The Soul of Democracy: The Philosophy of the World War in Relation to Human LibertyGriggs, Edward Howard
Philosophy
The Soul of Democracy: The Philosophy of the World War in Relation to Human Liberty
Griggs, Edward Howard
Democracy; World War, 1914-1918 -- Influence
Thus the question is not whether you have peace or war, but what you do
with your peace or war. It is not whether you are rich or poor, but
what you do with your riches or poverty.
Suppose we were able to reconstruct our entire social and industrial
world, so that every human being would have plenty to eat, plenty to
wear and a comfortable house to live in: would we have the kingdom of
heaven? Not necessarily: we might have merely a comfortable,
well-decorated pig-sty, if men lived to nothing higher than pigs. "Man
cannot live by bread alone," important as bread is, but by dedication to
the things of the spirit.
Thus there must ever be the capacity for self-forgetfulness,
self-sacrifice, the dedication of life to supreme aims, but that does
not mean the dedication of man to the institution. Rather it is the
consecration to the welfare of humanity. Man for the State means
autocracy and imperialism; Man for Mankind is the soul of democracy.
That is the ideal to which we must rise, if democracy is to prove itself
worthy to be the form of human society for the great future.
This ideal is realized through many lesser forms and instruments, but
always with the same final test. The family, for instance, is one of
these lesser forms, and the subordination of the individual to the
family unit is just. Thus there is a measure of right in seeking first
the interest of the family group; but when this is sought to the end of
special privilege and debauching luxury, against the welfare of all, it
becomes, as we have seen, an evil.
There is, similarly, a certain justice in the subordination of the
individual to the social class or group interest. It is right that
artisans should unite in trade unions, that employers should get
together in associations for common benefit. One need only contrast the
conditions where each workman had to bid in competition against all
others, and each manufacturer, the same, to realize the advance made
through group union and cooperation. When either group, however, seeks
to further its own interest at the expense of the welfare of the whole
society, as in securing class legislation, achieving monopolies, holding
efficient workers to the level of production of the slowest and least
capable of the group, then the class or group spirit becomes an evil
that must be fought for the good of all.
It is exactly the same with the nation. Its interest is justly served
only in harmony with the welfare of humanity. Any current problem will
illustrate the principle, as, for instance, that of immigration.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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