The Social Significance of the Modern DramaGoldman, Emma
History
The Social Significance of the Modern Drama
Goldman, Emma
Drama -- Social aspects; European drama -- History and criticism
_Undershaft._ It is a spotlessly clean and beautiful hillside town.
There are two chapels: a Primitive one and a sophisticated one.
There's even an ethical society; but it is not much patronized, as
my men are all strongly religious. In the high explosives sheds they
object to the presence of agnostics as unsafe.
The family further learns that it is not high moral precepts, patriotic
love of country, or similar sentiments that are the backbone of the life
of the nation. It is _Undershaft_ again who enlightens them of the power
of money and its rôle in dictating governmental policies, making war or
peace, and shaping the destinies of man.
_Undershaft._ The government of your country. I am the government of
your country: I, and Lazarus. Do you suppose that you and a half a
dozen amateurs like you, sitting in a row in that foolish gabble
shop, can govern Undershaft and Lazarus? No, my friend: you will do
what pays us. You will make war when it suits us, and keep peace
when it doesn't. You will find out that trade requires certain
measures when we have decided on those measures. When I want
anything to keep my dividends up, you will discover that my want is
a national need. When either people want something to keep my
dividends down, you will call out the police and military. And in
return you shall have the support and applause of my newspapers, and
the delight of imagining that you are a great statesman. Government
of your country! Be off with you, my boy, and play with your
caucuses and leading articles and historic parties and great leaders
and burning questions and the rest of your toys. I am going back to
my counting house to pay the piper and call the tune.... To give
arms to all men who offer an honest price for them, without respect
of persons or principles: to Aristocrat and Republican, to Nihilist
and Tsar, to Capitalist and Socialist, to Protestant and Catholic,
to burglar and policeman, to black man, white man, and yellow man,
to all sorts and conditions, all nationalities, all faiths, all
follies, all causes and all crimes.... I will take an order from a
good man as cheerfully as from a bad one. If you good people prefer
preaching and shirking to buying my weapons and fighting the
rascals, don't blame me. I can make cannons: I cannot make courage
and conviction.
That is just it. The Undershafts cannot make conviction and courage; yet
both are indispensable if one is to see that, in the words of
_Undershaft_:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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