THE REAL CONFLICT
By R. A. EDWARDS ONE of the least observed, and yet one of the most serious, features of the present European situation is the way in which people in England are inclined to talk of such principles as liberty, fidelity to pledges, or compassion, as though they were " rights " in some way inherent in Man (though possibly dependent on Democracy), which would certainly survive once Hitler had been defeated. Hitlerism, in which Man has no rights except those conferred upon him by the omnicompetent State, is tacitly identified with Hitler as though it were some- thing that he had invented out of the blue, or at least as though it were something peculiarly German. To the principles themselves, to questions of what they imply or where they came from, we give no thought at all, almost assuming that they are natural to Englishmen. That is the loosest of loose thinking, for values are not independent entities, secure in their own right ; they belong to a whole view of life, and as our opinion of the significance of life changes the values we approve change also.
The values which we claim now to be defending are an inheritance from our Christian tradition. Liberty was not characteristic of the Greek city states, nor was compassion towards the weak characteristic of our own heathen ancestors. It was Christianity that planted these things in the civilisation of Europe; but it did not select them out from a collection of possible virtues. The first Christian preachers did not survey the field of human values, decide on liberty, fidelity, and com- passion, and incorporate them in their preaching ; such virtues were an inevitable part of the total view of life which they were presenting to the world. A man was free, not in his own right, but because he had the glorious liberty of the children of God ; he kept his pledge, whether to his wife or his treaty, not because someone had decided that would be a good plan, but because as a child of God he was dealing with God's children in God's way; he was compassionate because sick people or refugees were, like himself, children of a heavenly Father. In addition he accepted these values " though it were to his own hindrance "; they were absolute, part of the eternal principles of life, and completely independent of the expedience of circumstances.
That view of the world was never unchallenged. Over against it was another view which, while it might vaguely, in some official sense, acknowledge a God, regarded life as some- thing whose principles had to be determined from moment to moment by the exigencies of each case. It recognised'no abso- lute values, and though it might support its values with a philosophy, hedonism, utilitarianism, and the like, it was fundamentally humanist, and its guiding principle was always expedience. At the time of the Renaissance that challenge defeated ecclesiastical control, and, for example, Machiavelli laid down for his prince methods of statecraft which frankly disregarded absolute values, and substituted for them one over- ruling principle, the immediate welfare of the State, allowing it to be preserved by any method which expedience dictated. In his view such principles as liberty, fidelity or compassion might be on occasion expedient, but could have no absolute claim if to observe them threatened the security of the prince.
It is that humanist view of life which has at last flowered in Hitlerism, and behind the military conflict there lies thi, much more serious issue of humanism. It is high time that we recognised that if we are successfully to assert human freedom. or that a man or nation must be faithful to pledges, or that to drive tanks through columns of refugees is wrong, we must be clear about the grounds upon which we assert these things. None of them is finally true on the humanist view of life. Hitler does not think them true, and they are not true at all unless his total view of life is wrong. It is mere folly for us to accuse him of immorality, for on his view of life his repu- diation of his various pledges is highly moral ; he does not accept the opinion that to shoot refugees is wrong if they impede the movement of his armies ; and on his view liberty is simply something that the State can give or with equal propriety take away. To defeat him in the military sense may be necessary, but that is a very different thing from defeating his view of life.
The real war that is being waged in our time is something very much more subtle than the military one that inevitably looms so large. It is the assault of humanism upon the Christian view of life. If the Universe has no particular significance, if people are no more than the chance product of some utterly inexplicable, impersonal, undirected series of happenings, Hitler is just as likely to be right as anyone else. Indeed, on that view there can be no final right or wrong there can only be various ways of making the best of a bad job. We in England have not yet gone so far as other parts of Europe in our abandonment of any form of Theism, and more of the Christian tradition survives here than elsewhere ; but the division between the activities of our national, educa- tional, social or industrial life and the surviving Christian tradition is deeply enough marked for thoughtful people to be uneasy, and to listen anxiously to publicists who talk as though to ensure the triumph of liberty, honesty or com- passion, it were only necessary to defeat Hitler. Humanism has been our prevailing philosophy for a very long time, and it offers no more support to one set of virtues than to another.
If, then, '"c are really fighting that soul-destroying thing the omnicompetent State, if we are really engaged in an attempt to preserve personal, individual virtues like liberty, honesty or compassion, it would be well that we should quickly set about the recovery in England of the total view of life to which they belong. It is for example, high time that we asked ourselves what we propose to put in the place of the Christianity which we have allowed so nearly to disappear from our educational life. Just what account of life do we in fact give the children? If we are giving them none, or are telling them that liberty is somehow mysteriously attached to the English flag, we are grossly deceiving ourselves and them. Liberty depends upon what view you take of Man, and humanism smiles just as readily upon Hitler as it does upon the Englishman hauling up the Union Jack.
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