Each to His Taste

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 261, 31 July 1937, Page 1 (Supplement)

Each to His Taste

“Let the doctrine be rejected at the outset, bluntly and emphatically, that there is any reason to limit ourselves to a choice between Fascism and Communism. “If there are some nations who find themselves unable to combine political and personal liberty with the security of their national independence or with the economic well-being of their people, that is their affair and not ours. If they think it well to subordinate absolutely the freedom of the individual to the myth of a living State, let them do so if they must We may see in that process merely a trend toward an insect civilisation. “A true patriotism will not be content with a merely negative policy, although a positive policy may demand sacrifices. The need for a revision of the Treaty of Versailles becomes .increasingly obvious. “Goethe said in one of his conversations with Eckermann: ‘lt is not to be imagined that s reason can ever be popular. Passions and feelings may become popular; reason remains the sole property of a few eminent individuals.’ Yet that need not be so among nations where education is widespread and the citizens are accustomed to fulfil their responsibilities. “After all, the enthusiasm of the ordinary man and woman need not be stirred only by violence, ruthlessness, the will-to-power; by ideas that are belligerent and policies that boast themselves irrational. Peace, Liberty, Reason, Stability, Social Justice—these also may have their appeal.”—Lord Samuel.