his decisions
not only by his desire for food and
lodging but also by certain ideal
considerations which have nothing
whatsoever to dO with his purely
physical desire to serve. 1t has 9l-
ways been that way.
Indeed. l think it is safe to say
that many more people have been
killed for the right to believe that
which they wanted to believe than
in their quest for food and homes
and clothing.
With the penetration of MARKHAM
ideas a penetration which has gone
infinitely further than most peace
full readers suspect, the ideals OF
democracy have gradually been
pushed into the background until
today the very word democracy
has become a hollow phrase.
One still hears it repeated, morn
ing. noon and night, but in a great
many cases it is merely a disguise
for some form of Socialism. Just as
most of the loud holleringS for
Peace at any price!' which just
now resound SO loudly from all the
different Youth Congresses in al
most all parts of the country really
mean Peace towards Russia. but
war upon all the So-called capital
iStic countries.
l am not writing this in the spirit
of the alarml5t who IS able to de-
tect Red in every one who Sug
GestS that our own system is still
capable Of great improvement. That
sort of silly Red batting will get us
exactly nowhere.
There is only one way III which
We will be able to maintain our own
ideals CT democracy against all the
Outlandish and domestic 'iSmS
and "waSm'S" We will have to face
facts as we have never faced facts
before.
Being young and ignorant ma
ton and therefore essentially an
optimistic people, we are very apt to
close our eyes quite deliberately
against all facts which strike us as
unpleasant.
But as General Gamelin, the phil
oeopher now in command of the
French armies. so wisely remarked
the other day There is no use get
ting angry at facts which fail to
please you. For they won't in the
least care what you happen to
think about them and therefore
they won't change, but they will
remain just as unpleasant as be-
fore"
II We want to live intelligently and
constructively during these years
of crisis. we should follow General
Gamclin's advice And before we
listen to the easy optimism about
right always proving stronger than
might" and about "the eventual
and inevitable triumph of democra-
cy over tyranny" we ought to eX-
anime the facts that bear upon the
case
During the last three thousand
years of written history, we have ac-
cumuated so much data upon the
problem of government VS.. to-
talitarianiSm" that we ought to
have fairly concrete idea about the
aqe-old struggle for democracy.
It has been one of the bittereSt
fights that ever has been fought.
And the end is by no means in
sight.
Democracy today is no moro safe
than it was twenty-five centuries
ago when Plato, having witnessed
the fail of democracy in Greece,
wrote the deSpondent lines with
which I began this series.
1t us now, following the example
of one of our shreWdest modern
democrats, have look at the record.