Imperial Valley press., 1940-03-28
CHAPTER 90

Circumstances of geographic or
economic nature play q very I'M
portant part in making the average
citizen what he is. Ideas also pre-
sent him with the ideal OF what ne
wants to be.
This ideal of what he wants TO
be" is the dominating factor. Hence
the only really worthwhile histories
of the world are those histories
which deal with the underlying So
cial ideals which have actually made
our world what it is.
The curious part OF this arrange
ment and the one which makes
the history of the human race SO
tremendously fascinating-ls TINS:
One never can foretell where the
lightning may strike and that those
ideals which shape the destiny OF
man may originate in the most un-
expected places.
An Indian palace will give us a
prince who for thousands of years
will persuade his followers to devote
themselves exclusively to silent med
itations A pOverty-stricken village
in the Arabian desert will contribute
a camel driver whose fiery dreams
of world nominations will create a
spiritual and worldly empire reach
ing from the Pyrenees to the from
tiers of China.
The son of-a obscure carpenter
in the barren land of Galilee will
be able to make the Roman con-
uuerors listen to his message of
peace and good will.
In distant China, flute-playlng
sage is able, thousands of years af-
ter his death, to shape the mentality
of millions of humble peasants. In
nearby Switzerland. Genevan
matchmaker will have a son who
between acting as a flunky and
composing comic operas will find
time to write book which makes
a dozen thrones topple over as if
they were so many houses of cards
Jean jacques Rousseau is hardly
a name to most people of the veal
1910. Yet all of Us are what we are
and live in the sort of world in
which we happen to live because
this strange Swiss geniuS-a hope
less mixture of personal dishonesty
and literary integrity-wrote these
curious words: Man by nature is
good"
Since few people ever knew less
about their felloW-citizens than ole
Rousseau with the possible eX-
ception of that other disastrous pro-
phet. the late Karl Marx one WoulC
hardly have expected that a state
ment coming from such a source
would have been taken very SER
iously.
His book appeared at a moment
when the whole world was saturat-
ed with material comforts and plea
Sure5 and when Gas will always
happen under such circumstances
the people who ruled the world were
looking for an opportunity to es-
cape from their own boredom and
sense of futility
In France, the best brains set to
work to try and evolve a political
scheme which would allow the aver
age citizen to preserve his original
goodness. They did not want his ma
tural virtues to be corrupted into
vices by that artificial civilization
which in the eyes of Jean jacques
Rousseau had been the cause of
mans lamentable fall from grace.
In order to hasten this process of
return to nature the brightest
Frenchmen now set to work to car
ry the sum total of accumulated
knowledge unto all of the people.
They tried to do this by providing
the masses with an encyclopaedia
handbook of learning which should
be based upon reason alone. 1t
should do away with all the absurd
and illogical fairy stories which had
been handed down from genera
ton to generation so people might
remain contented to bear the yoke
of their political social and intel
lectual enslavement.
The men and women who during
the latter half of the 18th century
began the battle for human en-
reimbursement under the slogan of
Liberty, Equality and Fraternity
were as unselfish group of truly
inspired leaders as the world has
ever seen. Only error they commit
ted-and a fatal one it proved to be
was their absolute belief in their
own doctrine: that man, by nature
was predeStined to be good.
They had not learned what every
ward-boss knows today the knoWl-
edge which gives him his power)
that nation-of a streets COM
posed of all sorts and manner. OF
people: some good, some bad, and
others indifferent. All are apt to
be swayed by their emotions rather