No. The nonsenseorship regards him with suspicion. He must go and have
even that part of him which lies below the level of his consciousness
dragged forth by experts in the interests of society, and if there
is anything hidden in him which might not be exhibited on the movie
screens, he must have it sublimated. He cannot even have suppressed
desires. He cannot be a devil of a fellow even to himself. He cannot be
his own censor any longer, he must submit himself to outside censoring,
to the nonsenseorship.
It all came about this way. First to establish divine right somewhere
in modern government, the doctrine was set up that the public mind was
infallible. Thereafter, naturally, attention centered on the public
mind. What was it that it had this wonderful quality of always being
right? Experience showed that it was not a thinking mind. Since it was
not, then the thinking mind was anti-social.
Then our very best American philosophers, and some French ones, for the
support of mass opinion, developed a system which set forth that reason
always led you into traps and that the only mind to trust was the
irrational, instinctive or intuitional mind. Thus the nonsenseorship,
with excellent philosophic support put the ban upon thinking. Now, I do
not contend that many suffer seriously from this restriction. For, after
all, thinking is hard work and may cheerfully be foregone in the general
interest.
But does the nonsenseorship rest content with its achievement? If the
instinctive part of us is so important, let us have a look at it,
says society; perhaps something anti-social may be unearthed there. A
Viennese explores this area of the mind. He discovers what society would
forbid, merely hidden away. Civilization has merely pressed it into dark
corners, as the law has crowded the blackjack artist into alleys and
dens of thieves. The psychic police are put on our trail. They must
nab every suppressed desire and send it to the reform school for
re-education into something beautiful and serviceable. We may not
be unhappy, neurotic, mad; our complexes must be inspected. We must
suppress our reason, we may not suppress our desire; the nonsenseorship
says so, and to persuade us, its experts offer us the reward of health
and greater usefulness if we make this further surrender.
Now, although as I have said we let reason go at the behest of the
nonsenseorship without so much as a word of protest, we do not give up
our suppressed desires so easily and without a fight.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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