FACING THE FACTS [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Snt,—The
article under the above heading in your issue of October 14th prompts all of us to ask : What facts are to be faced? Well; surely one fact is the widespread exasperation at the discoverya very fortunate one—that we have relatively little to show' in return for the heavy burdens of taxation in the past ; the impression is confirmed that the human machinery is sadly at fault. Yet it would be wrong to look for scape- goats, Since in an organised democracy those who would enjoy its privileges must all of them shoulder their responsi- bilities. Again, there is the fact that many, of Us object, not to DictatOrships or Totalitarian: syStenis as such, but to the progranfriats that 'do not hapPen to be our an. Indeed, persuasion as ,a practical policy is not yet On the agenda of determined men, whether their weapon be a strike or a war.
It is, moreover, a well-known fact that there are many who see in an international war the opportunity for internal social revolutions directed by Moscow, so that in averting war we avert the possibilities -of internal catastrophes scarcely less far- reaching in their consequences than a general European con- flagration. We may have read Herr Hitler's Mein Kampf, but let us 'not forget that the Communist handbooks no less frankly lay all—or almost all—their cards ork the table.
Meanwhile the democracies are the too-willing victims of one of those " magical phrases " which, as Gustave le Bon said in his book, The Crowd, is one " on which everybody can put his own interpretation." With most of us " democracy " is. an opposition and negative, it is no positive system, and certainly it is intellectually, morally and spiritually incoherent. -Until it takes itself in hand it will help neither this nor any other coun- try. No one can deny the massiveness and the driving-power of such sweeping and comprehensive systems as Com- munism, Fascism (or National-Socialism) and Roman Catholi- cism. Clearly and definitely they know their own minds far better than do the democracies ; although as a country and a people we instinctively and rightly feel that no one of these meets our needs. Each has much that a democracy should take and make its own ; but at present we grope between religious, theological and philosophical systems which the world has outgrown and national or international systems which can never be ours.
We have to face the fact that the fundamental problems are ideological. We are at a crisis in the history of humanity. It cannot be surmounted by wordy • recrimination or futile controversy, still less by force, violence, persecution or terrorism. Until we are ready to face what is at bottom a religious crisis we must not expect that sturdy confidence and that élan vital which give men a forward look and which make the grand certainty of the cause outweigh any fear of the possibilities of
the cost.;---I am, yours, &c., STANLEY COOK. 26 Lensfield Road, Cambridge.
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