The Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1931-1952, 1947-06-11
Eliot 2s4o Res KE oos3
DIR. CLARENCE ]. ALLEN
DENTISTRY x-RAY SERVICE
sos Peoples Bonk Bldg. Seattle
BOOK REVIEW
MAN AGAINST MYTH
by Barrows Durham, $3.50
at Frontier Book Store

at Frontier Book Store
Not for a long time has there
been such witty and penetrating
and satirical dissection of the
logic of the exploiters with all
the intellectual quirks and twists
necessary to maintain irrational
society.
Professor Durham uncovers
these with a merciless and relent-
less scalpel. He analyses the three
main characteristics of our society
which require myths to conceal or
excuse. They are ~ the deliber-
ate denial of the abundance our
technology makes possible; (2)
the gross inequality in the distri-
button of what We do produce;
(3) the fact that the people of
the United States do not control
their own economy. He says:
"If you carefully examine these
three conditions, you will discover
that they are such as to make
myths necessary. No one in his
senses would, for example, deliber-
ately reject a society of aDund-
ance, for that would mean reject
ing good housing and food and
clothing and medical care and
education, all of which he spends
his life trying to get for himself
and his family. If men are to be
prevented from moving into a
society of abundance they must
be dissuaded by certain doctrines
which undertake to show either
(1) that the goal is impossible
to attain. or (2) that the goal is
undesirable"
The major myths treated are:
you can't change human nature,
"the rich are fit and the poor
unfit, there are superior and
inferior races" you cannot mix
art and politics." "words never
hurt me-" and you cannot have
both security and freedom"
In speaking of the racists the
author says: Suppose that instead
of organizing knowledge, you set
out to organize ignorance and pre-
judice. You will then have to do
precisely the opposite. You will
entirely conceal the question how
far the members of one group
really resemble one another You
will keep the classification vague
and flexible, so that it can be
made to include just whatever
individuals you choose. You can
like the Nazis, make "Aryans"
out of the Japanese, or "Asiatics
out of the Russians"
"Thus the racists have set us
a great and terrible problem. |
There is no other problem so
large, except that of the entire |
reconstruction of society. We shall |
have to meet racism with every |
weapon; with the suffrage, to re-
move racists from public life;
with legislation, to illegalize such
practices; and with education to
protect all people against the cor
rupting myth. 1t is matter of
simple personal safety For it al
ways turns out that social inc
quality. from segregation to mass
murder, consumes and devours
everyone who is not willing to
live and die a slave"
Man Against Myth answers
many contemporary arguments |
against labor and the progressive |
movement and answers them we'll. |
1t exposes Redbaiting for what |
it is and castigates mercilessly |
those who would confuse the peo-
pie in their struggle for better
world. The auhor's wit and his |
seal for turning phrases makes the
book seem lighter than it is. But |
let the reader beware! Before
he knows it, while being delight
fully entertained, he is in mortal
ranger of succumbing to the power
full virus of scientific and hence
radical approach to the contempt
rary world.