Crowds: A Moving-Picture of DemocracyLee, Gerald Stanley
Philosophy
Crowds: A Moving-Picture of Democracy
Lee, Gerald Stanley
Crowds; Social problems
But this is a matter of form. The main fundamental manful instinct David
had--the idea that there should not be any more people dying on crosses
than could be helped--that collective society should take hold of Evil
and set it down hard in its chair and make it cry seems to many of us
absolutely sound. Of course, we feel that it is not for us, those who
love righteousness, to jump on the necks of the wicked. We prefer to
have it attended to in a more dignified, impersonal way by Society as a
whole. So we believe that Society should proceed to making goodness and
honesty pay. If Society will not do it _we_ will do it. The world may be
against us at first but we will at least clear off a small place on
it--in our own business for instance--where our goodness can command the
most shrewdness and the most technique--and we will do what we can
slowly--one industry at a time, to remove the slander on goodness that
goodness is not inefficient, and the slander on the world that goodness
cannot be self-supporting, self-respecting (and without disgrace), even
comfortable in it.
The old hymn with which many of us are familiar is well and true enough.
But it does not seem that standing up for Jesus is the most important
point in the world just now. A great many people are doing it. What we
need more is people who will stand up for the world. When people who are
standing up for the world stand and sing "Stand up for Jesus" it will
begin to count. Let four hundred Nons sing it; and we will all go to
church.
If nine of the people out of ten who are singing "Stand up for Jesus"
would stand up for the world, that is, if they would stop trading with
their grocer when they find he slides in regularly one bad orange out of
twelve and promptly look up a grocer who does not do such things, and
trade with him, it would not be necessary for people to do as they so
often do nowadays, fall back on a little wistful half discouraged last
resort like "standing up for Jesus."
Standing up for the world means standing by men who believe in it,
standing by men who make everything they do in business a declaration of
their faith in God and their faith in the credit of human nature, men
who put up money daily in their advertising, their buying and selling,
on the loyalty, common sense, brains, courage, goodness, and righteous
indignation of the people.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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