They think an ideal of that sort
is going to change the daily lives of men.... I sympathise with their
purpose, and I deplore their conception of motives. If men will not
give themselves for righteousness, they will not give themselves for
a geographical score. If they will not work well for the hatred of bad
work, they will not work well for the hatred of Germans. This "Empire"
idea has been cadging about the British empire, trying to collect
enthusiasm and devotion, since the days of Disraeli. It is, I submit,
too big for the mean-spirited, and too tawdry and limited for the fine
and generous. It leaves out the French and the Italians and the Belgians
and all our blood brotherhood of allies. It has no compelling force
in it. We British are not naturally Imperialist; we are something
greater--or something less. For two years and a half now we have been
fighting against Imperialism in its most extravagant form. It is a
poor incentive to right living to propose to parody the devil we fight
against.
The blind man must lunge again.
For when the right answer is seized it answers not only the question why
men should work for their fellow-men but also why nation should cease to
arm and plan and contrive against nation. The social problem is only the
international problem in retail, the international problem is only the
social one in gross.
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