A Plea for Sanity in a Mad World

It is the nature of the human mind to get used to horror and to accept it as normal. Once the mass of human beings have been persuaded that a certain form of social organisation or a certain course of action is necessary, there is hardly any brutality or idiocy at which men will stop if it seems to flow inevitably from the original assumption. Only those who challenge the fundamental belief can hope to escape and preserve some sane values. While doing what they can to spread the Socialist message, including the truth that capitalism is the cause of wars, and that war will not solve humanity’s problems, Socialists can only look on and marvel; with, however, a recognition that in spite of what is happening, mankind still retains a belief that a better way is possible, and spasmodically strives to give expression to the belief. Men accept the millions of death by war, by disease and by starvation, and the limitless destruction of wealth, because these are part and parcel of war and its breeding-ground, the capitalist system of society. They can read of great battles and sieges and become hardened to the price that is paid. The Evening Standard, celebrating the defence of Leningrad, reports that “nearly two million people died of starvation in Leningrad during the great siege” (January 19, 1944).

Total war exacts such an enormous toll and lowers standards of conduct to such an extent that one military writer, Major-General Fuller, revolts against it, and makes the plea for a return to the less barborous ways of past ages, when efforts were made to restrict war by certain rules “what is so appalling in total war—war without rules— is not the number of innocent lives sacrificed, nor the wanton destruction done, it is the popular gloating over these horrors. . . . This is the point at which western civilisation has now arrived, a point never quite reached by Vandal, Goth or Hun. In sheer barbarity we can advance no further, unless in the next world war the inhabitants of entire countries are exterminated.” (Evening Standard, February 4 1944).

Socialists have a better plan, a real effort to end war by ending cut-throat capitalism.

Here is another example of the men at war who temporarily turn away from what war requires of them. The Daily Express (April 10, 1944) reported that the millionth shell had that day been fired at the Cassino Monastery fortress held by the Germans; yet in the next column was an account of how U.S. Army chaplains held an Easter Sunday service on the Garigliano front and broadcast it in German as well as English, so that German troops could listen. An address was given to the Germans wishing them “a happy Easter” ! “We have been instructed since childhood to love all men, even our enemies. . . . Therefore I wish you also to-day, on behalf of my soldiers, a happy Easter.” Fighting was suspended while this went on.

Then there is the eruption of Vesuvius, just behind the front. Compared with man-made destruction, nature is a poor competitor, but because this was not part of the war but a natural disaster, the authorities used every effort to save Italian civilians (so recently “enemies”) from the outpouring of molten lava. A Gaumont news-film commentator, speaking as the picture showed the burning and destruction of fields, trees, farms and dwelling houses, announced that “steps were taken to feed and clothe the people.”

What the human race needs to learn is that their future happiness depends upon learning to co-operate, not to engage in mutual destruction, but only Socialism will make this possible. The lesson the workers of the world have to learn is that a better world is within their grasp, but it will not come about unless they take positive action to achieve it. Slightly changing the words used by the film commentator, the lesson may be summed up in the phrase that “the people must take steps* to feed and clothe themselves,” or, as Socialists have always held, “the emancipation of the working class must be the work of the working class itself.”

(Editorial, Socialist Standard, June 1944)