Vanishing Landmarks: The Trend Toward BolshevismShaw, Leslie M. (Leslie Mortier)
Philosophy
Vanishing Landmarks: The Trend Toward Bolshevism
Shaw, Leslie M. (Leslie Mortier)
United States -- Politics and government; United States -- Social conditions
Permit a few excerpts from a chapter, “The Revolution,” added by its
author to a pamphlet containing a debate on socialism, and which he
used extensively in his campaign for Congress in 1916. The author is a
man of excellent presence and seeming patriotism. I believe him to be
as sincere in his belief as any evangelist of the olden times. He
commends the vision of Ignatius Donneley in prophesying the approaching
cataclysm: “The people cannot comprehend it. They look around for their
defenders—the police, the soldier, where are they? Will not this
dreadful nightmare pass away? No, never! This is the culmination—this
is the climax, the century’s aloe blooms today.” He adds: “These are
the grapes of wrath which God has stored up for the day of His
vengeance; and now He is tramping them out and this is the red
juice—look you—that flows so thick and fast in the very gutters....
Evil has but one child—DEATH. For years you have nourished and
nurtured evil. Do you complain if her monstrous progeny is here, with
sword and torch? What else did you expect? Did you think she would
breed angels?” And then after explaining that he does not speak “these
bitter words in the spirit of a challenge, but with the kindliest,
deepest feeling of love for all humanity, and with the most fervent and
patriotic feelings of veneration for my country—the grandest country
in the world, but now being systematically robbed,” he warns “the
masters of the bread” thus: “I warn them that if they want ‘red hell’
with all the accompanying fireworks—with all the attendant brutality,
and crime, and suffering, and misery, and degradation, and sorrow and
death, with the destruction of their cities and the wiping out of their
so-called civilization, they can have it just when they most desire. It
is up to them. The revolutions of the past will be but kindergarten
affairs compared to the revolution now pending and coming when some one
strikes a match in the powder house.”
CHAPTER XXIX
CAN THE CRISIS BE AVERTED?
Our troubles have all resulted from false teachings which are
leading us farther and farther afield. The very rich will spend
nothing to correct the public mind and legislation seems
powerless to afford a remedy.
All this might have been prevented and possibly even now can be
avoided. It has been brought upon us in part by false education but
largely through evolution in our form of government, in our purpose of
government, and in industrial conditions. It could have been prevented
by correct education both inside and outside the schoolroom. It may
possibly be avoided by a speedy return to fundamental Americanism. But
whatever happens, no citizen can boast of patriotism until he has
sought a remedy; and no one is a patriot who will not sacrifice
everything to save the situation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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