Passing thoughts (1949)

From the August 1949 issue of the Socialist Standard

To rebel against convention is a good thing; a sign that the bonds of tradition are loosening. To rebel against wage-labour is a better thing; a sign that the understanding of social bondage is dawning. To rebel against wage-labour and to understand how to end social bondage is the best thing; a sign that comfort and security for the whole of humanity is within measurable distance of accomplishment.

When two young people love one another how sad it is that lack of money so often interferes with their unity. When two young people love one another and unite how still more sad it is that lack of money so often breaks up their unity. What a paradise Britain would be shorn of buying, banks and dividends.

The tragedy of modern war is that thousands upon thousands of bright young lives are snuffed out before they can enjoy to the full their birthright, love and laughter; the essence of the tragedy is “Not that they die, but that they die like sheep.”

A dreamer is a common butt of the stage, the screen and the platform; but when the dreamer keeps his feet upon solid ground and dreams of those things that are possible then his dreams merit serious thought instead of idle laughter. A Socialist is a dreamer, but he dreams of a world that can and will be.

Doctors, psychologists, social workers and government officials speak with smug satisfaction about the modern treatment of mental troubles, and the wonderful hospitals provided for poor mental wrecks. How shocking it is to realise that all their work and satisfaction proceeds from the wrong point of view. The mental sufferer is treated from the individual point of view, striving to adjust him to his surroundings instead of striving to alter the surroundings so that maladjustment cannot occur. Since the upheaval of the industrial revolution and social absorption with speed, with markets, with wars, humanity has been unable to adjust itself fast enough to rapidly changing conditions; it is always mentally behind, and unluckier sections mentally break down. When the world becomes a place of security and happiness by removing the source of these too rapid changes, maladjustment, and the resulting mental disorganisation, will vanish.

Gilmac.