The Salvaging of CivilizationWells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Philosophy
The Salvaging of Civilization
Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Civilization, Modern -- 20th century; Education
They must have some idea of it. Otherwise they must be imposters. I am
loth to believe them imposters, mere adventurers who have blundered into
positions of power and honour with no idea of what they are doing to the
world. But if they have an idea of what they are doing to the world,
they foresee and intend a Future. That, I take it, is sound reasoning
and the inference is plain.
They ought to write down their ideas of this Future before us. It would
be helpful to all of us. It might be a very helpful exercise for them.
It is, I think, reasonable for Americans to ask the great political
personages of America, the president and so forth, for example: whether
they think the United States will stand alone in twenty-five years'
time as they stand alone now? Or whether they think that there will be a
greater United States--of all America--or of all the world? They must
know their own will about that. And it is equally reasonable to ask the
great political personages of the British Empire: what will Ireland be
in twenty-five years' time? What will India be? There must be a plan, an
intended thing. Otherwise these men have no intentions; otherwise they
must be, in two words, dangerous fools. The sooner we substitute a type
of man with a sufficient foresight and capable of articulate speech in
the matter, the better for our race.
And again every statesman and every politician throughout the world says
that the relations of industrial enterprise to the labour it employs are
unsatisfactory. Yes. But how are those relations going to develop? How
do they mean them to develop?
Are we just drifting into an unknown darkness in all these matters with
blind leaders of our blindness? Or cannot a lot of these things be
figured out by able and intelligent people? I put it to you that they
can. That it is a reasonable and proper thing to ask our statesmen and
politicians: what is going to happen to the world? What sort of better
social order are you making for? What sort of world order are you
creating? Let them open their minds to us, let them put upon permanent
record the significance of all their intrigues and manoeuvres. Then as
they go on we can check their capacity and good faith. We can establish
a control at last that will rule presidents and kings.
Now the answer to these questions for statesmen is what I mean by a
_Book of Forecasts_. Such a book I believe is urgently needed to help
our civilization. It is a book we ought all to possess and read. I know
you will say that such a _Book of Forecasts_ will be at first a
preposterously insufficient book--that every year will show it up and
make it more absurd. I quite agree. The first _Book of Forecasts_ will
be a poor thing. Miserably poor. So poor that people will presently
clamour to have it thoroughly revised.
The revised _Book of Forecasts_ will not be quite so bad. It will have
been tested against realities. It will form the basis of a vast amount
of criticism and discussion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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