William Morris
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The Guardian has an article about him.
Quote:asking if socialism was worth taking up. Morris let fly, his mind occasionally racing ahead of his pen: “As to your question as to socialism will make men honest; I should rather say that it will not prevent them from being honest as the present system does. When society is made up of slaves and slaveholders and the parasites of the latter, as it is nowadays, honesty is impossible for the average man, and difficult for even the heroic to practice.“However these are somewhat abstract questions to deal with, and if you wish to study socialism you will find that the primary question is whether all men shall be free to exercise their natural Capacities to the utmost; and you will find that this cannot be so long as there is a privileged mopolist (sic) class which withholds the means of production from the producers except on the condition that the producers shall pay for the use of them by keeping the said privileged class as their pensioners.”
Even Morris seemed to question whether the tone of his letter was a bit strong. “Excuse this lecturing: only since you asked me a question I thought you might be interested in the whole subject – on which by the way there is plenty of literature,” he wrote.
There is also an exhibition featuring his politics and art
http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/anarchy-beauty-william-morris-and-his-legacy-1860-1960/home.php
Quote:Anarchy & Beauty explores the life and ideas of the great Victorian artist, writer and visionary thinker William Morris. Through portraits, personal items and fascinating objects, many of which are on public display for the first time, this major exhibition illustrates Morris’s concept of ‘art for the people’ and highlights the achievements of those that he inspired,,, demonstrating how Morris’s legacy continued into the twentieth century, influencing radical politics, the Garden City movement and the Festival of Britain in 1951.I remember in March 1998 the Guardian ran a leader suggesting William Morris would have approved of Lord Chancellor Derry Irvine's luxurious rennovation of his official apartments.
Guardian Nonsense wrote:FOR THE baying members of the hunt, the pursuit of Lord Irvine over the cost of re-decorating his state apartments has been rollicking good fun. The no -expense-spared refurbishment has given the impression that his Lordship rivals Marie Antoinette in terms of political sensitivity. He would certainly struggle to win any awards for PR. But is that such a bad thing? Those pillorying the Lord Chancellor tend also to be those shedding crocodile tears for the dumbing down of politics. One of the main criticisms of Westminster is that it is awash with on-message automatons and short on characters. Well, the Lord Chancellor is certainly a character….In fact, Lord Irvine is merely following a noble tradition that dates back more than a century to Labour's roots in William Morris's Arts and Crafts movement. Morris saw socialism as the contrast between beauty and ugliness, and between the worker as artisan craftsman and the worker as slave to the machine. In an era of mass output, it is good the Government is helping high-quality small firms to thrive.For anyone who has read Morris' journalism, i doubt very much he would have had anything but baying venom for Lord Irvine.
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