The Salvaging of CivilizationWells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Philosophy
The Salvaging of Civilization
Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Civilization, Modern -- 20th century; Education
Now Europe, if it is not to sink down to anarchy, has to do a parallel
thing. If Europe is to be saved from ultimate disaster, Europe has to
stop thinking in terms of the people of France, the people of England,
the people of Germany, the French, the British, the Germans, and so
forth. Europe has to think at least of the people of Europe, if not of
the civilized people of the world. If we Europeans cannot bring our
minds to that, there is no hope for us. Only by thinking of all peoples
can any people be saved in Europe. Fresh wars will destroy the social
fabric of Europe, and Europe will perish as nations, fighting.
There are many people who think that there is at least one political
system in the old world which, like the United States, is large enough
and world wide enough to go on by itself under modern conditions for
some considerable time. They think that the British Empire can, as it
were, stand out of the rest of the Old World as a self-sufficient
system. They think that it can stand out freely as the United States can
stand out, and that these two English-speaking powers have merely to
agree together to dominate and keep the peace of the world.
Let me give a little attention to this idea. It is I believe a wrong
idea, and one that may be very disastrous to our common English-speaking
culture if it is too fondly cherished.
There can be no denying that the British Imperial system is a system
different in its nature and size from a typical European state, from a
state of the horse and road scale, like France, let us say, or Germany.
And equally it is with the United States a new growth. The present
British Empire is indeed a newer growth than the United States. But
while the United States constitute a homogeneous system and grow more
homogeneous, the British Empire is heterogeneous and shows little or no
assimilative power. And while the United States are all gathered
together and are still very remote from any serious antagonist, the
British Empire is scattered all over the world, entangled with and
stressed against a multitude of possible antagonists.
I have been arguing that the size and manageability of all political
states is finally a matter of transport and communications. They grow to
a limit strictly determined by these considerations. Beyond that limit
they are unstable. Let us now apply these ideas to the British Empire.
I have shown that the great system of the United States is the creation
of the river steamboat and the railway. Quite as much so is the present
British Empire the creation of the ocean-going steamship--protected by a
great navy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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