Lenin and absolutes
Sir: Stella FitzThomas Hagan's letter on (Leninist) absolutism (1 May) was well worth reading. Against Leninism—very good: against absolutism—well, I wonder. There is one question, in two parts, l have always wanted to ask an anti-absolutist: How does he avoid being absolutely anti-absolu- tist? But, if he does avoid—in what things does he? It would be in- teresting to know so that one could then. in the appropriate context, scorn him as he scorns other ab- solutists. I would ask this question not in defence of Leninism but as a technical objection to immoderate liberalism which soon turns into a kind of cheaply splenetic mushiness —that 'permissive' bog into which society is now finding itself sink- ing. Few people seem to notice that fascism, communism and liberal- ism are of the same root and are nurtured in the same ground—that pf the middle-classes. And the root is composed of jealousy of the upper-classes and contempt for the lower-classes, and the seed is an unjustly rebellious spirit generated by a hatred of God, King and Country—the trinity which forms good society.
Liberalism, Communism, Fasc- ism—the LCP of social atrophy summing to zero benefit for man- kind in the cold calculus of evil, or the slope into chaos.
Apologies for that cliché 'per- missive'—and it couldequally be 'repressive'; a society which is turn- ing people in on themselves too much for real enjoyment of living as they shudder away from the modern scene in art, politics, reli- gion, entertainment, science, in- dustry, commerce, sport, education, sex, television, radio, film, news- papers, supplements, magazines, transport, medicine, 'holidays', pubs, homes, cities, towns and countryside. Only in the wilder- ness of their loneliness can they find any firmament, pleasure or hope. But man was not meant for the wilderness. True, many saints have happily retired thereto but even they were really looking for the country of the kind in which the one high God is King and where there is still orderliness and meaning in even the most rapt ecstasy and from which wanton- ness was long ago cast out, but here holds bilious sway. You do not have to be old or airy-fairy to feel like this: where I work I know young, ordinary, male men—mech- anics and labourers—who have short hair but lots of spirit and much sense who are in new revolt for the return of what permissive- liberalism has conned us out of. In fact, I think it is the old and the airy-fairy who have really brought about the modern scene or ob- scene; for the bases of LCF are in- firmity and panic—the state with- out God, Thomas W. Gadd 65 Holly Road, Northampton
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