The Wonder Is Not That

The Philosophers Of Industrialism, From Bacon To Bentham, From Smith To Marx, Insisted That The Improvement Of Man's Condition Was The Highest Requirement Of Morality. But In What Did The Improvement Consist? The Answer Seemed So Obvious To Them That They Did Not Bother To Justify It: The Expansion And Fulfillment Of The Material Wants Of Man, And The Spread Of These Benefits, From The Few Who Had Once Preempted Them, To The Many Who Had So Long Lived On The Scraps Dives Had Thrown Into The Gutter.

Unfortunately, Once An Economy Is Geared To Expansion, The Means Rapidly Turn Into An End And "the Going Becomes The Goal." Even More Unfortunately, The Industries That Are Favored By Such Expansion Must, To Maintain Their Output, Be Devoted To Goods That Are Readily Consumable Either By Their Nature, Or Because They Are So Shoddily Fabricated That They Must Soon Be Replaced. By Fashion And Built-in Obsolescence The Economies Of Machine Production, Instead Of Producing Leisure And Durable Wealth, Are Duly Cancelled Out By The Mandatory Consumption On An Even Larger Scale.

Our National Flower Is The Concrete Cloverleaf.

The Humanities And Science Are Not In Inherent Conflict But Have Become Separated In The Twentieth Century. Now Their Essential Unity Must Be Re-emphasized, So That Twentieth-century Multiplicity May Become Twentieth-century Unity.

The Way People In Democracies Think Of The Government As Something Different From Themselves Is A Real Handicap. And, Of Course, Sometimes The Government Confirms Their Opinion.