,,the ,,open ,,conspiracy          ,,mr4
 ,,wells ,,has ,,also ,,written ,,the   
,,following ,,books ,,on ,,social1      
,,religious ,,and  ,,political          
,,questions      ,anticipations 7#aijj7 
,a ,modern ,utopia    ,the ,future in   
,america    ,new ,worlds for ,old       
,first and ,last ,things    ,god the    
,invisible ,king    ,the ,outline of    
,history    ,russia in the ,shadows     
,the ,salvaging of ,civilisation        
,washington and the ,hope of ,peace     
,a ,short ,history of the ,world    ,the
 ,story of a ,great ,schoolmaster    ,a 
,year of ,prophesying    ,democracy     
,under ,revision    ,history    ,mr4    
,belloc ,objects to the ,outline of     
,history    ,the ,way the ,world ,is    
,going          ,h4 ,g4 ,,wells         
,,the ,,open ,,conspiracy ,,blue        
,,prints ,,for ,a ,,world ,,revolution  
,illustration3 ,colophon ,doubleday1    
,doran      ,,garden ,,city    ,,new    
,,york    ,,doubleday1 ,,doran    ,,and 
,,company1 ,,inc4    #aibh              

,,copyright1 #aibh1 ,,by ,,doubleday1   
,,doran     ,,company1 ,,inc4 ,,all     
,,eights ,,reserved4    ,,printed ,,in  
,,the ,,united ,,states ,,at ,,the      
,,country ,,life ,,press1 ,,garden      
,,city1 ,n4 ,y4            ,to          
,,daniel ,,gerbault    who asked me to  
write this book          ,,preface      
,this book states as plainly and clearly
 as possible the essential ideas  of my 
life1 the perspective of my world4      
,everything else that ,i have  been or  
done seems to me to have been           
contributory to or illustrative  of     
these ideas and suggestions4 ,my other  
writings1 with hardly an  exception1    
explore1 try over1 illuminate1 comment  
upon or flower out of  the essential    
matter that ,i here attempt at last to  
strip bare to its  foundations and state
 unmistakably4 ,this is my religion4    
,here are my  directive aims and the    
criteria of all ,i do4    ,since the    
subject of this book is the whole       
destiny of man1 and the  whole duty of  

man1 it will certainly be called a      
pretentious book4  ,that will be a      
charge too obvious to miss and we can   
consider it made4  ,but it is no more   
pretentious to work upon the whole of   
life than upon  parts and aspects of    
life2 it is a question of scale and     
method2 the  intellectual effort needed1
 the quality of the work required for   
making  the map of a continent may be   
less than and inferior to that demanded 
by the chemical examination of a muscle 
fibre or the investigation of  atomic   
structure4 ,a man is not pretentious    
because he works with the  theodolite   
instead of the microscope4 ,some men    
work upon the bulkier  common issues2   
some upon finer and subtler questions4  
,to every man his  task4 ,there is no   
hierarchy in human thought4    ,here1   
given tentatively1 with many evident    
faults and gaps1 is a scheme  for all   
human conduct4 ,it discusses what should
 man be doing and what  should men be   
doing4 ,it states a general form and    

direction for the  crowding rush of     
modern ideas and impulsions4 ,i believe 
that upon  such lines as ,i have drawn1 
the creative forces in our species can  
be organised and may be organised1 in a 
comprehensive fight against  individual 
and collective frustration and death4 ,i
 believe also that  there is no other   
direction but this direction along which
 mankind can  escape from the insecurity
 of an animal which has been evolved and
  which may presently be degraded or    
extinguished in the play of material    
things4 ,the accident of a great        
opportunity1 ,i hold1 has happened to   
our kind4 ,it is opportunity and not    
destiny we face4    ,so ,i bear my      
witness and argue my design4 ,this is1  
,i declare1 the truth  and the way of   
salvation4 ,if ,i could1 ,i would put   
this book before  every mind in the     
world4 ,i would say1 tell me where this 
is wrong1 or  tell me why you do not    
live after these principles4    ,i pray 
the reader for a patient reading4 ,this 

is1 ,i submit1 matter of  very great    
moment to him4 ,my phrasing1 my idiom of
 thought may not be  his4 ,will he      
forgive that for the sake of the        
substance ,i am putting  before him8 ,it
 is astir already in many intelligences 
and it is an  amplifying group of ideas4
 ,i am merely the observer who notes his
 own  adhesion and draws attention1     
eagerly and earnestly1 to what is going 
on and to the quality of our present    
occasion4 ,will the reader at  least try
 to understand before he refutes8 ,i am 
discussing here the  possibility of an  
immense and hopeful revolution in human 
affairs and  of an enlivening and       
ennobling change in our lives4 ,i am    
discussing  whether our species1 he and 
,i with it and part of it1 is to live or
  die4          ,,contents      ,preface
                                        
p4 vii      ,ch4 ,i4 ,necessity of      
,religion to ,human ,life               
#a         ,,ii4 ,subordination of ,self
 the ,essence of ,religion        #h    

,,iii4 ,need for a ,restatement of      
,religion                  #aa          
,,iv4 ,objective ,expression of ,modern 
,religion             #bj          ,v4  
,the ,frame of the ,task before         
,mankind3             ,the ,world       
,commonweal                             
#bg         ,,vi4 ,broad                
,characteristics of the ,world          
,commonweal       #cb        ,,vii4 ,no 
,stable ,utopia ,is ,contemplated       
#ee       ,,viii4 ,the ,open ,conspiracy
 ,must ,be ,heterogeneous           #eg 
,,ix4 ,forces and ,resistances in the   
,great ,modern             ,communities 
,now ,prevalent1 ,which ,will ,be       
,antagonistic to the ,open ,conspiracy  
#fh          ,x4 ,the ,open ,conspiracy 
and the ,resistances of             the 
,less ,industrialised ,peoples          
#ie         ,,xi4 ,resistances and      
,antagonistic ,forces in ,ourselves     
#aab        ,,xii4 ,the ,open           
,conspiracy ,must begin as a ,movement  
of ,explanation and ,propaganda         

#abf       ,,xiii4 ,early ,constructive 
,work of the ,open ,conspiracy     #add 
,,xiv4 ,existing and ,developing        
,movements with ,which             the  
,open ,conspiracy ,may ,hope to         
,coalesce         #afd         ,,xv4    
,the ,creative ,home1 ,social ,group and
 ,school3 ,the             ,present     
,waste of ,youthful ,seriousness        
#agh        ,,xvi4 ,progressive         
,development of the ,activities of      
the ,open ,conspiracy into a ,world     
,control and            ,commonweal3    
,the ,hazards of the ,conflict          
#ahe       ,,xvii4 ,the ,world          
,community                              
#aid             ,marginal ,note        
#aig          ,,the ,,open ,,conspiracy 
,chapter ,i    ,,necessity ,,of         
,,religion ,,to ,,human ,,life      ,few
 people1 if any1 are always sustained by
 unselfish or religious  motives1 and   
few or none are altogether beyond their 
influence4  ,the daily lives of the     
great majority of human beings are      

frankly  irreligious2 they seem to      
differ only in their scope1 variety and 
intelligence from the lives of animals2 
they are determined by  instinctive     
impulses1 individual desires and        
personal ends2 they pass  from one      
satisfaction or disappointment to       
another2 they are attracted  and        
deflected by casual encounters2 they    
forget more or less completely  and they
 resume4 ,nevertheless1 the conduct of  
most lives is restricted  and defined by
 the prevalent conceptions of what is   
honourable and  becoming1 and right and 
wrong4 ,although the lives of the great 
run of  people are neither moral        
essentially nor essentially religious1  
they  respect current moral and         
religious forms and maxims1 just as they
  conform to current usages and beaten  
tracks4 ,it is the line of least        
resistance for them1 and that suffices4 
,communities have been held together in 
the past and are still held  together by
 laws and moral codes systematised upon 

religious ideas1  and this although few 
people have more than a superficial     
apprehension  of such ideas4 ,religion  
in its completeness has always been the 
peculiarity of a minority2 it has shaped
 and innervated communities  but never  
pervaded them throughout4 ,but its      
presence seems to have  been necessary  
for collective life4 ,without it        
morality was baseless  and law          
unjustifiable4 ,the intermittent        
disposition of most human  beings       
towards some sort of righteousness      
beyond self-seeking has been  upheld1 as
 some sprawling1 weak-jointed climbing  
plant may be upheld  on a trellis1 by   
that more steadfast minority of sincere 
and devoted  persons4 ,it is these      
latter who have preserved disinterested 
standards1  and who still preserve them2
 who have been and who continue to be   
the  salt of the earth4    ,religious   
ideas in the past have derived from the 
most diverse  emotional and intellectual
 origins in the integrating mind of     

man4 ,speculative explanations1         
metaphors hardened by usage into        
quasi-factual statements1 fantasies     
arising out of germinating  and         
suppressed impulses1 false analogies1   
parables begotten and  lit by flashes of
 spiritual insight1 traditions          
misconceived and  distorted1 dogmatic   
excesses in explicitness evoked by the  
irritation  of contradictory criticism1 
the odd compromises of theological      
diplomatists1 the craving for           
supernatural sanctions and vindications 
and the nightmare creations of fear1    
that haunting shadow of all  conscious  
life1 have mingled inextricably in every
 religious fabric4  ,but the survival   
value of a religion to a community has  
lain always in  the practical assistance
 it afforded in the subordination of    
self and  the achievement of            
co-operative loyalties not otherwise    
obtainable4  ,no community seems ever to
 have been held together in wholesome   
and vigorous collective life by         

8enlightened self-interest0 alone4      
,enlightened self-interest in           
exceptional cases and under slight or   
moderate stresses may produce enough    
simulated disinterestedness to be       
practically undistinguishable from      
public virtue1 and the great mass of    
lives in every community is no doubt    
kept at this or that moral level1  and  
in this or that form of behaviour       
according to the quality and  intensity 
of the beliefs that hold that community 
together with little  or no co-operating
 force in the lives themselves4 ,but    
somewhere and  effectively in that      
community the sustaining beliefs of the 
community  must be passionately and     
sincerely held and maintained4 ,a       
community  where binding beliefs have   
decayed altogether is like a building   
whose  mortar has been changed to sand4 
,it may stand for a time1 but it stands 
precariously4    ,now in the communities
 in which we are living to-day there has
 been  a far-reaching weakening and     

change in religious beliefs4 ,this has  
been due to an enormous growth of       
knowledge1 to an enhanced vigour  of    
criticism1 to a relative enfeeblement of
 government and authority  which        
released unprecedented freedom of speech
 and permitted the  crystallisation of  
doubts into coherent and militant       
denials4 ,at the  same time there have  
been developments of the mechanical     
conditions of  life that have enlarged  
the scale of possible human operations1 
made  economical life increasingly      
international and brought once          
autonomous  states and regions into a   
mutually disintegrative intimacy of     
reaction4  ,the stresses upon our       
communities are greater than they have  
ever  been and the blinding forces less4
 ,the outlook before our race seems     
therefore to be wider1 more uncertain   
and much more dangerous than has  ever  
appeared before4    ,in the past1 in the
 history of every community there have  
been  phases of moral and religious     

confusion4 ,the beliefs and ideas of    
right conduct that have served hitherto 
begin1 in the presence of  new          
circumstances or new challenges1 to lose
 authority or to fail in  meeting       
current moral problems4 ,an age of      
relaxation and a sort of  experimental  
wickedness dawns4 ,scruples vanish4     
,treachery1 cruelty1  unrestrained      
self-indulgence1 which have been kept   
under hatches1  emerge conspicuously4   
,government becomes more adventurous1   
tyrannous  and unjust1 and the moral    
distinction between ruler and brigand   
fines  away to the vanishing-point4     
,there seems no longer any good faith   
nor any sweetness of soul in human life1
 except among the sacrificial  simple4  
,what will for a better life still      
manifests itself in the world  is for a 
while quite unable to take hold of the  
disorder4 ,italy in  the ,machiavellian 
period and ,germany after the intricate 
wars of the  ,reformation may be cited  
as typical instances of such 8wicked0   

phases  in social history4 ,yet it was  
not that the heart of man changed for   
the worse in those ages1 not that there 
was a sudden generation of  vipers1 but 
that intellectual confusion had divided 
and enfeebled that  graver-spirited     
minority which had1 under more assured  
conditions1  sustained the faith of most
 people and the moral disciplines of    
everyone4 ,the quality of the           
ingredients of the human mixture        
remained  the same1 but the restraining 
and directive forces had in their       
interplay come upon a phase of mutual   
neutralisation and collective           
ineffectiveness4    ,there are many     
signs that to-day over large parts of   
the world there is  a drift towards such
 another disintegrative and distressful 
phase4 ,the  brigand1 the boss and the  
adventurer become portentously          
successful  and immune4 ,people who1 in 
other times1 would have been active and 
confident in their own lives and        
vigorously co-operative in the control  

of human affairs are uncertain in their 
hearts and unhappy in their             
interventions4 ,the old faiths have     
become unconvincing1 unsubstantial  and 
insincere1 and though there are clear   
intimations of a new faith in  the      
world1 it still awaits embodiment in    
formul and organisations that  will     
bring it into effective reaction upon   
human affairs as a whole4    ,this      
present essay is an attempt to assemble 
these intimations in a  form that will  
be available for the practical direction
 of the writer's  and the reader's life4
          ,chapter ,,ii                 
,,subordination ,,of ,,self ,,the       
,,essence ,,of ,,religion      ,the     
religions that hitherto have served over
 wide regions and for  considerable     
periods of time to sustain men in more  
or less orderly1  honest1 decent and    
progressive societies1 have been        
presented to the  generality and        
accepted by the generality in extremely 
attenuated  forms4 ,in their beginnings 

they were all intense and               
uncompromising4  ,christianity1 for     
example1 began with the completest      
communism1  ,buddhism with an entire    
renunciation of earthly desire1 ,islam  
with the  passionate and forcible       
dedication of the whole world to ,allah4
 ,sooner  or later1 however1 the        
propagandist came to terms with human   
weakness  and struck a bargain for a    
cheaper form of common proselyte4       
,but though the creed and practice might
 need lightening and fitting to         
customary humanity before they could be 
universally accepted1 there  appeared no
 essential conflict in the process      
between the intense and  the superficial
 form4 ,the common man assented to      
everything in the  doctrine1 and merely 
asked to have the more difficult and    
onerous terms  deferred or mitigated4   
,his plea for his personal insufficiency
 was  weakness and not dissent4    ,in  
their completeness1 in their esoteric   
forms1 in the life that was             

professionally religious1 religions have
 always demanded great  subordinations  
of self4 ,therein lay their creative    
usefulness4 ,there  is no such thing as 
a self-contained religion1 a private    
religious  solo4 ,certain forms of      
,protestantism and some mystical types  
come  near to making religion a secluded
 duet between the individual and  his   
divinity1 but here that may be regarded 
as a perversion of the  religious       
impulse4 ,just as the normal sexual     
complex excites and stirs  the          
individual out of his egotism to serve  
the ends of the race1 so the  normal    
religious process takes the individual  
out of his egotism for  the service of  
the community4 ,it is not a bargain1 a  
8social contract10  between the         
individual and the community2 it is a   
subordination of  both the existing     
individual and the existing community in
 relation to  something1 a divinity1 a  
divine order1 a standard1 a             
righteousness1  more important than     

either4 ,what is called in the          
phraseology of  certain religions       
8conviction of sin0 and 8the flight from
 the ,city  of ,destruction0 are        
familiar instances of this reference of 
the  self-centred individual and the    
current social life to something far    
better than either the one or the other4
    ,this is the third element in the   
religious relationship1 a hope1 a       
promise1 an objective which turns the   
convert not only from himself  but from 
the 8world0 as it is1 towards better    
things4 ,first comes  self-disregard1   
then service1 and then this             
reconstructive creative  urgency4       
,for that minority of minds which ,i    
have already spoken of as the  salt of  
the earth1 this aspect of religion seems
 to have been its  primary attraction4  
,one has to remember that there is a    
will for  religion scattered throughout 
mankind4 ,religion has never pursued its
  distinctive votaries2 they have come  
to meet it4 ,the desire to give  oneself

 to greater ends than the everyday life 
affords1 and to give  oneself freely1 is
 clearly dominant in that minority and  
traceable in  an incalculable proportion
 of the majority4          ,chapter     
,,iii    ,,need ,,for ,a ,,restatement  
,,of ,,religion      ,every great       
religion has explained itself in the    
form of a history and  a cosmogony4 ,it 
has been felt necessary to say ,why and 
,to  what end4 ,every religion has had  
necessarily to adopt the physical       
conceptions and usually also to assume  
many of the moral and social  values    
current at the time of its foundation4  
,it could not transcend  the            
philosophical phrases and attitudes that
 seemed then to supply the  natural     
frame for a faith1 nor draw upon        
anything beyond the store of  scientific
 knowledge of its time4 ,in these       
conditions lurked the seeds  of an      
ultimate decay and supersession of every
 religion4    ,but as the idea of       
continual change going farther and      

farther from  existing realities and    
never returning to them is a new one1   
each fresh  development of religion in  
the world so far has been proclaimed in 
perfect good faith as the culminating   
and final truth4 ,the suggestion  of the
 possibility of further restatement is  
an unsettling suggestion2  it seems to  
undermine conviction and it breaks the  
ranks of the  believers because there   
are enormous variations in the          
capacities of  men to recognise the same
 spirit under a changing shape4 ,while  
some  intelligences can recognise the   
same ,god under a variety of names and  
symbols without any severe strain1      
others cannot even detect the most      
contrasted ,gods one from the other1    
provided they wear the same mask  and   
title4 ,it appears a perfectly natural  
and reasonable thing to many  minds to  
restate religion in terms of biological 
and psychological  necessity1 while to  
others any variation in the phrasing of 
the faith  seems to be nothing less than

 atheistical misrepresentations of the  
most damnable kind4 ,for them ,god1 a   
,god still anthropomorphic enough  to   
have a will and purpose1 to display     
preferences and reciprocate  emotions1  
to be indeed a person1 must be retained 
until the end of  time4 ,for others1    
,god can be thought of as a ,great      
,first ,cause1 as  impersonal and       
inhuman as atomic structure4    ,it is  
because of the historical and           
philosophical commitments they  have    
undertaken1 and because of concessions  
made to common human  weaknesses in     
regard to such once apparently minor but
 now vital moral  issues as property1   
mental activity and public              
veracity--rather than  of any inadequacy
 in their adaptation to psychological   
needs--that  the present discredit of   
recognised religions has come about4    
,they no  longer seem even roughly      
truthful upon issues of fact1 and they  
give  no imperatives over large fields  
of conduct in which perplexity is       

prevalent4 ,people will say3 8,i could  
be perfectly happy leading the  life of 
a ,catholic devotee if only ,i could    
believe40 ,but most of the  framework of
 religious explanation upon which that  
life is sustained is  too old-fashioned 
and too irrelevant to admit of that     
thoroughness of  belief which is        
necessary for the devotion of           
intelligent people4    ,great ingenuity 
has been shown by modern writers and    
thinkers in  the adaptation of venerated
 religious expressions to new ideas4    
,peccavi4 ,the word 8,god0 is in most   
minds so associated with  the concept of
 religion that it is abandoned only with
 the greatest  reluctance4 ,the word    
remains though the idea is continually  
attenuated4  ,he is pushed farther and  
farther from actuality and ,his         
definition  becomes increasingly a      
bundle of negations1 until at last1 in  
,his  rle of ,the ,absolute1 ,he becomes
 an entirely negative expression4       
,while we can speak of good1 say some1  

we can speak of ,god4 ,god is the       
possibility of goodness1 the good side  
of things4 ,if phrases in which  the    
name of ,god is used are to be          
abandoned1 they argue1 religion will  be
 left speechless before many occasions4 
,certainly there is something beyond the
 individual that is and the  world that 
is2 on that we have already insisted as 
a characteristic  of all religions2 that
 persuasion is the essence of faith and 
the  key to courage4 ,but whether that  
is to be considered1 even after the     
most strenuous exercises in             
personification1 as a greater person or 
a comprehensive person is another       
matter4 ,personality is the last        
vestige of anthropomorphism4 ,the modern
 urge to a precise veracity is  against 
such concessions to traditional         
expression4 ,on the other hand  there is
 in many fine religious minds a desire  
amounting almost to a  necessity for an 
object of devotion so individualised as 
to be capable  at least of a receptive  

consciousness even if no definite       
response  is conceded4 ,one type of mind
 can accept a reality in itself which   
another must project and dramatise      
before it can comprehend it and  react  
to it4 ,the human soul is an intricate  
thing which will not endure  elucidation
 when that passes beyond a certain      
degree of harshness and  roughness4 ,the
 human spirit has learnt love1 devotion1
 obedience and  humility in relation to 
other personalities1 and with difficulty
 it  takes the final step to a          
transcendent subordination1 from which  
the  last shred of personality has been 
stripped4 ,in matters not immediately   
material1 language has to work by       
metaphors1 and though every metaphor    
carries its own peculiar risks of       
confusion we cannot do without them4    
,great intellectual tolerance is        
necessary1 therefore--a cultivated      
disposition to translate and retranslate
 from one metaphysical or  emotional    
idiom to another--if there is not to be 

a deplorable wastage  of moral force in 
our world4    ,three profound           
differences between the mental          
dispositions of the  present time and   
those of preceding ages have to be      
realised if current  developments of the
 religious impulse are to be seen in    
their correct  relationship to the      
religious life of the past4 ,there has  
been a great  advance in the analysis of
 psychic processes and the courage with 
which men have probed into the origins  
of human thought and feeling4           
,following upon the biological advances 
that have made us recognise fish  and   
amphibian in the bodily structure of    
man1 have come these parallel           
developments in which we see elemental  
fear and lust and self-love  moulded1   
modified and exalted1 under the stress  
of social progress1  into intricate     
human motives4 ,our conception of sin   
and our treatment  of sin have been     
profoundly modified by this analysis4   
,our former sins  are seen as           

ignorances1 inadequacies and bad habits1
 and the moral  conflict is robbed of   
three-fourths of its ego-centred        
melodramatic  quality4 ,we are no longer
 moved to be less wicked2 we are moved  
to  organise our conditioned reflexes   
and lead a life less fragmentary and    
silly4    ,secondly1 the conception of  
individuality has been influenced and   
relaxed by biological thought1 so that  
we do not think so readily of  the      
individual contra mundum as our fathers 
did4 ,we begin to  realise that we are  
egotists by misapprehension4 ,nature    
cheats the self  to serve the purposes  
of the species by filling it with wants 
that war  against its private interests4
 ,as gut eyes are opened to these       
things1  we see ourselves as beings     
greater or less than the definitive     
self4  ,man's soul is no longer his own4
 ,it is1 he discovers1 part of a greater
  being which lived before he was born  
and will survive him4 ,the idea  of a   
survival of the definite individual with

 all the accidents and  idiosyncrasies  
of his temporal nature upon him1        
dissolves to nothing in  this new view  
of immortality4    ,the third of the    
main contrasts between modern and former
 thought which  have rendered the       
general shapes of established religion  
old-fashioned  and unserviceable1 is a  
reorientation of current ideas about    
time4  ,the powerful disposition of the 
human mind to explain everything as  the
 inevitable unfolding of a past event   
which1 so to speak1 sweeps  the future  
helplessly before it1 has been checked  
by a mass of subtle  criticisms4 ,the   
conception of progress as a broadening  
and increasing  purpose1 a conception   
which is taking hold of the human       
imagination  more and more firmly1 turns
 religious life towards the future4 ,we 
think no longer of submission to the    
irrevocable decrees of absolute         
dominion1 but of participation in an    
adventure on behalf of a power  that    
gains strength and establishes itself4  

,the history of our world1  which has   
been unfolded to us by science1 runs    
counter to all the  histories on which  
religions have been based4 ,there was no
 ,creation in  the past1 we begin to    
realise1 but eternally there is         
creation2 there  was no ,fall to account
 for the conflict of good and evil1 but 
a stormy  ascent4 ,life as we know it is
 a mere beginning4    ,it seems         
unavoidable that if religion is to      
develop unifying and  directive power in
 the present confusion of human affairs 
it must  adapt itself to this           
forward-looking1 individuality-analysing
 turn  of mind2 it must divest itself of
 its sacred histories1 its gross        
preoccupations1 its posthumous          
prolongation of personal ends4 ,the     
desire for service1 for subordination1  
for permanent effect1 for an  escape    
from the distressful pettiness and      
morality of the individual  life1 is the
 undying element in every religious     
system4 ,the time has  come to strip    

religion right down to that1 to strip it
 for greater  tasks than it has ever    
faced before4 ,the histories and symbols
 that  served our fathers encumber and  
divide us4 ,sacraments and rituals      
harbour disputes and waste our scanty   
emotions4 ,the explanation of why       
things are is an unnecessary effort in  
religion4 ,the essential fact in        
religion is the desire for religion and 
not how it came about4 ,if you  do not  
want religion1 no persuasions1 no       
convictions about your place  in the    
universe can give it to you4 ,the first 
sentence in the modern  creed must be1  
not 8,i believe0 but 8,i give myself40  
,to what8 ,and how8 ,to these questions 
we must next address ourselves4         
,chapter ,,iv    ,,objective            
,,expression ,,of ,,modern ,,religion   
,to give oneself religiously is a       
continuing operation expressed in a     
series of acts4 ,it can be nothing else4
 ,you cannot dedicate yourself  and then
 go away to live just as you have lived 

before4 ,it is a poor  travesty of      
religion that does not produce an       
essential change in the  life which     
embraces it4 ,but in the established and
 older religions  of our race1 this     
change of conduct has involved much     
self-abasement  merely to the ,god or   
,gods1 or much self-mortification merely
 with  a view to the moral perfecting of
 self4 ,christian devotion1 for         
example1 in these early stages1 before  
the hermit life gave place  to organised
 monastic life1 did not to any extent   
direct itself to  service except the    
spiritual service of other human beings4
 ,but as  ,christianity became a        
definite social organising force1 it    
took on  a great series of healing1     
comforting1 helping1 manufacturing and  
educational activities4 ,the modern     
tendency has been and is all in the     
direction of minimising what one might  
call self-centred devotion and          
self-subjugation1 and of expanding and  
developing external service4 ,the  idea 

of inner perfectibility dwindles with   
the diminishing importance  attached to 
individuality4 ,we cease to think of    
mortifying or exalting  or perfecting   
ourselves and seek to lose ourselves in 
a greater life4  ,we think less and less
 of 8conquering0 self and more and more 
of  escaping from self4 ,it we attempt  
to perfect ourselves in any respect  it 
is only as a soldier sharpens and       
polishes an essential weapon4    ,our   
quickened apprehension of continuing    
change1 our broader and fuller  vision  
of the history of life1 disabuse our    
minds of many limitations  set to the   
imaginations of our predecessors4 ,much 
that they saw as  fixed and determinate1
 we see as transitory and controllable4 
,they  saw life fixed in its species and
 subjected to irrevocable laws4 ,we  see
 life struggling insecurely but with a  
gathering successfulness  for freedom   
and power against restriction and death4
 ,we see life  coming at last to our    
tragic and hopeful human level4 ,certain

 great  possibilities1 certain mighty   
problems1 we realise1 confront mankind  
to-day4 ,they frame our existences4 ,the
 practical aspect1 the material  form1  
the embodiment1 of the modernised       
religious impulse is the  direction of  
the whole life to the solution of these 
problems and the  realisation of their  
possibilities4    ,the modern religious 
life like all forms of religious life   
must needs  have its own subtle and deep
 inner activities1 its meditations1 its 
self-confrontations1 its phases of      
stress and search and appeal1 its       
serene and prayerful moods1 but these   
inward aspects do not come into  the    
scope of this present enquiry1 which is 
concerned entirely with the  outward    
shape1 the direction and the            
organisation of modern religious        
effort1 with the question of what1 given
 religious devotion1 we have to  do and 
how that has to be done4    ,now as the 
modern vision of life has grown clear1  
certain vast  possibilities and certain 

great dangers have become plain4 ,they  
challenge mankind4 ,they furnish an     
entirely new frame and setting for  the 
moral life4 ,in the fixed and limited   
outlook of the past1 practical  good    
works took the form mainly of palliative
 measures against evils  that were      
conceived of as incurable2 the religious
 community nursed the  sick1 fed the    
hungry1 provided sanctuary for the      
fugitive1 pleaded with  the powerful for
 mercy4 ,it did not dream of preventing 
sickness1 famine  or tyranny4           
,otherworldliness was its ready refuge  
from the invincible  evil and confusion 
of the existing scheme of things4 ,it is
 possible  now to imagine an order in   
human affairs from which these evils    
have  been largely or entirely          
eliminated4 ,more and more people are   
coming  to realise that such an order is
 a material possibility4 ,and with the  
realisation that this is a material     
possibility1 we can no longer  be       
content with a field of good deeds and  

right action restricted  to palliative  
and consolatory activities4 ,such things
 are merely  8first-aid40 ,the religious
 mind grows bolder than it has ever been
  before4 ,it pushes through the curtain
 it once imagined was a barrier4  ,it   
apprehends its larger obligations4 ,the 
way in which our activities  conduce to 
the realisation of that conceivable     
better order in human  affairs1 becomes 
the new criterion of conduct4    ,the   
realisation of this conceivable better  
order involves certain  necessary       
achievements4 ,it is impossible for any 
clear-headed person  to suppose that the
 ever more destructive stupidities of   
war can be  eliminated from human       
affairs until some common political     
control  dominates the earth1 and unless
 certain pressures due to the growth of 
population1 due to the enlarging scope  
of human operations or due to           
conflicting standards and traditions of 
life1 are disposed of4 ,to avoid  the   
positive evils of war and to attain the 

new levels of prosperity  and power that
 now come into view1 an effective world 
control1 not  merely of armed force but 
of the production and main movements of 
staple commodities and the drift and    
expansion of population1 is  required4  
,it is absurd to dream of peace and     
world-wide progress  without that much  
control4 ,these things assured1 the     
abilities and  energies of a greatly    
increased proportion of human beings    
could be  diverted to the happy         
activities of scientific research and   
creative  work with an ever-increasing  
release and enlargement of human        
possibility4 ,such a forward stride in  
human life1 the first stride in a       
mighty continuing advance1 an advance to
 which no limit appears1 is now         
materially possible4 ,the opportunity is
 offered to mankind4 ,but there  is no  
certainty1 no material necessity1 that  
it should ever be taken4  ,it will not  
be taken by mankind inadvertently4 ,it  
can only be taken  through such an      

organisation of will and energy to take 
it as this  world has never seen before4
    ,these are the new conditions that  
unfold themselves before the more  alert
 minds of our generation and which will 
presently become the  general mental    
background1 as the modern               
interpretations of the history  of life 
and of material and mental possibilities
 establish themselves4  ,evil political1
 social and economic usages and         
arrangements may seem  obdurate and     
huge1 but they are neither permanent nor
 uncontrollable4  ,they can be          
controlled1 however1 only by an effort  
more powerful and  determined than the  
instincts and inertias that sustain     
them4 ,religion1  modern and            
disillusioned1 has for its outward task 
to set itself to  the control and       
direction of political1 social and      
economic life1  or admit itself a mere  
drug for easing discomfort4 ,can it or  
can it  not synthesise the needed effort
 to lift mankind out of our present     

disorders1 dangers1 baseness1           
frustrations and futilities1 to a phase 
of relative security1 accumulating      
knowledge1 systematic and continuing    
growth in power and the widespread deep 
happiness of hopeful and  increasing    
life8    ,our answer here is that it    
can1 and our subject now is to enquire  
what  are the necessary opening stages  
in the synthesis of that effort4  ,we   
write here for those who believe that it
 can1 and who do already  grasp the     
implications of world history and       
contemporary scientific  achievement4   
,chapter ,v    ,,the ,,frame ,,of ,,the 
,,task ,,before ,,mankind3    ,,the     
,,world ,,commonweal      ,before we can
 consider the forms and methods of      
attacking their  inevitable task that   
the serious minority of human beings    
must adopt1  it will be well to draw the
 main lines and attempt some measure of 
the  magnitude of that task4 ,what are  
the new forms that it is sought to      
impose upon human life and how are they 

to be evolved from or imposed  upon the 
current forms8 ,and against what passive
 and active resistances  has this to be 
done8    ,there can be no pause for     
replacement in the affairs of life4 ,day
 must  follow day and the common        
activities continue4 ,the new world as a
 going  concern must arise out of the   
old as a going concern4    ,now the most
 comprehensive conception of this new   
world is of one  politically1 socially  
and economically unified4 ,within that  
frame fall  all the other ideas of our  
progressive ambition4 ,to this end a    
small  but increasing body of people in 
the world set their faces and seek to   
direct their lives4 ,still more at      
present apprehend it as a possibility   
but do not dare to desire it1 because of
 the enormous  difficulties that        
intervene and because they see as yet no
 intimations  of a way through or round 
these difficulties4 ,the great majority 
of  human beings have still to see the  
human adventure as one whole2 they  are 

obsessed by the air of permanence and   
finality in established  things2 they   
accept current reality as ultimate      
reality4 ,they take the  world as they  
find it4 ,but here we are writing for   
the modern-minded1  and for them it is  
impossible to think of the world as     
secure and  satisfactory until there    
exists a single world commonweal1       
preventing  war and controlling those   
moral1 biological and economic forces   
that  would otherwise lead to wars4     
,the method of direction of such a world
 commonweal is not likely to  imitate   
the methods of existing sovereign       
states4 ,it will be a new  sort of      
direction with a new psychology4 ,there 
will be little need for  ,president or  
,king to lead the marshalled hosts of   
humanity1 for where  there is no war    
there is no need of any leader to lead  
hosts anywhere1  and in a polyglot world
 a parliament of mankind is an          
inconceivable  instrument of government4
 ,the fundamental organisation of       

contemporary  states is still plainly   
military and that is exactly what a     
world  organisation cannot be4 ,flags1  
uniforms1 national anthems1 patriotism  
sedulously cultivated in church and     
school1 the brag1 blare and bluster  of 
our competing sovereignties1 belong to  
the phase of development we  would      
supersede4 ,the reasonable desire of all
 of us is that we should  have the      
collective affairs of the world managed 
by suitably equipped  groups of the most
 interested1 intelligent and devoted    
people and  that their activities should
 be subjected to a free1 open1 watchful 
criticism1 restrained from making       
spasmodic interruptions but powerful    
enough to modify or supersede without   
haste or delay whatever is  weakening or
 unsatisfactory in the general          
direction4    ,a world movement for the 
supersession or enlargement or fusion of
  existing political1 economic and      
social institutions1 must necessarily1  
as it grows1 draw closer and closer to  

questions of practical  control4 ,it is 
likely in its growth to incorporate many
 active public  servants1 and many      
industrial and financial leaders and    
directors4  ,it may also assimilate     
great numbers of intelligent workers4   
,as its  activities spread it will work 
out a whole system of special methods of
  co-operation4 ,it will learn as it    
grows and by growing the business of    
general direction and how to develop its
 critical function4 ,so that the        
movement we contemplate will by its very
 nature be one aiming1 not so  much to  
set up a world direction as to become   
itself a world direction1  and the      
educational and militant forms of its   
opening phase will1 as  experience is   
gained and power and responsibility     
acquired1 evoke step  by step forms of  
administration and research and         
correction4    ,the modernisation of the
 religious impulse leads us straight to 
the  effort for the establishment of the
 world state as a duty1 and the  close  

consideration of the necessary          
organisation of that effort  will bring 
the reader to the conclusion that a     
movement aiming at  the establishment of
 a world-directorate1 however restricted
 that  movement may be at first in      
numbers and power1 must either          
contemplate  the prospect of itself     
developing in part or as a whole into a 
world-directorate1 and by assimilation1 
as a whole into a modern world          
community1 or admit from the outset the 
futility1 the spare-time                
amateurishness1 of its gestures4        
,chapter ,,vi    ,,broad                
,,characteristics ,,of ,,the ,,world    
,,commonweal      ,continuing our       
examination of the practical task before
 the modern  mind1 we may next note the 
main lines of contemporary aspiration   
within this comprehensive outline of a  
world commonweal4 ,any sort of          
unification of human affairs will not   
serve the ends we seek1 we aim  at a    
particular sort of unification2 a world 

,csar is hardly better  from the        
progressive viewpoint than world chaos2 
the unity we seek must  mean the        
liberation of human thought1 experiment 
and creative effort4 ,a  successful     
conspiracy merely to seize governments  
and wield and retain  world power would 
be at best only the empty frame of      
success1 it might  be the exact reverse 
of success4 ,release from the threat of 
war and  the waste of international     
economic conflicts is a poor release if 
it  demands as its price the loss of all
 other liberties4    ,it is because we  
desire a unification of human direction1
 not simply  for the sake of unity1 but 
as a means to certain definite ends1    
that it is necessary1 at any cost--in   
delay1 in loss of effective  force1 in  
strategic or tactical disadvantage--that
 the light of free1  abundant criticism 
should play upon that unified direction 
and upon  the movements and             
organisations leading to the            
establishment of that  unified          

direction4    ,man is an imperfect      
animal and never quite trustworthy in   
the dark4  ,neither morally nor         
intellectually is he safe from lapses4  
,most of  us who are past our first     
youth know how little we can even trust 
ourselves1 and are glad to have our     
activities checked and guarded  by a    
sense of inspection4 ,it is for this    
reason that a movement to  realise the  
conceivable better state of the world1  
must deny itself  the advantages of     
secret methods or tactical              
insincerities4 ,it must  leave that to  
its adversaries4 ,we must declare our   
end plainly from the  outset and risk no
 misunderstandings of our procedure4    
,the conspiracy of modern religion      
against the established institutions  of
 the world must be an open conspiracy   
and cannot remain righteous  otherwise4 
,it is lost if it goes underground4     
,every step to world unity  must be     
taken in the daylight1 or the sort of   
unity that will be won  will be found to

 be scarcely worth the winning4 ,the    
essential task will  have to be         
recommenced within the mere frame of    
unity attained4    ,this candid attempt 
to take possession of the whole world   
must be made  in the name and for the   
sake of science and creative activity4  
,it is to  release science and creative 
ability1 and every stage in the struggle
  must be watched and criticised1 lest  
there be any sacrifice of these  ends to
 the exigencies of conflict4    ,the    
security of creative progress and       
creative activity implies a  competent  
regulation of the economic life in the  
collective interest4  ,there must be    
food1 shelter and leisure for all4 ,the 
fundamental needs  of the animal life   
must be assured before human life can   
have free  play4 ,man does not live by  
bread alone2 he eats that he may learn  
and  adventure creatively1 but unless he
 eats he cannot adventure4 ,his  life is
 primarily economic1 as a house is      
primarily a foundation1 and  economic   

justice and efficiency must underlie all
 other activities1  but to judge human  
society and organise political and      
social activities  entirely on economic 
grounds is to forget the objectives of  
life's  campaign in a pre-occupation    
with supply4    ,it is true that man1   
like the animal world in general from   
which he  has arisen1 is the creature of
 a struggle for sustenance1 but unlike  
the animals1 man can resort to methods  
of escape from that competitive         
pressure upon the means of subsistence1 
which has been the lot of every  other  
animal species4 ,he can restrain the    
increase in his numbers  and he seems   
capable of still quite undefined        
expansions of his  productivity per head
 of population4 ,he can escape therefore
 from the  struggle for subsistence     
altogether with a surplus of energy such
 as no  other kind of animal species has
 ever possessed4 ,intelligent control   
of population is a possibility which    
puts man outside the competitive        

processes that have hitherto ruled the  
modification of species1 and he  can be 
released from these processes in no     
other way4    ,there is a clear hope    
that later1 directed breeding will come 
within  his scope1 but that goes beyond 
his present range of practical          
achievement1 and we need not discuss it 
further here4 ,suffice it  for us here  
that the world community of our desires1
 the organised  world community         
conducting and ensuring its own         
progress1 requires a  deliberate        
collective control of population as a   
primary condition4    ,there is no      
strong instinctive desire for           
multitudinous offspring  as such1 in the
 feminine make-up4 ,the reproductive    
impulses operate  indirectly4 ,nature   
ensures a pressure of population through
 passions  and instincts that1 given    
sufficient knowledge1 intelligence and  
freedom on the part of women1 can be    
satisfactorily gratified and            
tranquillised if need be1 without the   

production of numerous children4  ,very 
slight adjustments in social and        
economic arrangements will1 in  a world 
of clear available knowledge and        
straightforward practice  in these      
matters1 supply sufficient inducement or
 discouragement to  affect the general  
birthrate or the birthrate of specific  
types as the  directive sense of the    
community may consider desirable4 ,so   
long as  the majority of human beings   
are begotten involuntarily in lust and  
ignorance1 so long does man remain like 
any other animal under the  moulding    
pressure of competition for subsistence4
 ,social and political  processes change
 entirely in their character when we    
recognise the  possibility of           
practicability of this fundamental      
revolution in human  biology4    ,in a  
world so relieved1 the production of    
staple necessities presents  a series of
 problems altogether less distressful   
than those of the  present scramble for 
possessions and self-indulgence on the  

part of the  successful and for work and
 a bare living on the part of the       
masses4  ,with the increase of          
population unrestrained there was1 as   
the end  of the economic process1 no    
practical alternative to a multitudinous
  equality at the level of bare         
subsistence1 except through such an     
inequality of economic arrangements as  
allowed a minority to maintain a  higher
 standard of life by withholding        
whatever surplus of production  it could
 grasp1 from consumption in mere        
proletarian increase4 ,in the  past and 
at present1 what is called the          
capitalist system1 that is to  say the  
unsystematic exploitation of production 
by private owners  under the protection 
of the law1 has1 on the whole1 in spite 
of much  haste and conflict1 worked     
beneficially1 by checking the           
gravitation to  a universal low-grade   
consumption which would have been the   
inevitable  outcome of socialism        
oblivious of biological processes4 ,with

 effective  restraint upon the increase 
of population1 however1 entirely new    
possibilities open out before mankind4  
,the besetting vice of economic science1
 orthodox and unorthodox alike1  has    
been the vice of beginning in the air1  
with current practice and  current      
convictions1 with questions of wages1   
prices1 values and  possession1 when the
 profounder issues of human association 
are really  not to be found at all on   
these levels4 ,the primary issues of    
human  association are biological and   
psychological1 and the essentials of    
economics are problems in applied       
physics and chemistry4 ,the first  thing
 we should examine is what we want to do
 with natural resources1  and the next1 
how to get men to do what has to be done
 as pleasurably  and effectively as     
possible4 ,then we should have a        
standard by which to  judge the methods 
of to-day4    ,but the academic         
economists and still more so ,marx and  
his followers1  refuse to deal with     

these fundamentals1 and with a stupid   
air of sound  practical wisdom1 insist  
on opening up their case with an        
uncritical  acceptance of the common    
antagonism of employers and employed and
 a  long rigmarole about profits and    
wages4 ,ownership and expropriated      
labour are only one set of many possible
 sets of economic method4    ,the       
economists1 however1 will attend        
seriously only to the current  set1 the 
rest they ignore1 and the ,marxists with
 their uncontrollable  disposition to   
use nicknames in the place of judgments1
 condemn all  others as 8,utopian0--a   
word as final in its dismissal from the 
minds  of the elect as that other pet   
counter in the ,communist substitute for
  thought1 8,bourgeois40 ,if they can   
persuade themselves that an idea or  a  
statement is 8,utopian0 or 8,bourgeois10
 it does not seem to matter in  the     
least to them whether it is right or    
wrong4 ,it is disposed of4 ,just  as in 
genteeler circles anything is disposed  

of that can be labelled  8atheistical10 
8subversive0 or 8disloyal40    ,if a    
century and a half ago the world had    
submitted its problems of  transport to 
the economists they would have put      
aside1 with as little  wasted breath and
 ink as possible1 all talk about        
railways1 motor-cars1  steamships and   
aeroplanes1 and1 with a fine sense of   
extravagance  rebuked1 set themselves to
 long neuralgic dissertations1          
disputations  and treatises upon        
high-roads and the methods of connecting
 them1  turnpike gates1 canals1 the     
influence of lock-fees on bargemen1     
tidal  landing places1 anchorages1      
surplus carrying capacity1 carriers1    
caravans1 hand-barrows and the          
pedestrianariat4 ,there would have been 
a rapid and easy differentiation in     
feeling and requirements between  the   
horse-owning minority and the walking   
majority2 the wrongs of the  latter     
would have tortured the mind of every   
philosopher who could  not ride and been

 minimised by every philosopher who     
could1 and there  would have been a     
broad rift between the narrow footpath  
school1 the no  footpath school and the 
school which would look forward to a    
time when  every horse would have to be 
led along one universal footpath under  
the dictatorship of the pedestrianariat4
 ,all with the profoundest  gravity and 
dignity4 ,these things1 footpaths and   
roads and canals with  their traffic1   
were 8real10 and 8,utopian0 projects for
 getting along  at thirty or forty miles
 an hour or more up hill and against    
wind and  tide1 let alone the still more
 incredible suggestion of air transport1
  would have been smiled and sneered out
 of court4 ,life went about on its      
legs1 with a certain assistance from    
wheels1 or floated1 rowed and was  blown
 about on water2 so it had been--and so 
it would always be4    ,but as soon as  
this time-honoured pre-occupation with  
the allotment of  the shares of         
originators1 organisers1 workers1 owners

 of material1  credit dealers and tax   
collectors in the total product1 ceases 
to be  dealt with as the primary        
question in economics1 as soon as we    
liberate  our minds from a              
pre-occupation which from the outset    
necessarily makes  that science a       
squabble rather than a science1 and     
begin our attack  upon the subject with 
a survey of the machinery and other     
productive  material required in order  
that the staple needs of mankind should 
be satisfied1 if we go on from that to  
consider the way in which all  this     
material and machinery can be worked and
 the product distributed  with the least
 labour and the greatest possible       
satisfaction1 we  shift our treatment of
 economic questions towards standards by
 which  all current methods of          
exploitation1 employment and finance can
 be  judged rather than wrangle over4   
,we can dismiss the question of the     
claims of this sort of participant or   
that for later and subordinate          

consideration1 and view each variety of 
human assistance in the general  effort 
entirely from the standpoint of what    
makes that assistance least  onerous and
 most effective4    ,the germs of such  
really scientific economics exist       
already in the  study of industrial     
organisation and industrial psychology4 
,as the  science of industrial          
psychology in particular develops1 we   
shall  find all this discussion of      
ownership1 profit1 wages1 finance and   
accumulation1 which has been treated    
hitherto as the primary issues  of      
economics1 falling into place under the 
larger enquiry of what  conventions in  
these matters1 what system of money and 
what conceptions  of property1 yield the
 greatest stimulus and the least        
friction in that  world-wide system of  
co-operation which must constitute the  
general  economic basis to the          
activities of a unified mankind4        
,manifestly the supreme direction of the
 complex of human economic  activities  

in such a world must centre upon a      
bureau of information and  advice1 which
 will take account of all the resources 
of the planet1  estimate current needs1 
apportion productive activities and     
control  distribution4 ,the             
topographical and geological surveys of 
modern  civilised communities1 their    
government maps1 their periodic issue   
of agricultural and industrial          
statistics1 are the first crude and     
inco-ordinated beginnings of such an    
economic world-intelligence4 ,in  the   
propaganda work of ,david ,lubin1 a     
pioneer whom mankind must not  forget1  
and in his ,international ,institute of 
,agriculture in ,rome1  there were the  
beginnings of an impartial review month 
by month and  year by year of world     
production1 world needs and world       
transport4 ,such  a great central       
organisation of economic science would  
necessarily  produce direction2 it would
 indicate what had best be done here1   
there  and everywhere1 solve general    

tangles1 examine1 approve and initiate  
fresh methods and arrange the           
transitional process from old to new4   
,it would not be an organisation of     
will1 imposing its will upon a          
reluctant or recalcitrant race2 it would
 be a direction1 just as a map  is a    
direction4 ,a map imposes no will on    
anyone1 breaks no one in to  its        
8policy40 ,and yet we obey our maps4    
,the will to have the map1 full1        
accurate and up-to-date and the         
determination to have its indications   
respected1 would have to pervade  the   
whole community4 ,to nourish and sustain
 that will must be the task  not of any 
particular social or economic division  
of the community but  of the whole body 
of religious-minded people in that      
community4 ,the  organisation and       
preservation of that power of will is   
the primary  undertaking1 therefore1 of 
a world revolution aiming at universal  
peace1 welfare and happy activity4      
,the older and still prevalent          

conception of government is bullying1   
is the breaking-in and subjugation of   
the 8subject10 to the ,god1 or  ,king1  
or ,lords of the community4             
,will-bending1 the overcoming of the    
recalcitrant junior and inferior1 was an
 essential process in the  establishment
 of primitive societies1 and its        
tradition still rules our  education and
 law4 ,no doubt there must be a         
necessary accommodation of  the normal  
human will to every form of society2 no 
man is immaculately  virtuous2 but      
compulsion and restraint are the        
friction of the social  machine and1    
other things being equal1 the less      
compulsive social  arrangements are1 the
 more willingly1 naturally and easily   
they are  accepted1 the less wasteful of
 moral effort and the happier that      
community will be4 ,the ideal state1    
other things being equal1 is  the state 
with the fewest possible number of will 
fights and will  suppressions4 ,this    
must be a primary consideration in      

determining the  economic1 biological   
and mental organisation of the world    
community at  which we aim4    ,we have 
advanced the opinion that the control of
 population pressure  is practicable    
without any violent conflict with 8human
 nature10 that  given a proper          
atmosphere of knowledge and intention1  
there need be  far less suppression of  
will in relation to production than     
prevails  to-day4 ,in the same way1 it  
is possible that the general economic   
life  of mankind may be made universally
 satisfactory1 that there may be an     
abundance out of all comparison greater 
than the existing supply of  things     
necessary for human well being1 freedom 
and activity1 with not  merely not more 
but infinitely less subjugation and     
enslavement than  now occurs4 ,man is   
still but half born out of the blind    
struggle for  existence and his nature  
still partakes of the infinite          
wastefulness of  his mother ,nature4 ,he
 has still to learn how to price the    

commodities  he covets in terms of human
 life4 ,he is indeed only beginning to  
realise that as something to be learnt4 
,he wastes will and human  possibility  
extravagantly in his current economic   
methods4    ,we know nowadays that the  
nineteenth century expended a great     
wealth  of intelligence upon a barren   
controversy between ,individualism and  
,socialism4 ,they were treated as       
mutually exclusive alternatives instead 
of being questions of degree4 ,human    
society has been1 is and always  must   
be1 an intricate system of adjustments  
between unconditional  liberty and the  
disciplines and subordinations of       
co-operative  enterprise4 ,affairs do   
not move simply from a more             
individualist  to a more socialist state
 or vice versa2 there may be a release  
of  individual initiative going on here 
and standardisation or restraint        
increasing there4 ,personal property    
never can be socially guaranteed  and   
yet unlimited in action and extent as   

the extremer individualists  desired1   
nor can it be 8abolished0 as the        
extremer socialists  proposed4 ,property
 is not robbery1 as ,proudhon asserted2 
it is the  protection of things against 
promiscuous and mainly wasteful use4 ,in
  some cases it may restrict or forbid a
 use of things that would be  generally 
advantageous1 and it may be and is      
frequently unfair in its  assignment of 
initiative1 but the remedy for that is  
not an abolition  but a revision of     
property4 ,in the concrete it is a form 
necessary  for liberty of action upon   
material1 while abstracted as money1    
that  liquidated generalised form of    
property1 it is a ticket for individual 
liberty of movement and individual      
choice of reward4    ,the economic      
history of mankind is a history of the  
operation of  the idea of property2 it  
relates the conflict of the unlimited   
acquisitiveness of egoistic individuals 
against the resentment of the           
disinherited and unsuccessful and the   

far less effective consciousness  of a  
general welfare4 ,money grew out of a   
system of abstracting  conventions and  
has been subjected to a great variety of
 restrictions1  monopolisations and     
regulations4 ,it has never been an      
altogether  logical device and it has   
permitted the most extensive and complex
  developments of credit1 debt and      
dispossession4 ,all these developments  
have brought with them characteristic   
forms of misuse and corruption4  ,the   
story is intricate and the tangle of    
relationships of dependence1  of        
pressure1 of interception1 of           
misdirected services1 crippling         
embarrassments and crushing obligations 
in which we live to-day admits  of no   
such simple and general solutions as    
many exponents of socialism1  for       
example1 seem to consider possible4     
,but the thought and investigations of  
the past century or so have made  it    
clear that a classification of property 
according to the nature of  the rights  

exercisable and according to the range  
of ownership involved  must be the basis
 of any system of social justice in the 
future4    ,certain things1 the ocean1  
the air1 rare wild animals1 must be the 
collective property of all mankind and  
cannot be altogether safe until  they   
are so regarded1 and until some concrete
 body exists to exercise  these         
proprietary rights4 ,whatever collective
 control exists must  protect these     
universal properties1 the sea from      
derelicts1 the strange  shy things of   
the wild from extermination by the      
hunter and the foolish  collector4 ,the 
extinction of many beautiful creatures  
is one of the  penalties our world is   
paying for its sluggishness in          
developing a  collective common rule4   
,and there are many staple things and   
general  needs that now also demand a   
unified control in the common interests4
  ,the raw material of the earth should 
be for all1 not to be monopolised  by   
any acquisitive individual or           

acquisitive sovereign state1 and not  to
 be withheld from exploitation for the  
general benefit by any chance  claims to
 territorial priority of this or that   
backward or bargaining  person or tribe4
    ,in the past1 most of these         
universal concerns have had to be left  
to  the competitive enterprise of       
profit-seeking individuals because there
  were as yet no collectivities         
organised to the pitch of ability needed
  to develop and control these concerns1
 but surely nobody in his senses        
believes that the supply and            
distribution of staple commodities about
  the earth by irresponsible persons and
 companies working entirely for         
monetary gain1 is the best possible     
method from the point of view of  the   
race as a whole4 ,the land of the earth1
 all utilisable natural  products1 have 
fallen very largely under the rules and 
usages of  personal property because    
that was the only recognised and        
practicable  form of administrative     

proprietorship in the past4 ,the        
development  both of extensive          
proprietary companies and of government 
departments  with economic functions has
 been a matter of the last few          
centuries1  the development that is to  
say of communal1 more or less impersonal
  ownership1 and it is only through     
these developments that the idea of     
organised collectivity of proprietorship
 has become credible4    ,even in quite 
modern state enterprises there is a     
tendency to recall  the rle of the      
vigilant1 jealous and primitive personal
 proprietor in  the fiction of ownership
 by ,his ,majesty the ,king4 ,in ,great 
,britain1  for example1 ,george ,rex is 
still dimly supposed to hover over the  
,postmaster ,general of his ,post       
,office1 approve1 disapprove and call   
him to account4 ,but the ,postal ,union 
of the world which steers a  registered 
letter from ,chile to ,norway or from   
,ireland to ,pekin is  almost completely
 divorced from the convention of an     

individual owner4  ,it works2 it is     
criticised without awe or malice4       
,except for the  stealing and steaming  
of letters by the political police of   
various  countries1 it works fairly     
well4 ,and the only force behind it to  
keep  it working well is the conscious  
common sense of mankind4    ,but when we
 have stipulated for the replacement of 
individual private  ownership by more   
highly organised forms of collective    
ownership1  subject to free criticism   
and responsible to the whole republic of
  mankind1 in the general control of sea
 and land1 in the getting1  preparation 
and distribution of staple products and 
in transport1  we have really named all 
the possible generalisations of concrete
  ownership that the most socialistic of
 contemporaries will be disposed  to    
demand4 ,and if we add to that the      
necessary maintenance of a money  system
 by a central world authority upon a    
basis that will make  money keep faith  
with the worker who earns it1 and       

represent from  first to last for him   
the value in staple commodities he was  
given  to understand it was to have1 and
 if we conceive credit adequately       
controlled in the general interest by a 
socialised world banking  organisation1 
we shall have defined the entire realm  
from which  individual property and     
unrestricted individual enterprise have 
been  excluded4 ,beyond that1 the       
science of social psychology will       
probably  assure us that the best work  
will be done for the world by           
individuals  free to exploit their      
abilities as they wish4 ,if the         
individual  land-owner or mineral-owner 
disappears altogether from the world1 he
  will probably be replaced over large  
areas by tenants with considerable      
security of tenure1 by householders and 
by licensees under collective           
proprietors4 ,it will be the practice1  
the recognised best course1  to allow   
the cultivator to profit as fully as    
possible by his own  individual         

productivity and to leave the           
householder to fashion his  house and   
garden after his own desire4    ,such in
 the very broadest terms is the         
character of the world  commonweal      
towards which the modern imagination is 
moving1 so far as  its direction and    
economic life are concerned4 ,the       
organisation of  collective bodies      
capable of exercising these wider       
proprietorships  which cannot be        
properly used in the common interest by 
uncorrelated  individual owners1 is the 
positive practical problem before the   
intelligent portion of mankind to-day4  
,the nature of such collective  bodies  
is still a series of open questions1    
even upon such points as  whether they  
will be elected bodies or groups        
deriving their authority  from other    
sanctions4 ,their scope and methods of  
operation1 their  relations to one      
another and to the central bureau of    
intelligence1  remain also to be        
defined4 ,but before we conclude this   

essay we may be  able to find precisions
 for at least the beginning of such     
definition4    ,nineteenth-century      
socialism in its various forms1         
including the  indurated formul of      
communism1 has been a series of projects
 for  the establishment of such         
collective controls1 for the most part  
very sketchy projects from which the    
necessary factor of a sound             
psychological analysis was almost       
completely wanting4 ,primarily          
movements of protest and revolt against 
the blazing injustices arising  out of  
the selfishly individualistic           
exploitation of the new and  more       
productive technical and financial      
methods of the eighteenth  and          
nineteenth centuries1 they have been apt
 to go beyond the limits  of reasonable 
socialisation in their demands and to   
minimise absurdly  the difficulties and 
dangers of collective control4          
,indignation and  impatience were their 
ruling moods and if they constructed    

little they  exposed much4 ,we are      
better able to measure the magnitude of 
the task  before us because of the      
clearances and lessons achieved by these
  pioneer movements4          ,chapter  
,,vii    ,,no ,,stable ,,utopia ,,is    
,,contemplated      ,this unified world 
towards which the efforts of the        
religious minority  would direct human  
activities cannot be pictured for the   
reader as  any static and stereotyped   
spectacle of happiness4 ,indeed one may 
doubt if such a thing as happiness is   
possible without steadily  changing     
conditions involving continually        
enlarging and exhilarating              
opportunities4 ,mankind released from   
the pressure of population1 the  waste  
of warfare and the private              
monopolisation of the sources of        
wealth1 will face the universe with a   
great and increasing surplus of  will   
and energy4 ,change and novelty will be 
the order of life2 each day  will differ
 from its predecessor in its greater    

amplitude of interest4  ,life which was 
once routine1 endurance and mischance1  
will become  adventure and discovery4   
,it will no longer be 8the old1 old     
story40    ,we have still barely emerged
 from among the animals in their        
struggle for existence4 ,we live only in
 the early dawn of human                
self-consciousness and in the first     
awakening of the spirit of mastery4  ,we
 believe that the persistent exploration
 of our outward and inward  worlds by   
scientific and artistic endeavour will  
lead to developments  of power and      
activity upon which at present we can   
set no limits nor  give any certain     
form4    ,our antagonists are confusion 
of mind1 want of courage1 want of       
curiosity and want of imagination1      
indolence and spendthrift egotism4      
,these are the enemies against which the
 ,open ,conspiracy arrays itself2  these
 are the jailers of human freedom and   
achievement4          ,chapter ,,viii   
,,the ,,open ,,conspiracy ,,must ,,be   

,,heterogeneous      ,this open and     
declared intention of establishing a    
world order out  of the present         
patchwork of particularist governments1 
of effacing  the militarist conceptions 
that have hitherto given governments    
their typical form1 and of removing     
credit and the broad fundamental        
processes of economic life out of reach 
of private profit-seeking  and          
individual monopolisation1 which is the 
substance of this ,open  ,conspiracy to 
which the modern religious mind must    
necessarily address  its practical      
activities1 cannot fail to arouse       
enormous opposition4  ,it is not a      
creative effort in a clear field2 it is 
a creative effort  that can hardly stir 
without attacking established things4   
,it is  the repudiation of drift1 of    
8leaving things alone40 ,it criticises  
everything in human life from top to    
bottom and finds everything not  good   
enough4 ,it strikes at the universal    
human desire to feel that  things are   

8all right40    ,one might conclude1 and
 it would be a hasty unsound conclusion1
 that  the only people to whom we could 
look for sympathy and any passionate    
energy in forwarding the revolutionary  
change would be the unhappy1 the        
discontented1 the dispossessed and the  
defeated in life's struggle4  ,this idea
 lies at the root of the class-war      
dogmas of the ,marxists1  and it rests  
on an entirely crude conception of human
 nature4 ,the  successful minority is   
supposed to have no effective motive but
 a  desire to retain and intensify its  
advantages4 ,a quite imaginary          
solidarity to that end is attributed to 
it1 a preposterous base class  activity4
 ,on the other hand1 the unsuccessful   
mass--8proletariat0--is  supposed to be 
capable of a clear apprehension of its  
disadvantages1  and the more it is      
impoverished and embittered1 the nearer 
draws its  uprising1 its constructive   
8dictatorship0 and the ,millennium4     
,no doubt a considerable amount of truth

 is to be found distorted  in this      
theory of the communist revolution4     
,human beings1 like  other animals1 are 
disposed to remain where their          
circumstances are  tolerable and to want
 change when they are uncomfortable1 and
 so a  great proportion of the people   
who are 8well off0 want little or no    
change in present conditions1           
particularly those who are too dull  to 
be bored by an unprogressive life--and a
 great proportion of  those who actually
 feel the inconveniences of straitened  
means and  population pressure1 do4 ,but
 much vaster masses of the rank and file
  of humanity are accustomed to         
inferiority and dispossession1 they do  
not feel these things to the extent even
 of desiring change1 or given  so much  
apprehension they still fear change more
 than they dislike  their disadvantages4
 ,moreover1 those who are sufficiently  
distressed  to realise that 8something  
ought to be done about it0 are much more
  disposed to childish and threatening  

demands upon heaven and the  governments
 for redress and vindictive and punitive
 action against the  envied fortunate   
with whom they happen to be in immediate
 contact1  than to any reaction towards 
such complex1 tentative disciplined     
constructive work as alone can better   
the lot of mankind4 ,in practice        
,marxism is found to work out in a ready
 resort to malignantly  destructive     
activities and to be so uncreative as to
 be practically  impotent in the face of
 material difficulties4 ,in ,russia     
where--in and  about the urban centres  
at least--,marxism has been put to the  
test1 the  doctrine of the ,workers'    
,republic remains as a unifying cant1 a 
test of  orthodoxy of as little         
practical significance there as the     
communism  of ,jesus and communion with 
,christ in ,christendom1 while beneath  
this  creed a small oligarchy which has 
attained power by its profession does   
its obstinate best1 much hampered by the
 suspicion and hostility of the         

,western financiers and politicians1 to 
carry on a series of interesting  and   
varyingly successful experiments in the 
socialisation of economic  life4 ,each  
year shows more and more clearly that   
,marxism and ,communism  are divagations
 from the path of human progress and    
that the line of  advance must follow a 
course more intricate and less          
flattering to the  common impulses of   
our nature4    ,the one main strand of  
truth in the theory of social           
development woven  by ,marx and ,engels 
is that successful1 comfortable people  
are disposed  to dislike1 obstruct and  
even resist actively any substantial    
changes  in the current patchwork of    
arrangements1 however great the ultimate
  dangers of that patchwork may be or   
the privations and sufferings of  other 
people involved in it4 ,the one main    
strand of error in that  theory is the  
facile assumption that the people at a  
disadvantage will  be stirred to        
anything more than chaotic and          

destructive expressions of  resentment4 
,if now we reject the error and accept  
the truth1 we lose  the delusive comfort
 of belief in that magic giant1 the     
,proletariat1  who will dictate1        
arrange1 restore and create1 but we     
clear the way  for the recognition of an
 lite of intelligent religious-minded   
people  scattered through the whole     
community1 and for a study of the method
  of making this creative element       
effective in human affairs against the  
massive oppositions of selfishness and  
unimaginative self-protective           
conservatism4    ,now certain classes of
 people such as thugs and burglars seem 
to  be harmful to society without a     
redeeming point about them1 and  others 
such as race-course bookmakers seem to  
provide the minimum of  distraction and 
entertainment with a maximum of         
mischief4 ,wilful  idlers are a mere    
burthen on the community4 ,other social 
classes  again1 professional soldiers   
for example1 have a certain traditional 

honourableness which disguises the      
essentially parasitic relationship  of  
their services to the developing modern 
community4 ,armies and  armaments are   
cancers produced by the malignant       
development of the  patriotic virus     
under modern conditions of exaggeration 
and mass  suggestion4 ,but since there  
are armies prepared to act coercively in
  the world to-day1 it is necessary that
 the ,open ,conspiracy should  contain  
within itself the competence to resist  
military coercion and  combat and       
destroy armies that stand in the way of 
its emergence4  ,possibly the first two 
types here instanced may be condemned as
 classes  and excluded as classes from  
any participation in the organised      
effort  to recast the world1 but quite  
obviously the soldier cannot4 ,the world
  commonweal will need its own          
scientific methods of prevention so long
  as there are people running about the 
planet with flags and uniforms  and     
weapons1 offering violence to their     

fellow men and interfering with  the    
free movements of commodities in the    
name of national sovereignty4    ,and   
when we come to the general functioning 
classes1 landowners1  industrial        
organisers1 bankers and so forth1 who   
control the present  system such as it  
is1 it should be still plainer that it  
is very  largely from the ranks of these
 classes and from their stores of       
experience and traditions of method1    
that the directive forces of the  new   
order must emerge4 ,the ,open           
,conspiracy can have nothing to do with 
the heresy that the path of human       
progress lies through an extensive      
class war4    ,let us consider how it   
stands to such a complex of activities1 
usages1 accumulations1 advantages as    
constitutes the banking world4  ,there  
are no doubt many bankers and many      
practices in banking which  make for    
personal or group advantage to the      
general detriment4 ,they  forestall1    
monopolise1 constrain and extort and so 

increase their  riches4 ,and another    
large part of that banking world follows
 routine  and establishes usage2 it is  
carrying on and keeping things going1   
and it is neither inimical nor conducive
 to the development of a  progressive   
world organisation of finance4 ,but     
there remains a residuum  of original   
and intelligent people in banking or    
associated with  banking or mentally    
interested in banking1 who do realise   
that banking  plays a very important and
 interesting part in the world's        
affairs1 who  are curious about their   
own intricate function and disposed     
towards  a scientific investigation of  
its origins1 conditions and future      
possibilities4 ,such types move         
naturally towards the ,open ,conspiracy4
  ,their enquiries carry them inevitably
 outside the bankers' habitual  field to
 an examination of the nature1 drift and
 destiny of the entire  human economic  
process4    ,now the theme of the       
preceding paragraph might be repeated   

with  variations through a score of     
paragraphs in which appropriate         
modifications would adapt it to the     
industrial organiser1 the merchant  and 
organiser of transport1 the advertiser1 
the retail distributor1  the            
agriculturalist1 the engineer1 the      
builder1 the economic chemist1  and a   
number of other types functional to the 
contemporary community4  ,in all we     
should distinguish a base and harmful   
section1 a mediocre  section following  
established usage and an active1        
progressive section  to whom we turn    
naturally for developments leading      
towards the  progressive world          
commonweal of our desires4 ,and our     
analysis might  penetrate further than  
separation into types of individuals4   
,in nearly  every individual instance we
 should find a mixed composition1 a     
human  being of fluctuating moods and   
confused purposes1 sometimes base1      
sometimes drifting with the tide and    
sometimes alert and intellectually  and 

morally quickened4 ,the ,open           
,conspiracy must be content to take a   
fraction of a man1 as it appeals to     
fractions of many classes1 if it  cannot
 get him altogether4    ,this idea of   
drawing together a proportion of all or 
nearly all the  functional classes in   
contemporary communities in order to    
weave the  beginnings of a world        
community out of their selection1 is a  
fairly  obvious one--and yet it has     
still to win practical recognition4 ,man
  is a morbidly gregarious and partisan 
creature2 he is deep in his  immediate  
struggles2 the industrialist is best    
equipped to criticise  his fellow       
industrialist1 but he finds the root of 
all evil in the  banker2 the wages      
worker shifts the blame for all social  
wrongs on the  8employing class40 ,there
 is an element of exasperation in most  
economic  and social reactions and there
 is hardly a reforming or revolutionary 
movement in history which is not        
essentially an indiscriminate attack  of

 one functioning class or type upon     
another1 on the assumption that  the    
attacked class is entirely to blame for 
the clash and that the  attacking class 
is self-sufficient in the commonweal and
 can dispense  with its annoying        
collaborator4 ,a considerable element of
 justice  enters into most such         
recriminations4 ,but the ,open          
,conspiracy cannot  avail itself of     
these class animosities for its driving 
force4 ,it  can have therefore no       
uniform method of approach4 ,for each   
class it  has a conception of           
modification and development1 and each  
class it  approaches therefore at a     
distinctive angle4 ,some classes no     
doubt it  would supersede altogether2   
others--the scientific investigator for 
example--it must regard as almost wholly
 good and seek only to expand  and      
empower1 but it can no more adopt the   
prejudices and extravagances  of any    
particular class as its basis than it   
can adopt the claims of  any existing   

state or empire4    ,when it is clearly 
understood that the binding links of the
 ,open  ,conspiracy we have in mind are 
certain broad general ideas and         
that--except perhaps in the case of     
scientific workers--we have no  current 
set of attitudes of mind and habits of  
activity which we can  turn over        
directly and unmodified to the service  
of the conspiracy1 we  are in a position
 to realise that the movement we        
contemplate must from  the outset be    
diversified in its traditions and       
elements and various  in its methods4   
,it must fight upon several fronts and  
with many sorts  of equipment4 ,it will 
have a common spirit but it is quite    
conceivable  that between many of its   
contributory factors there may be very  
wide  gaps in understanding and         
sympathy4          ,chapter ,,ix        
,,forces ,,and ,,resistances ,,in ,,the 
,,great ,,modern ,,communities ,,now    
,,prevalent  ,,which ,,will ,,be        
,,antagonistic ,,to ,,the ,,open        

,,conspiracy      ,we have now stated   
broadly but plainly the idea of the     
world commonweal  which is the objective
 of the ,open ,conspiracy1 and we have  
made a  preliminary examination of the  
composition of the movement1 showing    
that it must be necessarily not a class 
development but a convergence  of many  
different sorts of people upon this     
common idea4 ,its opening  task must be 
the elaboration1 exposition and         
propaganda of this common  idea1 and1   
arising out of this1 the incomparably   
vaster task of its  realisation4        
,these are the tasks not to be done in  
vacuo2 they have  to be done in a dense 
world of crowding1 incessant1           
passionate1  unco-ordinated activities1 
the world of market and newspaper1      
seed-time  and harvest1 births1 deaths1 
jails1 hospitals1 riots1 barracks and   
army manuvres1 false prophets and royal 
processions1 games and shows1  fire1    
storm1 pestilence1 earthquake1 war4     
,every day and every hour  things will  

be happening to help or thwart1         
stimulate or undermine1  obstruct or    
defeat the creative effort to set up the
 world commonweal4    ,before we go on  
to discuss the selection and            
organisation of these  heterogeneous and
 mainly religious impulses upon which we
 rest our  hopes of a greater life for  
mankind1 before we plan how these       
impulses  may be got together into a    
system of co-ordinated activities1 it   
will  be well to review the main        
antagonistic forces with which1 from its
  very inception1 the ,open ,conspiracy 
will be--is now--in conflict4    ,to    
begin with1 we will consider these      
forces as they present themselves  in   
the highly developed ,western ,european 
,states of to-day and in their          
,american derivatives1 derivatives which
 in spite of the fact that  in most     
cases they have far outgrown their lands
 of origin1 still  owe a large part of  
their social habits and political       
conceptions to  ,europe4 ,all these     

,states touch upon the ,atlantic or its 
contributory  seas2 they have all grown 
to their present form since the         
discovery  of ,america2 they have a     
common association rooting in the idea  
of  ,christendom and a generic          
resemblance of method4 ,they present    
what is  known in current parlance as   
the ,capitalist system1 but it will     
relieve  us of a considerable load of   
disputatious matter if we call them here
  simply the 8,atlantic0 civilisations  
and communities4    ,the consideration  
of these ,atlantic civilisations in     
relation to  the coming world           
civilisation will suffice for the       
present chapter4  ,afterwards we will   
consider the modification of the forces 
antagonistic  to the ,open ,conspiracy  
as they display themselves beyond the   
formal  confines of these now dominant  
,states in the world's affairs1 in the  
social systems weakened and injured by  
their expansion and among such  less    
highly organised communities as still   

survive from man's savage  and barbaric 
past4    ,the ,open ,conspiracy is not  
necessarily antagonistic to any existing
  government4 ,the ,open ,conspiracy is 
a creative organising movement and  not 
an anarchistic one4 ,it does not want to
 destroy existing controls  and forms of
 human association1 but either to       
supersede or amalgamate  them into a    
common world directorate4 ,if           
constitutions1 parliaments  and kings   
can be dealt with as provisional        
institutions1 trustees for  the coming  
of age of the world commonweal1 and in  
so far as they are  conducted in that   
spirit1 the ,open ,conspiracy makes no  
attack upon them4    ,but most          
governments will not set about their    
business as in any  way provisional1    
they and their supporters insist upon a 
reverence  and obedience which repudiate
 any possibility of supersession4 ,what 
should be an instrument becomes a       
divinity4 ,in nearly every country  of  
the world there is1 in deference to the 

pretended necessities of a  possible    
war1 a vast degrading and dangerous     
cultivation of loyalty  and mechanical  
subservience to flags1 uniforms1        
presidents and kings4  ,a president or  
king who does his appointed work well   
and righteously  is entitled to as much 
subservience as a bricklayer who does   
his work  well and righteously and to no
 more1 but instead there is a sustained 
endeavour to give him the privilege of  
an idol above criticism or  reproach1   
and the organised worship of flags has  
become--with changed  conditions of     
intercourse and warfare--an entirely    
evil misdirection  of the gregarious    
impulses of our race4 ,emotion and      
sentimentality  are evoked in the cause 
of disciplines and co-operations that   
could  quite easily be sustained and    
that are better sustained by rational   
conviction4    ,the ,open ,conspiracy is
 necessarily opposed to all such        
implacable  loyalties and still more so 
to the aggressive assertion and         

propaganda  of such loyalties4 ,when    
these things take the form of           
suppressing  reasonable criticism and   
forbidding even the suggestion of other 
forms  of government they become plainly
 antagonists to any comprehensive       
project for human welfare4 ,they become 
manifestly1 from the wider point  of    
view1 seditious1 and loyalty to 8king   
and country0 passes into  plain treason 
to mankind4 ,almost everywhere at       
present1 educational  activities        
organise barriers in the path of        
progress and there are  only the        
feeblest attempts at any                
counter-education that will break up    
these barriers4 ,there is little or no  
effort to restrain the aggressive       
nationalist when he waves his flag      
against the welfare of our race  or to  
protect the children of the world from  
the infection of his  enthusiasms4 ,and 
this last is as true now of the         
,american system as it  is of any       
,european ,state4    ,in the great mass 

of the modern community there is little 
more than  a favourable acquiescence in 
patriotic ideas and in the worship of   
patriotic symbols1 and that is based    
largely on such training4 ,these  things
 are not necessary things for the       
generality to-day4 ,a change  of mental 
direction would be possible for the     
majority of people now  without any     
violent disorganisation of their        
intimate lives or any  serious social or
 economic readjustments for them4       
,mental infection  in such cases could  
be countered by mental sanitation4 ,a   
majority of  people in ,europe and a    
still larger majority in the ,united    
,states  and the other ,american        
,republics could become citizens of the 
world  without any serious hindrance to 
their present occupations1 and with     
incalculably vast increase of their     
present security4    ,but there remains 
a net of special classes in every       
community1 from  kings to custom-house  
officers1 far more deeply involved in   

patriotism  because it is their trade   
and their source of honour1 and prepared
 in  consequence with an instinctive    
resistance to any re-orientation of     
ideas towards a broader outlook4 ,in the
 case of such people no mental          
sanitation is possible without dangerous
 and alarming changes in their  way of  
living4 ,for the majority of these      
patriots by mtier1 the  ,open           
,conspiracy unlocks the gates leading   
from a paradise of eminence1  respect   
and privilege1 and motions them towards 
an outer wilderness  which does not     
present even the faintest promise of a  
congenial1  distinguished life for them4
 ,nearly everything in human nature will
  dispose them to turn away from these  
gates which open towards the world      
peace1 to bang-to and lock them again if
 they can1 and to grow thickets  as     
speedily as possible to conceal them and
 get them forgotten4 ,the  suggestion of
 being trustees in a transition will    
seem to most of such  people only the   

camouflage of an ultimate degradation4  
,from such classes of patriots by mtier1
 it is manifest that the  ,open         
,conspiracy can expect only opposition4 
,it may detach individuals  from them1  
but only by depriving them of their     
essential class  loyalties and          
characteristics4 ,the class as a class  
will remain none  the less antagonistic4
 ,about royal courts and presidential   
residences1  in diplomatic1 consular1   
military and naval circles and wherever 
people  wear titles and uniforms and    
enjoy pride and precedences based on    
existing political institutions1 there  
will be the completest general          
inability to grasp the need for the     
,open ,conspiracy4 ,these people  and   
their womankind1 their friends and      
connections1 their servants  and        
dependants are fortified by             
time-honoured traditions of social      
usage1 of sentiment and romantic        
prestige4 ,they will insist that they   
are reality and ,cosmopolis a dream4    

,only individuals of exceptional        
imaginative liveliness1 rare            
intellectual power and innate moral     
force  can be expected to break away    
from the anti-progressive habits such   
class conditions impose upon them4      
,this tangle of traditions and          
loyalties1 of interested trades and     
professions1 of privileged classes and  
official patriots1 this complex  of     
human beings embodying very easy and    
natural and time-honoured  ideas of     
eternal national separation and unending
 international and  class conflict1 is  
the main objective of the ,open         
,conspiracy in its  opening phase4 ,this
 tangle must be disentangled as the     
,open ,conspiracy  advances1 and until  
it is largely disentangled and cleared  
up that ,open  ,conspiracy cannot become
 anything very much more than a desire  
and a  project4    ,the tangle of       
8necessary patriots0 as one may call    
them is different  in its nature1 less  
intricate and extensive proportionally  

in the  ,united ,states and the ,states 
of ,latin ,america than it is in the old
  ,european communities1 but it is none 
the less virulent in its action  on that
 account4 ,it is only recently that     
military and naval services  have become
 important factors in ,american social  
life1 and the really  vitalising contact
 of the interested patriot and the      
,state has hitherto  centred mainly upon
 the custom-house and the concession4   
,instead of a  mellow and romantic      
loyalty to 8king and country0 the       
,american thinks  simply of ,america and
 his flag4    ,american independence    
began as a resistance to exploitation   
from  overseas4 ,even when political and
 fiscal freedom were won1 there was  a  
long phase of industrial and financial  
dependence4 ,the ,american's  habits of 
mind1 in spite of his recent realisation
 of the enormous  power and relative    
prosperity of the ,united ,states and of
 the expanding  possibilities of their  
,spanish and ,portuguese-speaking       

neighbours1 are  still largely          
self-protective against a now imaginary 
,european peril4  ,for the first three  
quarters of the nineteenth century the  
people of  the ,american continent and  
particularly the people of the ,united  
,states  felt the industrial and        
financial ascendency of ,great ,britain 
and had  a reasonable fear of ,european 
attacks upon their continent4 ,a growing
  tide of immigrants of uncertain       
sympathy threatened their dearest       
habits4 ,flag worship was imposed       
primarily as a repudiation of ,europe4  
,europe no longer looms over ,america   
with overpowering intimations1          
,american industries no longer have any 
practical justification for  protection1
 ,american finance would be happier     
without it1 but the  patriotic interests
 are so established now that they go on 
and will go  on4    ,we have said that  
the complex of classes in any country   
interested  in the current method of    
government is sustained by traditions   

and  impelled by its nature and         
conditions to protect itself against    
exploratory criticism4 ,it is therefore 
unable to escape from the forms  of     
competitive and militant nationalism in 
which it was evolved4 ,it  cannot       
without grave danger of enfeeblement1   
change any such innate  form4 ,so that  
while parallel complexes of patriotic   
classes are found  in greater or less   
intricacy grouped about the flags and   
governments  of most existing states1   
these complexes are by their nature     
obliged  to remain separate1 nationalist
 and mutually antagonistic4 ,you cannot 
expect a world union of soldiers or     
diplomatists4 ,their existence  and     
nature depend upon the idea that        
national separation is real  and        
incurable1 and that war1 in the long    
run1 is unavoidable4 ,their  conceptions
 of loyalty involve an antagonism to all
 foreigners1 even  to foreigners of     
exactly the same types as themselves1   
and make for a  continual campaign of   

annoyances1 suspicions and              
precautions--together  with a general   
propaganda1 affecting all other classes1
 of the  necessity of an international  
antagonism--that creeps persistently    
towards war4    ,but while the methods  
of provoking war employed by the        
patriotic  classes are traditional1     
modern science has made a new and       
enormously  more powerful thing of      
warfare and1 as the ,great ,war showed1 
even the  most conservative generals on 
both sides are unable to prevent the    
gigantic interventions of the           
mechanician and the chemist4 ,so that a 
situation is brought about in which the 
militarist element is unable to  fight  
without the support of the modern       
industrial organisation and the         
acquiescence of the great mass of       
people4 ,we are confronted therefore  at
 the present time with the paradoxical  
situation that a patriotic  tradition   
sustains in power and authority warlike 
classes who are quite  incapable of     

carrying on war4 ,the other classes to  
which they must go  for support when the
 disaster of war is actually achieved   
are classes  developed under peace      
conditions1 which not only have no      
positive  advantage in war1 but must1 as
 a whole1 suffer great dislocation1     
discomfort1 destruction and distress    
from war4 ,it is of primary  importance 
to the formally dominant classes that   
these new social  masses and powers     
should remain under the sway of the old 
social1  sentimental and romantic       
traditions1 and equally important is it 
to the  ,open ,conspiracy that they     
should be released4    ,here we bring   
into consideration another great complex
 of persons1  interests1 traditions--the
 world of education1 the various        
religious  organisations1 and1 beyond   
these1 the ramifying indeterminate world
  of newspapers and other periodicals1  
books1 the drama1 art and all  the      
instruments of presentation and         
suggestion that mould opinion and       

direct action4 ,the sum of the          
operations of this complex will be      
either  to sustain or demolish the old  
nationalist militant ascendency4 ,its   
easiest immediate course is to accept   
it4 ,educational organisations on  that 
account are now largely a conservative  
force in the community2  they are in    
most cases directly controlled by       
authority and bound  officially as well 
as practically to respect current fears 
and  prejudices4 ,it evokes fewer       
difficulties for them if they limit and 
mould rather than release the young4    
,the schoolmaster tends therefore  to   
accept and standardise and stereotype1  
even in the living1  progressive fields 
of science and philosophy4 ,even there  
he is a brake  on the forward movement4 
,it is clear that the ,open ,conspiracy 
must  either continually disturb and    
revivify him or else frankly antagonise 
him4 ,universities also struggle between
 the honourable past on which  their    
prestige rests1 and the need of         

adaptation to a world of enquiry1       
experiment and change4 ,it is an open   
question whether these particular       
organisations of intellectual prestige  
are of any real value in the  living    
world4 ,a modern world planned de novo  
would probably  produce nothing like a  
contemporary ,university4 ,modern       
research1  one may argue1 would be      
stimulated rather than injured by       
complete  detachment from the lingering 
medivalism of such institutions1 their  
entanglement with adolescent education  
and their ancient and contagious        
conceptions of precedence and honour4   
,ordinary religious organisations1      
again1 exist for self-preservation  and 
are prone to follow rather than direct  
the currents of popular  thought4 ,they 
are kept alive indeed by revivalism and 
new departures  which at the outset they
 are apt to resist1 as the ,catholic    
,church  for instance resisted the      
,franciscan awakening1 but their formal 
disposition is conservative4 ,they say  

to religious development1 thus  far and 
no farther4    ,here is school1 college 
and church are activities of thought and
  instruction1 which generally speaking 
drag upon the wheels of progress1  but  
which need not necessarily do so4 ,a    
schoolmaster may be original1           
stimulating and creative1 and if he is  
fortunate and a good fighter he  may    
even achieve considerable worldly       
success2 ,university teachers and       
investigators may strike out upon new   
lines and yet escape destruction  by the
 older dons4 ,universities compete      
against other ,universities at  home and
 abroad and cannot altogether yield to  
the forces of dullness  and             
subservience4 ,they must maintain a     
certain difference from vulgar  opinion 
and a certain repute of intellectual    
virility4    ,as we pass from the more  
organised to the less organised         
intellectual  activities1 we find       
conservative influence declining in     
importance and  a freer play for the    

creative drive4 ,freshness is a primary 
condition  of journalistic1 literary and
 artistic success1 and orthodoxy has    
nothing new to say or do4 ,but the      
desire for freshness may be satisfied   
all too readily by merely extravagant1  
superficial and incoherent  inventions4 
,the influence of the old traditional   
nationalist social and political        
hierarchy is not1 however1 exerted      
exclusively through its control  over   
schools and ,universities4 ,nor is that 
indeed its more powerful  activity4     
,would that it were6 ,there is also a   
direct1 less defined  contact of the old
 order with the nascent powers1 that    
plays a far  more effective part in     
delaying the development of the modern  
world  commonweal4 ,necessarily the old 
order has determined the established    
way of life1 which is at its best large1
 comfortable1 amusing1  respected4 ,it  
possesses all the entrances and exits   
and all the  controls of the established
 daily round4 ,it is able to exact and  

it  does exact1 almost without design1  
many conformities4 ,there can be  no    
very ample social life therefore for    
those who are conspicuously             
dissentient4 ,again the old order has a 
complete provision for the  growth1     
welfare and advancement of its children4
 ,it controls the  founts of honour and 
self-respect2 it provides a mapped-out  
world of  behaviour4 ,the new           
initiatives make their appearance here  
and there  in the form of isolated      
individuals1 here an inventor1 there a  
bold  organiser or a vigorous thinker4  
,apart from his specific work the       
innovating type finds that he must fall 
in with established things  or his      
womenfolk will be ostracised and he will
 be distressed by a  sense of isolation 
even in the midst of successful         
activities4 ,the  more intensely he     
innovates in particular1 the more likely
 is he to be  too busy to seek out      
kindred souls and organise a new social 
life in  general4 ,the new things and   

ideas1 even when they arise abundantly1 
arise scattered and unorganised1 and the
 old order takes them in its  net4      
,america for example--both on its ,latin
 and its ,english-speaking  side--is in 
many ways a triumph of the old order    
over the new4    ,men like ,winwood     
,reade thought that the ,new ,world     
would be indeed a  new world4 ,they     
idealised its apparent emancipations4   
,but as the more  successful of the     
toiling farmers and traders of          
republican ,america  rose one by one to 
affluence1 leisure1 and freedom1 it was 
far more  easy for them to adopt the    
polished and prepared social patterns   
and  usages of ,europe than to work out 
a complete new civilisation in          
accordance with their equalitarian      
professions4 ,yet there remains a gap   
in their adapted 8,society40 ,henry     
,james1 that acute observer of subtle   
social flavours1 has pointed out the    
peculiar headlessness of  social life in
 ,america because of the absence of     

court functions to  8go on0 to and      
justify the assembling and dressing4    
,the social life  has intimated the     
preparation for the ,court without any  
political  justification4 ,in ,europe   
the assimilation of the wealthy         
,european  industrialist and financier  
by the old order has been parallel and  
naturally more logically complete4 ,he  
really does find a court to 8go  on0 to4
 ,his social scheme is still            
undecapitated4    ,in this way the      
complex of classes vitally involved in  
the old militant  nationalist order is  
mightily reinforced by much larger      
masses of  imitative and annexed and    
more or less assimilated rich and active
  people4 ,the great industrialist      
marries the daughter of the marquis and 
has a couple of sons in the ,guards and 
a daughter who is a princess4  ,the     
money of the ,american ,leeds1 fleeing  
from the social futility of  its land of
 origin1 helps bolster up a mischievous 
monarchy in ,greece4  ,the functional   

and private life of the new men are thus
 at war with one  another4 ,the real    
interests of the great industrialist or 
financier lie  in cosmopolitan          
organisation and the material           
development of the world  commonweal1   
but his womenfolk pin flags all over him
 and his sons are  prepared to sacrifice
 themselves and all his business        
creations1 for  the sake of trite       
splendours and ,ruritanian romance4     
,but just so far as the great business  
organiser is capable and  creative1 so  
far is he likely to realise and resent  
the price in  frustration that the old  
order obliges him to pay for amusement1 
social  interest and domestic peace and 
comfort4 ,the ,open ,conspiracy         
threatens  him with no effacement2 it   
may even appear with an air of release4 
,if  he had women who were interested in
 his business affairs instead of  women 
who had to be amused1 and if he realised
 in time the practical1  intellectual   
and moral kidnapping of his sons and    

daughters by the old  order that goes   
on1 he might pass quite easily from     
acquiescence to  antagonism4 ,but in    
this respect he cannot act              
single-handed4 ,this is  a social and   
not an individual operation4 ,the ,open 
,conspiracy1 it is  clear1 must include 
in its activities a great fight for the 
souls of  economically functional       
people4 ,it must carve out a ,society of
 its own  from ,society4 ,only by the   
creation of a new and better social life
 can  it resist the many advantages and 
attractions of the old4    ,this        
constant gravitation back to traditional
 uses on the part of  what might become 
new social types applies not merely to  
big people  but to such small people as 
are really functional in the modern     
economic scheme4 ,they have no social   
life adapted to their new  economic     
relationships1 and they are forced back 
upon the methods of  behaviour          
established for what were roughly their 
analogues in the  old order of things4  

,the various sorts of managers and      
foremen in big  modern concerns1 for    
example1 carry on ways of living they   
have taken  ready made from the         
stewards1 tradesmen1 tenantry and upper 
servants  of an aristocratic territorial
 system4 ,they release themselves and   
are released almost in spite of         
themselves1 slowly1 generation by       
generation1 from habits of social       
subservience that are no longer         
necessary nor convenient in the social  
process1 acquire an official  pride in  
themselves and take on new conceptions  
of responsible  loyalty to a scheme4    
,and they find themselves under         
suggestions of  class aloofness and     
superiority to the general mass of less 
cardinal  workers1 that are often       
unjustifiable under new conditions4     
,machinery  and scientific organisation 
have been and still are revolutionising 
productive activity by the progressive  
elimination of the unskilled  worker1   
the hack1 the mere toiler4 ,but the     

social organisation of the  modern      
community and the mutual deportment of  
the associated workers  left over after 
this elimination are still haunted by   
the tradition of  the lord1 the middle  
class tenant and the servile hind4 ,the 
development  of self-respect and mutual 
respect among the mass of modern        
functional  workers is clearly an       
intimate concern of the ,open           
,conspiracy4    ,a vast amount of moral 
force has been wasted in the past       
hundred  years by the antagonism of     
8,labour0 to 8,capital10 as though this 
was  the primary issue in human affairs4
 ,but this never was the primary  issue 
and it is steadily receding from its    
former importance4 ,the  ancient        
civilisations did actually rest upon a  
broad basis of slavery  and serfdom4    
,human muscle was a main source of      
energy--ranking with  sun1 rain and     
flood4 ,but invention and discovery have
 so changed the  conditions under which 
power is directed and utilised that     

muscle  becomes economically secondary  
and inessential4 ,we no longer want     
hewers of wood and drawers of water1    
carriers and pick and spade men4  ,we no
 longer want that breeding swarm of     
hefty sweaty bodies without  which the  
former civilisations could not have     
endured4 ,we want watchful  and         
understanding guardians and drivers of  
complex delicate machines1  which can be
 mishandled and brutalised and spoiled  
all too easily4  ,the less disposed     
these masters of our machines are to    
inordinate  multiplication1 the more    
room and food in the world for their    
ampler  lives4 ,even to the lowest level
 of a fully mechanicalised civilisation 
it is required that the human element   
should be select4 ,in the  modern world1
 crowds are a survival and they will    
presently be an  anachronism1 and crowd 
psychology therefore cannot supply the  
basis of  a new order4    ,it is just   
because labour is becoming more         
intelligent1 responsible and            

individually efficient that it is       
becoming more audible and impatient  in 
social affairs4 ,it is just because it  
is no longer mere gang labour  and      
becoming more and more intelligent      
co-operation in detail1 that  it now    
resents being treated as a serf1 housed 
like a serf1 fed like  a serf and herded
 like a serf and its pride and thoughts 
and feelings  disregarded4 ,labour is in
 revolt because as a matter of fact it  
is1 in  the ancient and exact sense of  
the word1 ceasing to be labour at all4  
,the more progressive elements of the   
directive classes recognise this1  but  
as we have shown1 there are formidable  
forces still tending to  maintain the   
old social attitudes when arrogance     
became the ruler and  the common man    
accepted his servile status4 ,a         
continual resistance  is offered by     
large sections of the prosperous and    
advantaged to the  larger claims of the 
modernised worker1 and in response the  
rising and  differentiating workers     

develop an angry antagonism to these    
directive  classes which allow          
themselves to be controlled by their    
conservative  and reactionary elements4 
,moreover1 the increasing relative      
intelligence of the labour masses1 the  
unprecedented imaginative  stimulation  
they experience1 the continually more   
widespread  realisation of the available
 freedoms and comforts and indulgences  
that might be and are not shared by all 
in a modern state1 develop a            
recalcitrance where once there was      
little but fatalistic acquiescence4  ,an
 objection to direction and obligation1 
always mutely present in  the toiling   
multitude since the economic life of man
 began1 becomes  articulate and active4 
,it is the taste of freedom that makes  
labour  desire to be free4 ,this series 
of frictions is a quite inevitable      
aspect of social reorganisation but they
 do not constitute a primary  antagonism
 in the process4    ,the class war was  
invented by the classes2 it is a natural

 tradition  of the upper strata of the  
old order4 ,it was so universally       
understood  that there was no need to   
state it4 ,it is implicit in nearly all 
the  literature of the world before this
 nineteenth century--except the  ,bible1
 the ,koran and other sequel4 ,the      
8class war0 of the ,marxist  is merely a
 poor snobbish imitation1 a tu quoque1 a
 pathetic1  stupid1 indignant reversal  
of and retort to the old arrogance1 an  
upward arrogance4    ,these conflicts   
cut across rather than oppose or help   
the progressive  development to which   
the ,open ,conspiracy devotes itself4   
,labour1  awakened1 enquiring and       
indignant1 is not necessarily           
progressive2  if the ordinary           
undistinguished worker is no longer to  
be driven as  a beast of burthen1 he    
has--which also goes against the        
grain--to be  educated to as high a     
level of co-operative efficiency as     
possible4  ,he has to work better1 even 
if he works for much shorter hours and  

under better conditions1 and his work   
must be subordinated work still2  he    
cannot become en masse sole owner and   
master of a scheme  of things he did not
 make and is incapable of directing4    
,yet this is  the ambition implicit in  
an exclusively 8,labour0 movement4      
,either the  ,labour revolutionary hopes
 to cadge the services of exceptional   
people  without acknowledgment or return
 on sentimental grounds or he really    
believes that anyone is as capable as   
anyone else--if not more so4 ,the       
worker at a low level may be flattered  
by dreams of 8class-conscious0  mass    
dominion from which all sense of        
inferiority is banished1 but they  will 
remain dreams4 ,the deep instinctive    
jealousy of the commonplace  individual 
for outstanding quality and novel       
initiative may be  organised and turned 
to sabotage and destruction1            
masquerading as and  aspiring to be a   
new social order1 but that will be a    
blind alley and  not the road of        

progress4 ,our hope for the human future
 does not lie in  crowd psychology and  
the indiscriminating rule of universal  
democracy4    ,the ,open ,conspiracy can
 have little use for mere resentments as
 a  driving force towards its ends2 it  
starts with a proposal not to  exalt the
 labour class but to abolish it1 its    
sustaining purpose is  to throw drudges 
out of employment and eliminate the     
inept--and it is  far more likely to    
incur suspicion and distrust in the     
lower ranks of  the developing          
industrial order of to-day than to win  
support there4  ,there1 just as         
everywhere else in the changing social  
complexes of our  time1 it can appeal   
only to the exceptionally understanding 
individual  who can without personal    
humiliation consider his present        
activities  and relationships as        
provisional and who can1 without taking 
offence1  endure a searching criticism  
of his present quality and mode of      
living4          ,chapter ,x    ,,the   

,,open ,,conspiracy ,,and ,,the         
,,resistances ,,of ,,the ,,less         
,,industrialised  ,,peoples      ,so far
 in our accounting of the powers1       
institutions1 dispositions1  types and  
classes to which the ,open ,conspiracy  
will run counter1 we  have surveyed only
 such territory in the domain of the    
future world  commonweal as is          
represented by the complex1 progressive1
 highly  industrialised communities1    
based on a preceding landlord-soldier1  
tenant1 town-merchant and tradesman     
system1 of the ,atlantic type4  ,these  
communities have developed farthest in  
the direction of  mechanicalisation and 
they are so much more efficient and     
powerful  that they now dominate the    
rest of the world4 ,india1 ,china1      
,russia1  ,africa present mlanges of    
social systems1 thrown together1        
outpaced1 overstrained1 shattered1      
invaded1 exploited and more or less     
subjugated by the finance1 machinery and
 political aggressions of the           

,atlantic1 ,baltic and ,mediterranean   
civilisation4 ,in many ways they have   
an air of assimilating themselves to    
that civilisation1 evolving modern      
types and classes and abandoning much of
 their distinctive traditions4  ,but    
what they take from the ,west is mainly 
the new developments1 the  material     
achievements1 rather than social and    
political achievements  that1 empowered 
by modern inventions1 have won their way
 to world  predominance4 ,they may      
imitate ,european nationalism to a      
certain  extent2 for them it becomes a  
convenient form of self-assertion       
against the pressure of a realised      
practical1 social and political         
inferiority2 but the degree to which    
they will or can take over the  social  
assumptions and habits of the           
long-established ,european-,american    
hierarchy is probably very restricted4  
,their nationalism will remain  largely 
indigenous2 the social traditions to    
which they will try to  make the new    

material forces subservient will be     
traditions of an  ,oriental life widely 
different from the original life of     
,europe4 ,they  will have their own     
resistances to the ,open ,conspiracy1   
therefore1  but they will be different  
resistances from those we have hitherto 
considered4 ,the automobile and the     
wireless set1 the harvester and  steel  
construction building1 will come to the 
jungle raja and the head  hunter1 the   
,brahmin and the ,indian peasant with a 
parallel and yet  dissimilar message to 
the one they brought the ,british       
land-owner or  the corn and cattle      
farmers of the ,argentine and the       
,middle ,west4 ,also  they may be       
expected to evoke dissimilar reactions4 
,to a number of the finer1 more         
energetic minds of these overshadowed   
communities which have lagged more or   
less in the material advances to  which 
this present ascendency of ,western     
,europe and ,america is due1 the  ,open 
,conspiracy may come with an effect of  

immense invitation4 ,at one  step they  
may go from the sinking vessel of their 
antiquated order1  across their present 
conquerors into a brotherhood of world  
rulers4  ,they may turn to the problem  
of saving and adapting all that is rich 
and distinctive of their inheritance to 
the common ends of the race4  ,but to   
the less vigorous intelligences of this 
outer world1 the new  project of the    
,open ,conspiracy will seem no better   
than a new form  of ,western            
envelopment1 and they will fight a      
mighty liberation as  though it were a  
further enslavement to the ,european    
tradition4 ,they  will watch the ,open  
,conspiracy for any signs of conscious  
superiority  and racial disregard4      
,necessarily they will recognise it as a
 product  of ,western mentality and they
 may well be tempted to regard it as an 
elaboration and organisation of current 
dispositions rather than the  evolution 
of a new phase which will make no       
discrimination at least  between the    

effete traditions of either ,east or    
,west4 ,their suspicions  will be       
sustained and developed by the clumsy   
and muddle-headed  political and        
economic aggressions of the contemporary
 political and  business systems1 such  
as they are1 of the ,west1 now in       
progress4  ,behind that cloud of        
aggression ,western thought has         
necessarily  advanced upon them2 it     
could have got to their attention in no 
other  way4    ,partly these resistances
 and criticisms of the decadent         
communities  outside the ,atlantic      
capitalist systems will be aimed1 not at
 the  developing methods of the coming  
world community1 but at the ,european   
traditions and restrictions that have   
imposed themselves upon these  methods1 
and so far the clash of the ,east and   
,west may be found to  subserve the aims
 of the ,open ,conspiracy4 ,in the      
conflict of old  traditions and in the  
consequent deadlocks lies much hope for 
the  direct acceptance of the groups of 

ideas centring upon the ,open           
,conspiracy4 ,one of the most           
interesting areas of humanity in this   
respect is the great system of          
communities under the sway or influence 
of ,soviet ,russia4 ,russia has never   
been completely incorporated with  the  
,european system2 she became a just     
passable imitation of a western         
,european monarchy in the seventeenth   
and eighteenth centuries and  talked at 
last of constitutions and               
parliaments--but the reality of  that   
vast empire remained an ,asiatic        
despotism and the ,european mask  was   
altogether smashed by the successive    
revolutions of #aiag4 ,the  ensuing     
system is a government presiding over an
 enormous extent of  peasants and       
herdsmen1 by a disciplined association  
professing the  faith and dogmas of     
,marx1 as interpreted and qualified by  
,lenin4    ,in many ways this government
 is a novelty of extraordinary interest4
  ,in the fact that it is a propagandist

 association becoming a  commonweal1 it 
is manifestly the inspiration and       
precursor of the ,open  ,conspiracy4 ,it
 labours against enormous difficulties  
within itself  and without4 ,flung      
amazingly into a position of tremendous 
power1  its intellectual flexibility is 
greatly restricted by the urgent        
militant necessity for mental unanimity 
and a consequent repression  of         
criticism4 ,it finds itself separated1  
intellectually and morally1  by an      
enormous gap1 from the illiterate       
millions over which it rules4  ,more    
open perhaps to scientific and creative 
conceptions than any other  government1 
and certainly more willing to experiment
 and innovate1  its enterprise is       
starved by the economic depletion of the
 country in  the ,great ,war and by the 
technical and industrial backwardness of
 the  population upon which it must draw
 for its personnel4 ,moreover1 it       
struggles within itself between concepts
 of a modern scientific social          

organisation and a vague anarchistic    
dream in which the 8,state0 is to       
disappear and an emancipated            
proletariat1 breeding and expectorating 
freely1 fills the vistas of time for    
evermore4 ,the tradition of heavy  years
 of hopeless opposition have tainted the
 world policy of the  ,marxist cult with
 a mischievous and irritating quality   
that focuses  upon it the animosity of  
every other government in the dominant  
,atlantic system4 ,nevertheless it has  
maintained itself for more than  ten    
years and it seems far more likely to   
evolve than to perish4 ,it  is quite    
possible that it will evolve towards the
 conceptions of the  ,open ,conspiracy1 
and in that case ,russia may witness    
once again a  conflict between new ideas
 and ,old ,believers4 ,so far the       
,communist  ,party in ,moscow has       
maintained a considerable propaganda of 
ideas in  the rest of the world and     
especially across its western frontier4 
,many  of these ideas are trite and     

stale4 ,the time may be not far distant 
when the tide of propaganda will flow in
 the reverse direction4 ,it has  pleased
 the vanity of the ,communist ,party to 
imagine itself conducting  a propaganda 
of world revolution4 ,its fate may be to
 develop upon  lines that will make its 
more intelligent elements easily        
assimilable  to the ,open ,conspiracy   
for a world revolution4 ,the ,open      
,conspiracy as  it spreads and grows may
 find a less encumbered field for trying
 out  the economic developments implicit
 in its conceptions in ,russia and      
,siberia1 than anywhere else in the     
world4    ,however severely the guiding 
themes and practical methods of the     
present ,soviet ,government in ,russia  
may be criticised1 the fact remains     
that it has cleared out of its way many 
of the main obstructive  elements that  
we find still vigorous in the more      
highly organised  communities in the    
west4 ,it has liberated vast areas from 
the kindred  superstitions of monarchy  

and the need for a private proprietary  
control of great economic interests4    
,and it has presented the ,oriental     
,china and ,india with the exciting     
spectacle of a social and political     
system capable of throwing off many of  
the most characteristic  features of    
triumphant ,westernism1 and yet holding 
its own4 ,in the  days when ,japan faced
 up to modern necessities1 there were no
 models  for imitation that were not    
communities of the ,atlantic type       
pervaded  by the methods of private     
capitalism1 and in consequence the      
,japanese  reconstituted their affairs  
on a distinctly ,european plan1 adopting
 a  ,parliament and bringing their      
monarchy1 social hierarchy and business 
and financial methods into a general    
conformity with that model4 ,it  is     
extremely doubtful whether any other    
,asiatic community will now  set itself 
to a parallel imitation1 and it will be 
thanks largely to  the ,russian         
revolution that this breakaway from     

,europeanisation has  occurred4    ,but 
it does not follow that such a breakaway
 will necessarily lead  more directly to
 the ,open ,conspiracy4 ,if we have to  
face a less highly  organised system of 
interests and prejudices in ,russia and 
,china1 we  have to deal with a vastly  
wider ignorance and a vastly more       
formidable  animalism4 ,russia is a land
 of tens of millions of peasants ruled  
over  by a little band of the           
intelligentsia who can be counted only  
by tens  of thousands4 ,it is only these
 few score thousands who are accessible 
to ideas of world construction1 and the 
only hope of bringing the  ,russian     
system into active participation in the 
world conspiracy is  through that small 
minority and through its educational    
repercussion  on the myriads below4 ,as 
we go eastward from ,european ,russia   
the  proportion of soundly prepared     
intelligence to which we can appeal for 
understanding and participation         
diminishes to an even more dismaying    

fraction4 ,eliminate that fraction and  
one is left face to face with  inchoate 
barbarism incapable of social and       
political organisation  above the level 
of the war boss and the brigand leader4 
,russia itself  is still by no means    
secure against a degenerative process in
 that  direction1 and the hope of ,china
 struggling out of it without some      
forcible directive interventions is a   
hope to which constructive  liberalism  
clings with very little assurance4      
,we turn back therefore from ,russia1   
,china and the communities of  ,central 
,asia to the ,atlantic world4 ,it is in 
that world alone that  sufficient range 
and amplitude of thought and discussion 
is possible  for the adequate           
development of the ,open ,conspiracy4   
,in these  communities it must begin and
 for a long time its main activities    
will  need to be sustained from these   
necessary centres of diffusion4 ,it     
will develop amidst incessant mental    
strife and through that strife it  will 

remain alive4 ,it is no small part of   
the practical weakness of  present day  
communism that it attempts to centre its
 intellectual life  and its directive   
activities in ,moscow and so cuts itself
 off from  the free and open discussions
 of the ,western world4 ,marxism lost   
the  world when it went to ,moscow and  
took over the traditions of ,tzarism1   
as ,christianity lost the world when it 
went to ,rome and took over the         
traditions of ,csar4 ,entrenched in     
,moscow from searching criticism1 the   
,marxist ideology may become more and   
more dogmatic and unprogressive1        
repeating its sacred credo and issuing  
its disregarded orders to  the          
proletariat of the world1 and so stay   
ineffectively crystallised  until the   
rising tide of the ,open ,conspiracy    
submerges1 dissolves it  afresh and     
incorporates whatever it finds          
assimilable4    ,india like ,japan is   
cut off from the main body of ,asiatic  
affairs4  ,but while ,japan has become a

 formally ,westernised nationality in   
the  comity of such nations1 ,india     
remains a world in itself4 ,in that one 
peninsula nearly every type of community
 is to be found1 from the  tribe of     
jungle savages through a great diversity
 of barbaric and  medival principalities
 to the child and women sweating        
factories and  the vigorous modern      
commercialism of ,bombay4 ,over it all  
the ,british  imperialism prevails1 a   
constraining and restraining influence1 
keeping  the peace1 checking epidemics1 
increasing the food supply by irrigation
  and the like 7so that population      
increases horribly71 and making little  
or no effort to evoke responses to      
modern ideas4 ,britain in ,india is  no 
propagandist of modern ferments3 all    
those are left the other side  of ,suez4
 ,in ,india the ,briton is a ruler as   
firm and self-assured and  uncreative as
 the ,roman4 ,the old religious and     
social traditions1 the  complex customs1
 castes1 tabus and exclusions of a      

strangely mixed but  unamalgamated      
community1 though a little discredited  
by this foreign  predominance1 still    
hold men's minds4 ,they have been1 so to
 speak1  pickled in the preservative of 
the ,british raj4    ,the ,open         
,conspiracy has to invade the ,indian   
complex in conflict  with the prejudices
 of both ruler and governed4 ,it has to 
hope for  individual breaches in the    
dull ,romanism of the administration2   
here a  genuine educationist1 here a    
creative civil servant1 here an official
  touched by the distant stir of the    
living homeland--and it has to try  to  
bring these types into a corporated     
relationship with a fine native  scholar
 here or an active-minded prince or     
land-owner or industrialist  there4 ,as 
the old methods of passenger transport  
are superseded by  flying1 it will be   
more and more difficult to keep the stir
 of the  living homeland out of either  
the consciousness of the official       
hierarchy or the knowledge of the       

recalcitrant 8native40    ,very similar 
to ,indian conditions is the state of   
affairs in the  foreign possessions of  
,france1 the same administrative        
obstacles to  the ,open ,conspiracy     
above1 and below the same resentful     
subordination1  cut off from the mental 
invigoration of responsibility4 ,within 
these  areas of restraint1 ,india and   
its lesser1 simpler parallels in ,north 
,africa1 ,syria and the ,far ,east1     
there goes on a rapid increase of       
low-grade population1 undersized        
physically and mentally1 and retarding  
the mechanical development of           
civilisation by its standing offer of   
cheap labour to the unscrupulous        
entrepreneur1 and possible feeble       
insurrectionary material to the         
unscrupulous political adventurer4  ,it 
is impossible to estimate how slowly or 
how rapidly the knowledge  and ideas    
that have checked the rate of increase  
of all the ,atlantic  populations may be
 diffused through these less alert      

communities4    ,we must complete our   
survey of the resistances against which 
the ,open  ,conspiracy has to work by a 
few words about the negro world and the 
regions of forest and jungle in which   
barbaric and even savage human  life    
still escapes the infection of          
civilisation4 ,it seems inevitable  that
 the development of modern means of     
communication and the conquest  of      
tropical diseases should end in giving  
access everywhere to  modern            
administration and to economic methods1 
and everywhere the  incorporation of the
 former wilderness in the modern        
economic process  means the destruction 
of the material basis1 the free hunting1
 the free  access to the soil1 of such  
barbaric and savage communities as still
  precariously survive4 ,the dusky      
peoples1 who were formerly the lords  of
 these still imperfectly assimilated    
areas1 are becoming exploited  workers1 
slaves1 serfs1 hut-tax payers or        
labourers to a caste of white           

immigrants4 ,the spirit of the          
plantation broods over all these lands4 
,the negro in ,america differs only from
 his subjugated brother in ,south       
,africa or ,kenya ,colony in the fact   
that he also1 like his white master1  is
 an immigrant4 ,the situation in ,africa
 and ,america adjusts itself  therefore 
towards parallel conditions1 the chief  
variation being in the  relative        
proportions of the two races and the    
details of the methods by  which black  
labour is made to serve white ends4     
,in these black and white communities   
which are establishing themselves  in   
all those parts of the earth where once 
the black was native1 or in  which a    
sub-tropical climate is favourable to   
his existence at a low  level of social 
development1 there is--and there is     
bound to be for  many years to          
come--much racial tension4 ,the steady  
advance of birth  control may mitigate  
the biological factors of this tension  
later on1  and a general amelioration of

 manners and conduct may efface that    
disposition to persecute dissimilar     
types1 which man shares with many  other
 gregarious animals4 ,but meanwhile this
 tension increases and a  vast multitude
 of lives is strained to tragic issues4 
,to exaggerate the dangers and evils of 
miscegenation is a weakness  of our     
time4 ,man interbreeds with all his     
varieties and yet deludes  himself that 
there are races of outstanding purity1  
the 8,nordic10  the 8,semitic0 and so   
forth4 ,these are phantoms of the       
imagination4  ,the reality is more      
intricate1 less dramatic and grips less 
easily  upon the mind2 the phantoms grip
 only too well and incite to terrible   
suppressions4 ,changes in the number of 
half-breeds and in the  proportion of   
white and coloured are changes of a     
temporary nature  that many become      
controllable and rectifiable in a few   
generations4  ,but until this level of  
civilisation is reached1 until the      
colour of  a man's skin or the kinks in 

a woman's hair cease to have the value  
of ,shibboleths that involve            
educational1 professional and social    
extinction or survival1 a black and     
white community is bound to be          
continually preoccupied by a standing   
feud too intimate and pervasive  to     
permit of any long views of the world's 
destiny4    ,we come to the conclusion  
therefore that it is from the more      
vigorous1  varied and less severely     
obsessed centres of the ,atlantic       
civilisations  in the temperate zone1   
with their abundant facilities for      
publication  and discussion1 their      
traditions of mental liberty and their  
immense  variety of interacting free    
modern types1 that the main beginnings  
of the ,open ,conspiracy must develop4  
,for the rest of the world1 its         
propaganda1 finding but poor nourishment
 in the local conditions1 may  retain a 
missionary quality for many years4      
,chapter ,,xi    ,,resistances ,,and    
,,antagonistic ,,forces ,,in ,,ourselves

      ,we have dealt in the preceding   
two chapters with great classes and     
assemblages of human beings as1 in the  
mass1 likely to be more or less         
antagonistic to the ,open ,conspiracy1  
and it has been difficult in those      
chapters to avoid the implication that  
8we10 some sort of circle round  the    
writer1 were aloof from these           
obstructive and hostile multitudes1  and
 ourselves entirely identified with the 
,open ,conspiracy4 ,but neither  are    
these multitudes so definitely against1 
nor those who are with us  so entirely  
for1 the ,open ,conspiracy to establish 
a world community as  the writer in his 
desire for clearness and contrast and   
with an all too  human disposition      
perhaps towards plain ego-centred       
combative issues1  has been led to      
represent4 ,there is no 8we0 and there  
can be no 8we0 in  possession of the    
,open ,conspiracy4    ,the ,open        
,conspiracy is in partial possession of 
us and we attempt  to serve it4 ,but the

 ,open ,conspiracy is a natural and     
necessary  development of contemporary  
thought arising here and there and      
everywhere4 ,there are doubts and       
sympathies that weigh on the side of    
the ,open ,conspiracy in nearly         
everyone1 and not one of us but retains 
many impulses1 habits and ideas in      
conflict with our general devotion1     
checking and limiting our service4      
,let us therefore in this chapter cease 
to discuss classes and types and        
consider general mental tendencies and  
reactions which move through all        
humanity4    ,in our opening chapters we
 pointed out that religion is not       
universally  distributed throughout     
human society4 ,and of no one does it   
seem to  have complete possession4 ,it  
seizes upon some of us and exalts us    
for one hour now and then1 for a day now
 and then2 it may leave its  afterglow  
upon our conduct for some time2 it may  
establish restraints  and habitual      
dispositions2 sometimes it dominates us 

with but brief  intermissions through   
long spells and then we can be saints   
and  martyrs4 ,in all our religious     
phases there appears a desire to  hold  
the phase1 to subdue the rest of our    
life to the standards and  exigencies of
 that phase4 ,our quickened intelligence
 sets itself to  a general analysis of  
our conduct and to the problem of       
establishing  controls over our         
unilluminated intervals4    ,and when   
the religious elements in the mind set  
themselves to such  self-analysis and   
attempts to order and unify the whole   
being upon  this basis of the service   
and advancement of the race1 they       
discover  first a great series of       
indifferent moods1 wherein the          
resistance to  thought and work for the 
,open ,conspiracy is merely passive and 
in the  nature of inertia4 ,there is a  
whole class of states of mind which may 
be brought together under the head of   
8everydayism40 ,the dinner-bell  and the
 playing-fields1 the cinema and the     

newspaper1 the week-end  visit and the  
factory siren1 a host of such expectant 
universal things1  call to a vast       
majority of people in our modern world  
to stop thinking  and get busy with the 
interest in hand1 and so on to the next1
 without  a thought for the general     
frame and drama in which these momentary
  and personal incidents are set4 ,we   
are driven along these marked and       
established routes and turned this way  
or that by the accidents of  upbringing1
 of rivalries and loves1 of chance      
encounters and vivid  experiences1 and  
it is rare for many of us1 and never for
 some1 that  the phases of broad        
reflection and self-questioning arise4  
,for many  people the religious life    
now1 as in the past1 has been a quite   
desperate effort to withdraw sufficient 
attention and energy from the  flood of 
events to get some sort of grasp1 and   
keep whatever grip is  won1 upon the    
relations of the self to the whole4 ,far
 more recoil in  terror from such a     

possibility and would struggle          
strenuously against  solitude in the    
desert1 solitude under the stars1       
solitude in a silent  room or indeed any
 occasion for comprehensive thought4    
,but the instinct and purpose of the    
religious type is to keep hold  upon the
 comprehensive drama1 and at the heart  
of all the great  religions of the world
 we find a parallel disposition to      
escape in  some manner from the aimless 
drive and compulsion of accident and    
everyday4 ,escape is attempted either by
 withdrawal from the presence  of       
crowding circumstance into a mystical   
contemplation and austere  retirement1  
or--what is more difficult and desperate
 and reasonable--by  imposing the mighty
 standards of enduring issues upon the  
whole mass  of transitory problems which
 constitute the actual business of life4
  ,we have already noted how the modern 
mind turns from retreat as a            
recognisable method of religion1 and    
faces squarely up to the second         

alternative4 ,the tumult of life has to 
be met and conquered4 ,aim must  prevail
 over the aimless4 ,remaining in normal 
life we must yet keep  our wills and    
thoughts aloof from normal life and     
fixed upon creative  processes4 ,however
 busied we may be1 however challenged1  
we must yet  save something of our best 
mental activity for self-examination and
  keep ourselves alert against the      
endless treacheries within that would   
trip us back into everydayism and       
disconnected responses to the stimuli   
of life4    ,religions in the past1     
though they have been apt to give a     
preference  to the renunciation of      
things mundane1 have sought by a        
considerable  variety of expedients to  
preserve the faith of those whom chance 
or  duty still kept in normal contact   
with the world4 ,modern religion1  which
 has no alternative to constant normal  
contact with the world1  cannot lightly 
forgo the experiments of the old        
religions in such  expedients4 ,meetings

 for mutual reassurance1 confession and 
prayer1  self-dedication1 sacraments and
 seasons of fast and meditation need  to
 be modernised or replaced by modern    
equivalents if the religious  vitality  
of the ,open ,conspiracy is to be       
sustained4 ,at present1  except in the  
case of a few friends and lovers1 the   
modern religious  individual leads a    
life of extreme1 wasteful and dangerous 
spiritual  isolation4 ,he may forget and
 he has nothing to remind him2 he may   
relapse and he will hear no reproach to 
warn him of his relapse4    8,everyday0 
has many ways of justifying the return  
of the believer  to its sceptical       
casualness4 ,it is easy to persuade     
oneself that  one is taking life or     
oneself 8too seriously40 ,the mind is   
very  self-protective2 it has a         
disposition to abandon too great or too 
far-reaching an effort and return to    
things indisputably within its  scope4  
,we have an instinctive preference for  
thinking things are  8all right02 we    

economise anxiety2 we defend the        
delusions that we  can work with1 even  
though we half realise they are no more 
than  delusions4 ,we resent the warning 
voice1 the critical question that  robs 
our activities of assurance4 ,our       
everyday moods are not only  the        
antagonists of our religious moods1 but 
they resent all outward  appeals to our 
religious moods and they welcome every  
help against  religious appeals4 ,we    
pass very readily from the merely       
defensive to  the defensive-aggressive1 
and from refusing to hear the word that 
might  stir our consciences to a        
vigorous effort to suppress its         
utterance4    ,churches1 religious      
organisations1 try to keep the          
revivifying phase  and usage1 where it  
may strike upon the waning or slumbering
 faith  of the convert1 but modern      
religion as yet has no such organised   
reminders4 ,they cannot be improvised4  
,crude attempts to supply the  needed   
corrective of conduct may do less good  

than harm4 ,each one of  us for himself 
must do what he can to keep his high    
resolve in mind  and protect himself    
from the snare of his own moods of      
fatigue or  inadvertency4    ,but these 
passive and active defences of current  
things which operate  in and through    
ourselves1 and find such ready sympathy 
and assistance  in the world about us1  
these massive resistance systems1 are   
only the  beginning of our tale of the  
forces antagonistic to the ,open        
,conspiracy  that lurk in our           
complexities4    ,men are creatures with
 other faults quite beyond and outside  
our common  disposition to be stupid1   
indolent1 habitual and defensive4 ,not  
only  have we active creative impulses  
but also acute destructive ones4  ,man  
is a jealous animal4 ,in our youth and  
adolescence our egotism is  extravagant4
 ,a great number of us at that stage    
would rather not see  a beautiful or    
wonderful thing come into existence than
 have it come  into existence           

disregarding us4 ,something of that     
jealous malice1  self-assertive         
ruthlessness1 there is in all of us4 ,at
 his worst man  can be an exceedingly   
combative1 malignant1 mischievous and   
cruel  animal4 ,and few of us--none of  
us--are altogether above the possibility
  of such phases4 ,when we consider the 
oppositions to the ,open ,conspiracy    
that operate in the normal personality1 
we appreciate the soundness of  the     
catechism which instructs us to renounce
 not only the trivial world  and the    
heavy flesh1 but the active and militant
 devil4    ,to make is a long and       
wearisome business1 with many arrests   
and  disappointments1 but to break gives
 an instant thrill4 ,we all know        
something of the delight of the bang4   
,it is well for the ,open  ,conspirator 
to ask himself at times how far he is in
 love with the  dream of a world in     
order1 and how far he is driven by      
hatred of  institutions that bore or    
humiliate him4 ,he may be no more than a

  revengeful incendiary in the mask of a
 constructive worker4 ,how safe  is he  
then from the reaction to some fresh    
humiliation8 ,the ,open  ,conspiracy    
which is now his refuge and vindication 
may presently  fail to give him the     
compensation he has sought1 may offer   
him no  better than a minor rle1 may    
display irritating and incomprehensible 
preferences4 ,and for a great number of 
things in overt antagonism to  the great
 aim of the ,open ,conspiracy1 he will  
still find within himself  not simply   
acquiescence but sympathy and a genuine 
if inconsistent  admiration4 ,there they
 are1 waiting for his phase of          
disappointment4  ,back he may go to the 
old loves with a new animus against the 
greater  scheme4    ,man has pranced a  
soldier in reality and fancy for so many
 generations  that few of us can        
altogether release ourselves from the   
brilliant  pretensions of flags1 empire1
 patriotism and aggression4 ,business   
men1  especially in ,america1 seem to   

feel a sort of glory in calling even    
the underselling and overadvertising of 
rival enterprises 8fighting40  ,pill    
vendors and public departments can have 
their 8wars10 their  heroisms1 their    
desperate mischiefs1 and so get the     
,napoleonic feeling4  ,the world and our
 imaginations are full of the           
sentimentalities1 the  false glories and
 loyalties of such refurbishing of the  
old combative  traditions1 trailing     
after them1 as they do1 so much worth   
and virtue  in a dulled and stupefied   
condition4 ,it is difficult to resist   
the fine  gravity1 the high             
self-respect1 examples of honour and    
good style in  small things1 of the     
military and naval services1 for all    
that they are  now no more than noxious 
parasites upon the nascent world        
commonweal4  ,in ,france not a word may 
be said against the army2 in ,england1  
against  the navy4 ,there will be many  
,open ,conspirators at first who will   
scarcely dare to say that word even to  

themselves4    ,but all these obsolete  
values and attitudes with which our     
minds are  cumbered must be cleared out 
if the new faith is to have free play4  
,we  have to clear them out not only    
from our own minds but from the minds   
of others who may be or become our      
associates4 ,the finer and more         
picturesque false loyalties1 false      
standards of honour1 false religious    
associations1 may seem to us1 the more  
thoroughly must we seek to  release our 
minds and the minds of those about us   
from them and cut off  all thoughts of a
 return4    ,we cannot compromise with  
these vestiges of the ancient order4    
,whatever  we retain of them will come  
back to life and grow again4 ,it is no  
good  to operate for cancer unless the  
whole growth is removed4 ,leave a crown 
about and presently you will find it    
being worn by someone resolved to  be a 
king4 ,keep the name and image of a god 
without a distinct museum  label and    
sooner or later you will discover a     

worshipper on his knees  to it and be   
lucky not to find a human sacrifice upon
 the altar4 ,wave  a flag and it will   
wrap about you4 ,of yourself even more  
than of the  community is this true2    
there can be no half measures4 ,you have
 not  yet completed your escape to the  
,open ,conspiracy from the cities of    
the plain while it is still possible for
 you to take a single backward  glance4 
,and at last when we conceive that we   
have given ourselves altogether  to the 
,open ,conspiracy frustration may       
overtake us4 ,then it is1 when  we are  
assured that we are possessed by the    
,open ,conspiracy1 that we  shall be    
most disposed to think and act as though
 we possessed the ,open  ,conspiracy4   
,and if we have made sacrifices1 if we  
are conscious of  substantial success1  
then still more shall we be in danger4  
,one of the  most disagreeable features 
of ,christian hagiology is the value set
 by  the blessed saints upon their      
special privileges4 ,the poor souls     

loved  to think they had caught the     
peculiar attention of ,god by their     
sores  and mortifications4 ,this        
8weakness of the eminent claim0 pervades
 all  religions4 ,most of those who will
 serve the ,open ,conspiracy will be    
tempted to think they have deserved well
 and to compare their merits  and their 
share of influence and recognition in   
the movement with those  of others4     
,the ,open ,conspiracy will be no more  
free from rivalries1 heartburnings1     
distrust1 touchy suspicions1 mutual     
interference and disingenuous           
negligences1 than any other great human 
co-operation4 ,the disciplines1  the    
trainings and methods of organisation   
that must be evolved as the  movement   
grows may be effective in restricting   
the mischief of such  humanities2 they  
will certainly not suppress them        
altogether4 ,many a  good and           
serviceable man may die embittered by   
the preoccupation of his  fellow workers
 in this huge campaign4 ,but the ,open  

,conspiracy will grow  as science grows1
 greater at last than all its outer     
antagonisms1 than  ancient tradition or 
instinctive resistance1 greater than the
 conscious  or unconscious disloyalties 
of its adherents1 greater than all the  
present vices of mankind4           99  
99       99       99       99    ,beware
 of malice in this movement4 ,remember  
that man is a malicious  animal and you 
are human4 ,do not fall foul of your    
allies and  associates because some of  
them affect your richer nature as prigs 
or  pedants2 do not be too scrupulous   
about the motives of others2 your own   
also may be misconceived2 do not        
interpret enthusiastic service either   
as conceited self-assertion or          
calculated self-advancement1 nor give   
way to excessive chagrin when some      
honourable task you had promised        
yourself is seized upon by someone else4
 ,avoid the belittlement of  useful work
 upon our side because it is not        
perfect4 ,do not let  differences of    

accent and idiom annoy you4 ,many great 
movements have  been crippled1 many     
great opportunities lost1 by the minor  
spites of  the elect4 ,vindictive       
self-assertion is an invariable         
characteristic of  the hopelessly       
damned4 ,watch yourself for the minutest
 first specks of  this leprosy4    ,the 
,open ,conspiracy may learn a useful    
lesson if it bears in mind the  early   
phases of ,christianity and ,islam and  
guards itself against such  sordid      
dissensions as sprung and enfeebled     
those mighty initiatives  before even   
the first generation of disciples had   
passed away4          ,chapter ,,xii    
,,the ,,open ,,conspiracy ,,must ,,begin
 ,,as ,a ,,movement ,,of ,,explanation  
,,and  ,,propaganda      ,and now1      
having taken the measure of the array of
 current things  against which the ,open
 ,conspiracy must pit itself1 we may go 
on to  consider the germination and     
development of the ,open ,conspiracy4   
,it is fairly obvious that the primary  

and earliest task is to express1        
develop and propagate the idea of the   
,open ,conspiracy1 to make its  external
 form clear1 convincing1 attractive and 
commanding to as many  people as        
possible4 ,the primary organisation must
 be a propagandist  organisation4       
,the idea of the ,open ,conspiracy rests
 upon and arises out of a system  of    
historical1 biological and sociological 
realisations4 ,in the  case of people   
with sound knowledge in these fields we 
may look for  these realisations        
already2 such people are prepared for   
adhesion  without any great explanatory 
work2 there is nothing to set out to    
them but the project4 ,they do already  
constitute the ,open ,conspiracy  in an 
unorganised solution and will not so    
much adhere as admit to  themselves and 
others their state of mind4 ,directly we
 pass beyond that  comparatively        
restricted world1 however1 we shall find
 that we have  to deal with partial     
knowledge1 distorted views or blank     

ignorance1  and that a revision and     
extension of historical and biological  
ideas  and a considerable elucidation of
 economic misconceptions has to be      
undertaken4    ,for the past twelve     
years1 the present writer has given much
 thought  and work to the question of   
presenting these foundation ideas for a 
modern moral and political activity in a
 practicable form1 and it will  be the  
easiest method of statement for him to  
describe the outcome of  his experiments
 and reflections4 ,he reports therefore 
upon what he has  done and is doing not 
because that is in any way final or     
universally  applicable1 but because it 
gives something sufficiently full and   
lucid  to serve as a concrete           
illustration of his idea4 ,he has       
schemed out a  group of writings to     
embody the necessary ideas of the new   
time in a  form adapted to the current  
reading public and he considers what he 
is  doing as a sort of provisional      
8,bible10 so to speak1 for some factors 

at least in the ,open ,conspiracy4 ,as  
the current reading public changes1  his
 work will become obsolescent so far as 
its present form and method  go4 ,but   
not so far as its substantial method    
goes4 ,that he believes  will remain4   
,these writings1 this modern ,bible     
scheme1 has taken a threefold  form and 
he believes the mental basis of the     
,open ,conspiracy must  necessarily     
retain this threefold form if only on   
account of its  lucidity of             
presentation4 ,he has already written   
and published the  opening third of his 
scheme1 first in a full and then in a   
compacter  book1 as the ,outline of     
,history and as ,a ,short ,history  of  
the ,world4 ,this furnishes a framework 
of fact within which  the general       
political ideas of the reader can be put
 in order4 ,it  presents the history of 
life as a progress from fragmentation   
towards  world unity1 mental and        
material4 ,a second third of this       
statement  of fundamental modern ideas  

he is now preparing in collaboration    
with two more specially qualified       
writers4 ,this will be a companion  and 
parallel to the ,outline of ,history and
 it will be called  ,the ,science of    
,life4 ,it will be a summary of what is 
known  of the nature and possibilities  
of life4 ,it will give the data for     
personal conduct within a biologically  
conceived world society1 just  as the   
,outline of ,history gives a frame for  
the individual  political life in a     
unifying world state4 ,the remaining    
third of this  encyclopdia1 the third   
dealing mainly with inorganic and       
economic  science1 is still a mere      
sketch and skeleton4 ,it will treat of  
economic and social organisation        
considered as the problem of man's      
exploitation of extraneous energy for   
the service of the species4 ,its        
prospective title1 ,the ,conquest of    
,power1 will perhaps convey  the spirit 
of its design4 ,the general idea of     
these writings is to  present           

altogether1 first a complete modern     
world outlook1 politically  speaking1   
then the moral data of the new time1 and
 then the forecast  of a collective     
economic policy1 in a form accessible to
 a person of  ordinary education4 ,it is
 the presentation of the threefold basis
 for a  modern ideology1 historical1    
biological and economic4 ,it is a       
pioneer  attempt to get this written    
down connectedly4    ,for a considerable
 section of the moderately educated     
public1 with  historical ideas          
fragmentary and restricted to mere      
periods and  countries1 the compilation 
of the ,outline of ,history has served  
already1 and still serves1 as a         
stimulant and a release--and no doubt1  
when its work is supplemented by its two
 companions and when all that  can be   
done now with life and matter is        
realised the three will help in  a great
 number of cases to pull people's minds 
together into a shape  that will dispose
 them to full participation in the new  

movement4 ,but  at the most exaggerated 
estimate possible1 these works          
constitute a  merely provisional        
8,bible10 and the measure of their      
success will be  marked by the          
promptitude of their replacement by     
worthier successors4    ,such           
compilations cannot but have many of the
 characteristic defects of  pioneer and 
elementary work2 they have often to     
achieve their ends by  going rather     
roughly over secondary difficulties that
 would otherwise  delay their production
 indefinitely4 ,yet at the outset they  
will be  of use in marking out the shape
 and scope of the general concepts  of  
the ,open ,conspiracy4 ,at the outset1  
the ,open ,conspiracy1 as it  reaches   
beyond the range of exceptionally       
well-informed and mentally  active      
people1 must be very largely an         
educational propaganda of such          
material4 ,only later can it hope to    
relinquish this part of its task to     
renascent educational organisations     

which can be trusted to ensure a  firm  
foundation for the modern conception of 
life4    ,the form in which the ,open   
,conspiracy will first appear will      
certainly  not be that of a centralised 
organisation4 ,its most natural and     
convenient method of coming into being  
will be the formation of small  groups  
of friends1 family groups1 groups of    
students and employees  or other sorts  
of people meeting and conversing        
frequently in the  course of their      
normal occupations1 who will exchange   
views and find  themselves in agreement 
upon the general idea4 ,fundamentally   
important  issues upon which unanimity  
must be achieved from the outset are1   
firstly1 the entirely provisional nature
 of all existing governments1  and the  
entirely provisional nature1 therefore1 
of all loyalties  associated therewith2 
secondly1 the supreme importance of     
population  control in human biology and
 the possibility it affords us of a     
release from the pressure of the        

struggle for existence on ourselves2    
and thirdly1 the urgent necessity of    
protective resistance against  the      
present traditional drift towards war4  
,people who do not grasp  the vital     
significance of these test issues do not
 really begin to  understand the ,open  
,conspiracy4 ,groups coming into        
agreement upon these  matters1 and upon 
their general interpretation of history1
 will be in a  position to seek         
adherents1 enlarge themselves and       
attempt to establish  communication with
 kindred groups for common ends4 ,they  
can take up a  variety of activities to 
develop a sense and habit of combined   
action  and feel their way to greater   
enterprises4    ,we have shown already  
that the ,open ,conspiracy must be      
heterogeneous in  origin4 ,young men and
 young women may be collected into      
groups arranged  upon lines not unlike  
those of the ,bohemian ,sokols or the   
,italian  ,fasci4 ,such groups may      
easily have an athletic and recreational

 side4  ,these initial groups will be of
 no uniform pattern4 ,they will be of   
very different size1 average age1 social
 experience and influence4  ,their      
particular activities will be determined
 by these things4 ,it  is highly        
improbable that the name of the ,open   
,conspiracy will be  applied to any of  
them4 ,that is just a provisional name  
in these ,blue  ,prints4 ,their diverse 
qualities and influences will express   
themselves  by diverse titles4 ,a group 
of students may find itself capable of  
little more than self-education and     
personal propaganda2 a group of         
middle-class people in a small town may 
find its small resources fully  engaged 
at first in such things as1 for example1
 seeing that desirable  literature is   
available for sale or in the local      
public library1  protecting books and   
news-vendors from suppression1 or       
influencing  local teachers4 ,most      
parents of school-children can press for
 the  teaching of universal history and 

sound biology and protest against the   
inculcation of aggressive patriotism4   
,on the other hand1 a group of  ampler  
experience and resources may undertake  
the printing1 publication  and          
distribution of literature1 and exercise
 considerable influence  upon public    
opinion in turning education in the     
right direction4 ,the  ,league of       
,nations movement1 the ,birth ,control  
movement and most radical  and socialist
 societies are fields into which groups 
may go to find  adherents more than half
 prepared for them4 ,the ,open          
,conspiracy is a  fuller and ampler     
movement into which these incomplete    
activities must  necessarily merge as   
its idea takes possession of men's      
imaginations4    ,from the outset1 the  
,open ,conspiracy will set its face     
against  militarism4 ,there is a plain  
present need for the organisation now1  
before war comes again1 of an open and  
explicit refusal to serve in any        
war--or at most to serve in war1        

directly or indirectly1 only after the  
issue has been fully and fairly         
submitted to arbitration4 ,the time for 
a conscientious objection to war service
 is manifestly before and not  after the
 onset of war4 ,people who have         
acquiesced in a belligerent  foreign    
policy by silence right up to the onset 
of war1 have little  to complain of if  
they are then compelled to serve4 ,and a
 refusal  to participate with one's     
country in warfare is a preposterously  
incomplete gesture unless it is rounded 
off by the deliberate advocacy  of a    
world pax1 a world economic control and 
a restrained  population1 such as the   
idea of the ,open ,conspiracy embodies4 
,the putting upon record of its members'
 reservation of themselves from  any or 
all of the military obligations that may
 be thrust upon the  country by military
 and diplomatic effort1 will be1 ,i     
think1 the first  considerable overt act
 of the ,open ,conspiracy groups4 ,it   
will supply  the practical incentive to 

bring many of them together in the first
  place4 ,it will follow closely upon   
the beginning of the propaganda and  it 
will probably necessitate the creation  
of regional or national ad  hoc         
committees for the establishment of a   
collective legal and  political         
defensive for this dissent from current 
militant nationalism4  ,it will bring   
the ,open ,conspiracy very early out of 
the province of  discussion into the    
field of practical conflict4 ,it will   
from the  outset invest it with a very  
necessary quality of present            
applicability4    ,the anticipatory     
repudiation of military service1 so far 
as this  last may be imposed by existing
 governments in their factitious        
international rivalries1 need not       
necessarily involve a denial of the     
need of military action on behalf of the
 world commonweal1 for the  suppression 
of nationalist brigandage1 nor need it  
prevent the military  training of       
members of the ,open ,conspiracy4 ,it is

 simply the practical  form of assertion
 that the normal militant diplomacy and 
warfare of  the present time are        
offences against civilisation1 processes
 in  the nature of brigandage1 sedition 
and civil war1 and that serious  men    
cannot be expected to play anything but 
a rle of disapproval1  non-participation
 or active prevention towards them4 ,our
 loyalty to our  current government1 we 
would intimate1 is subject to its sane  
and adult  behaviour4    ,these         
educational and propagandist groups     
drawing together into an  organised     
resistance to militarism and to the     
excessive control of  individuals by the
 makeshift governments of to-day1 are   
the possible  and probable form in which
 the ,open ,conspiracy will appear in   
the  world4 ,but they constitute only   
the earliest and more elementary grade  
of its activities1 and we will presently
 go on to consider the more  specialised
 and constructive forms its effort must 
evoke4 ,before doing  so1 however1 we   

may say a little more about the         
structure and method  of these          
initiatory groups4    ,since they are   
bound to be different and miscellaneous 
in form1 size1  quality and ability1 any
 early attempts to organise them into   
common  general action or even into     
regular common gatherings are to be     
deprecated4 ,there should be many types 
of groups4 ,collective action had       
better for a time--perhaps for a long   
time--be undertaken not through  the    
merging of groups but through the       
formation of ad hoc  associations for   
definitely specialised ends4 ,the groups
 will come into  these associations to  
make a contribution very much as people 
come into  limited liability companies1 
that is to say with a subscription and  
not with their whole capital4 ,a        
comprehensive organization attempting   
from the first to cover all activities  
would necessarily rest upon and  promote
 one prevalent pattern of group and     
hamper or estrange the more  original   

and interesting forms4    ,there is a   
detestable sort of energetic human being
 which preys  upon human societies1     
delighting in procedure1 by-laws1       
votings1  stereotyping and embarrassing 
8resolutions10 the 8capture0 of         
committees and organisations1 the       
delegation of powers and suchlike       
politicians' mischief4 ,it is a         
blighting and accursed type1 living  and
 multiplying in rules and precedents as 
bugs in old wallpaper4 ,the  less the   
,open ,conspiracy devotes itself to such
 elaborations in its  gatherings1 the   
better for its spirit4 ,always it will  
be well to keep  its comprehensive      
organisation easy and simple4    ,each  
group should come together and develop  
its ideas1 frankly and  freely1 at      
something like a common level of        
understanding and in a  friendly        
atmosphere4 ,it would be advisable that 
most groups should  assemble with some  
regularity1 and since in a large part of
 the world  ,sunday is recognised as the

 day set apart from the concerns of the 
individual for the consideration of     
wider issues1 that day may well be  the 
usual day for group gatherings4 ,a      
weekly meeting at which everyone        
attempts to be present seems to be      
indicated as the normal habit of  a     
group4 ,a member who finds weekly       
attendance at his group meeting         
irksome1 probably belongs to the wrong  
group and should seek another4    ,a    
normal group in the early stage of its  
existence will find most  of its energy 
engaged in confirming and cleaning up   
its conception  of the ,open ,conspiracy
 and in dealing with people invited to  
join  in1 trying out its ideas upon     
interested visitors and so forth4  ,it  
will also experiment in outside         
activities determined by its  special   
circumstances4 ,the ordinary group must 
bear in mind that  these practical      
activities must at first be preparatory 
and mainly  self-educational4 ,it must  
not subordinate its general mental task 

in  them4    ,the clear conception of   
the ,open ,conspiracy is a considerable 
but  necessary intellectual effort4 ,a  
group of historical1 biological and     
economic ideas and interpretations has  
to be assimilated and they are  not by  
any means simple and obvious ideas4 ,and
 in addition--and what  is perhaps the  
more difficult part--many prevalent     
habits of mind and  current assumptions 
have to be got rid of4 ,the conception  
of the ,open  ,conspiracy involves1 for 
example1 a sceptical and destructive    
criticism  of personal-immortality      
religions and also of the sacred formul 
of communism4 ,it can work1 and may go  
far in certain ways1 with  ,christians  
or ,communists1 but it cannot           
incorporate them so long as  they are   
,christians or ,communists4 ,vague      
goodwill for mankind1 or for  progress1 
and adhesions based on some partial     
approval of its spirit1  its methods or 
its objective1 are of no real value to  
an enterprise so  huge in its ultimate  

intentions4    ,for the furtherance of  
its aims1 the ,open ,conspiracy may work
 in  alliance with all sorts of         
movements and people1 but to take them  
into its own essential substance is an  
altogether different matter4            
,propaganda and education are           
seed-sowing and only in revivalist      
religion is an immediate1 a simultaneous
 reaping attempted with the  sowing of  
the seed4 ,the general run of people are
 more eager to do than  to understand1  
and from the beginning of its first     
overt activities the  ,open ,conspiracy 
will have to deal with the friendly     
advances of those  who will want to     
share in its effort without any proper  
assimilation of  the ideas that promote 
it4 ,this will be another reason for    
projecting  its practical activities    
into the form of ad hoc associations1   
into which outsiders with different or  
undeveloped religious1  political1      
social and philosophical views may come 
without penetrating  as permanent       

members into the actual groups1 and it  
will also justify  the helpful          
participation of the ,open ,conspiracy  
groups in definitely  restricted        
movements which attend only to a portion
 of its programme4  ,but many of those  
who first come into touch with the ,open
 ,conspiracy  simply as helpers and     
allies will no doubt go on to a careful 
study of  its general concepts and so to
 complete participation4    ,the groups 
of the ,open ,conspiracy1 it may be     
reiterated1 will vary  much in leisure1 
knowledge1 ability and scope4 ,in the   
student world1  in the associated world 
of special social1 political and        
philosophical  studies and in the world 
where speculative thought is combined   
with  writing and discussion1 groups    
will appear which turn naturally to the 
development and expression of the ,open 
,conspiracy as their distinctive        
contribution4 ,the concepts of the ,open
 ,conspiracy will appear  increasingly  
in books and periodicals until some of  

these latter become  recognised         
definitely as means of communication    
within the movement4 ,it  will acquire  
or provoke its own periodic literature4 
,such circles of  8intelligentsia0 will 
also supply lecturers and leaders of    
discussions  who will be drawn upon by  
other groups and group combinations for 
visits of stimulus and elucidation4     
,from that1 the spreading1 growing and  
ripening groups will go on to  combine  
with one another for local and regional 
meetings4 ,people  who have met first in
 ad hoc activities will find themselves 
developing naturally and progressively  
into social association  and a loose    
general organisation with the ,open     
,conspiracy4 ,such  an organisation     
should leave the fullest scope for group
 or even  individual autonomy in        
particular cases4 ,the only binding     
restraint  upon independent initiatives 
in the ,open ,conspiracy should be its  
broad  essential requirements1 namely3  
7#a7 ,the complete assertion1 practical 

as well as theoretical1 of the          
provisional nature of existing          
governments and of our acquiescence in  
them2    7#b7 ,the resolve to minimise  
by all available means the conflicts of 
these governments1 their militant use of
 individuals and property and  their    
interferences with the establishment of 
a world economic system2    7#c7 ,the   
determination to replace private local  
or national ownership of  at least      
credit1 transport and staple production 
by a responsible world  directorate     
serving the common ends of the race2    
7#d7 ,the practical recognition of the  
necessity for world biological          
controls1 for example1 of population and
 disease2    7#e7 ,the support of a     
minimum standard of individual freedom  
and welfare  in the world2 and    7#f7  
,the supreme duty of subordinating the  
personal life to the creation  of a     
world directorate capable of these tasks
 and to the general  advancement of     
human knowledge1 capacity and power4    

,the admission therewith that our       
immortality is conditional and lies in  
the race and not in our individual      
selves4          ,chapter ,,xiii        
,,early ,,constructive ,,work ,,of ,,the
 ,,open ,,conspiracy      ,in such terms
 we may sketch the practicable and      
possible opening phase  of the ,open    
,conspiracy4    ,we do not present it as
 a movement initiated by any individual 
or radiating from any particular centre4
 ,it arises naturally and  necessarily  
from the present increase of knowledge  
and the broadening  outlook of many     
minds throughout the world4 ,it is      
reasonable therefore  to anticipate its 
appearance all over the world in        
sporadic mutually  independent groups   
and to recognise not only that they will
 be  extremely various but that many of 
them will trail with them racial and    
regional habits and characteristics     
which will only be shaken off as  its   
cosmopolitan character becomes          
imperatively evident4 ,the passage  from

 the partial anticipations of the ,open 
,conspiracy that already  abound        
everywhere to its complete and          
completely self-conscious  statement may
 be made by almost imperceptible        
degrees4 ,to-day it may  seem no more   
than a visionary idea2 to-morrow it may 
be realised as a  world-wide force of   
opinion and will4 ,people will pass with
 no great  inconsistency from saying    
that the ,open ,conspiracy is impossible
 to  saying that it has always been     
plain and clear to them1 that to this   
fashion they have shaped their lives as 
long as they can remember4    ,in its   
opening phase1 in the day of small      
things1 quite minor accidents  may help 
or delay the clear definition and       
popularisation of its  main ideas4 ,the 
changing pattern of public events may   
disperse or  concentrate attention upon 
it1 or it may win the early adherence of
  men of exceptional resources1 energy  
or ability4 ,it is impossible to        
foretell the speed of its advance4 ,its 

development may be slower or  faster1   
direct or devious1 but the logic of     
accumulating realisations  thrusts it   
forward1 will persist in thrusting it   
on1 and sooner or  later it will be     
discovered1 conscious and potent1 the   
working religion  of most sane and      
energetic people4    ,meanwhile our     
supreme virtues must be faith and       
persistence4    ,so far we have         
considered only two of the main         
activities of the ,open  ,conspiracy1   
the one being its propaganda of         
confidence in the possible  world       
commonweal and the other its immediate  
practical attempt to  systematise       
resistance to militant and competitive  
imperialism and  nationalism4 ,but such 
things are merely its groundwork        
undertakings2  they do no more than     
clear the site and make the atmosphere  
possible  for its organised constructive
 efforts4    ,directly we turn to that  
we turn to questions of special         
knowledge1  special effort and special  

organisation4    ,let us consider first 
the general advancement of science1 the 
protection and support of scientific    
research and the diffusion of           
scientific knowledge4 ,these things fall
 within the normal scheme of  duty for  
the members of the ,open ,conspiracy4   
,the world of science  and experiment is
 the region of origin of nearly all the 
great  initiatives that characterise our
 times2 the ,open ,conspiracy owes  its 
inspiration1 its existence1 its form and
 direction entirely to  the changes of  
condition these initiatives have brought
 about1 and  yet a large number of      
scientific workers live outside the     
sphere of  sympathy in which we may     
expect the ,open ,conspiracy to         
materialise1 and  collectively their    
political and social influence upon the 
community  is extraordinarily small4    
,having regard to the immensity of its  
contributions and the incalculable value
 of its promise to the modern           
community1 science--research1 that is1  

and the diffusion of scientific         
knowledge--is extraordinarily neglected1
 starved and threatened by  hostile     
interference4 ,this is largely because  
it has no strong unifying  organisation 
and cannot in itself develop such an    
organisation4    ,science is a hard     
mistress and the first condition of     
successful  scientific work is that the 
scientific man should stick to his      
research4 ,the world of science is      
therefore in itself1 at its core1  a    
miscellany of specialists1 often very   
ungracious specialists1  and1 rather    
than offer him help and co-operation1 it
 calls for  understanding1 tolerance and
 service from the man of more general   
intelligence and wider purpose4 ,the    
company of scientific men is  less like 
a host of guiding angels than like a    
swarm of marvellous  bees--endowed with 
stings--which must be hived and         
cherished and  multiplied by the ,open  
,conspiracy4    ,but so soon as we have 
the ,open ,conspiracy at work1 putting  

its  case plainly and offering its      
developing organisation to those most   
preciously preoccupied men1 then        
reasonably1 when it involves no  special
 trouble for them1 when it is the line  
of least resistance for  them1 they may 
be expected to fall in with its         
convenient and helpful  ideas1 and find 
in it what they have hitherto lacked1 a 
common system  of political and social  
concepts to hold them together4 ,when   
that  stage is reached1 we shall be     
saved such spectacles of intellectual   
prostitution as the last ,great ,war    
offered1 when men of science were       
herded blinking from their laboratories 
to curse one another upon  nationalist  
lines1 and when after the war stupid and
 wicked barriers  were set up to the    
free communication of knowledge by the  
exclusion  of scientific men of this or 
that nationality from international     
scientific gatherings4 ,the ,open       
,conspiracy must help the man of        
science to realise1 what at present he  

fails most astonishingly to  realise1   
that he belongs to a greater comity than
 any king or president  represents      
to-day1 and so prepare him for better   
behaviour in the next  season of trial4 
,the formation of groups in1 and not    
only in1 but about and in relation  to1 
the scientific world1 which will add to 
those first main activities  of the     
,open ,conspiracy1 propaganda and       
pacificism1 a special attention  to the 
needs of scientific work1 may be        
enlarged upon with advantage  here1     
because it will illustrate quite        
typically the idea of a special  work   
carried on in relation to a general     
activity1 which is the subject  of this 
section4    ,the ,open ,conspiracy      
extends its invitation to all sorts and 
conditions  of men1 but the service of  
scientific progress is for those only   
who  are specially equipped or who are  
sufficiently interested to equip        
themselves4 ,for scientific work there  
is first of all a great need  of        

endowment and the setting up of         
laboratories1 observatories1            
experimental stations and the like in   
all parts of the world4 ,numbers  of men
 and women capable of scientific work   
never achieve it for want  of the       
stimulus of opportunity afforded by     
endowment4 ,few contrive to  create     
their own opportunities4 ,the essential 
man of science is very  rarely an able  
collector or administrator of money and 
anyhow the  detailed work of            
organisation is a grave call upon his   
special mental  energy4 ,but many men   
capable of a broad and intelligent      
appreciation  of scientific work1 but   
not capable of the peculiar intensities 
of  research1 have the gift of          
extracting money from private and public
  sources1 and it is for them to use    
that gift modestly and generously in    
providing the framework for those more  
especially endowed4    ,and there is    
already a steadily increasing need for  
the proper storage  and indexing of     

scientific results1 and every fresh     
worker enhances it4  ,quite a           
considerable amount of scientific work  
goes fruitless or is  needlessly        
repeated1 because of the growing volume 
of publication1 and  men make           
discoveries in the field of reality only
 to lose them again in  the lumber-room 
of record4 ,here is a second line of    
activity to which  the ,open ,conspiracy
 with a scientific bias may direct his  
attention4    ,a third line is the      
liaison work between the man of science 
and the  common intelligent man2 the    
promotion of publications which will    
either state the substance1 implications
 and consequences of new work  in the   
vulgar tongue1 or1 if that is           
impossible1 train the general  run of   
people to the new idioms and            
technicalities which need to be         
incorporated with the vulgar tongue if  
it is still to serve its ends as  a     
means of intellectual intercourse4      
,through special ad hoc organisations1  

societies for the  promotion of         
,research1 for ,research ,defence1 for  
,world ,indexing1  for the translation  
of ,scientific ,papers1 for the         
,diffusion of ,new  ,knowledge1 the     
surplus energies of a great number of   
,open ,conspirators  can be directed to 
entirely creative ends and a new world  
organisation  of scientific work built  
up1 within which such dear old          
institutions  as the ,royal ,society of 
,london1 the various ,european          
,academies of  ,science and the like1   
now overgrown and inadequate1 can       
maintain  their venerable pride in      
themselves1 their mellowing prestige and
  their distinguished exclusiveness1    
without their present privilege of      
inflicting cramping slights and         
restrictions upon the more abundant     
scientific activities of to-day4    ,so 
in relation to ,science--and here the   
word is being used in its  narrower     
accepted meaning for what is often      
spoken of as pure  science1 the search  

for physical and biological realities1  
uncomplicated by moral1 social and      
8practical0 considerations--we  evoke a 
conception of the ,open ,conspiracy as  
producing groups of  socially associated
 individuals1 who engage primarily in   
the general  basic activities of the    
,conspiracy and adhere to and promote   
the six  broad principles summarised at 
the end of ,chapter ,twelve1 but who    
work  also with the larger part of their
 energies1 through international  and   
cosmopolitan societies and in a         
multitude of special ways1 for  the     
establishment of an enduring and        
progressive world organisation  of pure 
research4 ,they will have come to this  
special work because  their distinctive 
gifts1 their inclinations1 their        
positions and  opportunities have       
indicated it as theirs4    ,now a very  
parallel system of ,open ,conspiracy    
groups is conceivable1  in relation to  
business and industrial life4 ,it would 
necessarily be  a vastly bulkier and    

more heterogeneous system of groups but 
otherwise  the analogy is complete4     
,here we imagine those people whose     
gifts1  inclinations1 positions and     
opportunities as directors1 workers or  
associates give them an exceptional     
insight into and influence in the       
processes of producing and distributing 
commodities1 can also be drawn  together
 into groups within the ,open           
,conspiracy4 ,but these groups  will be 
concerned with the huge and more        
complicated problems of the  processes  
by which even now the small isolated    
individual adventures in  production and
 trading1 that constituted the economic 
life of former  civilisations1 are      
giving place to larger1 better          
instructed1 better  planned industrial  
organisations1 whose operations and     
combinations  become at last world wide4
    ,the amalgamations and combinations1
 the substitution of large-scale        
business for multitudes of small-scale  
businesses1 which are going on  now1 go 

on with all the cruelty and disregards  
of a natural process4 ,if  man is to    
profit and survive1 these unconscious   
blunderings--which now  stagger towards 
but which may never attain world        
organisation--must be  watched1         
controlled1 mastered and directed4 ,as  
uncertainty diminishes1  the quality of 
adventure and the amount of waste       
diminish also1 and  large speculative   
profits are no longer possible or       
justifiable4  ,the transition from      
speculative adventure to organised      
foresight in  the common interest1 in   
the whole world of economic life1 is the
  substantial task of the ,open         
,conspiracy4 ,and it is these specially 
interested and equipped groups and not  
the movement as a whole which  may best 
begin the attack upon these fundamental 
readjustments4    ,the various          
,socialist movements of the nineteenth  
and earlier twentieth  centuries had    
this in common1 that they sought to     
replace the 8private  owner0 in most or 

all economic interests by some vaguely  
apprehended  8public owner40 ,this1     
following the democratic disposition of 
the  times1 was commonly conceived of as
 an elected body1 a municipality1  the  
parliamentary state or what not4 ,there 
were municipal socialists1              
8nationalising0 socialists1 imperial    
socialists4 ,in the mystic  teachings of
 the ,marxist1 the collective owner was 
to be 8the  dictatorship of the         
proletariat40 ,production for profit was
 denounced4  ,the contemporary mind     
realises the evils of production for    
profit and  of the indiscriminate       
scrambling of private ownership1 but it 
has a  completer realisation and a      
certain accumulation of experience of   
the  difficulties of organising that    
larger ownership we desire4 ,private    
ownership may not be altogether evil as 
a provisional stage even if  it has no  
more in its favour than the ability to  
transcend political  boundaries4        
,moreover--and here again the democratic

 prepossessions of the  nineteenth      
century come in--the ,socialist         
movements sought to make  every single  
adherent a reformer and a propagandist  
of economic  methods4 ,in order to do   
so1 it was necessary to simplify        
economic  processes to the crudity of   
nursery toys1 and the intricate         
interplay  of will and desire in        
enterprise1 normal employment and       
direction1  in questions of ownership1  
wages1 credit and money1 was reduced to 
a childish fable of surplus value       
wickedly appropriated4 ,the ,open       
,conspiracy is not so much a socialism  
as a more comprehensive scheme  that has
 eaten and assimilated whatever was     
digestible of its socialist  forebears4 
,it turns to biology for guidance       
towards the regulation of  quantity and 
a controlled distribution of the human  
population of the  world1 and it judges 
all the subsidiary aspects of property  
and pay by  the criterion of most       
efficient production and distribution in

 relation  to the indications thus      
obtained4    ,these economic groups1    
then1 of the ,open ,conspiracy1 which   
may come  indeed to be a large part of  
the ,open ,conspiracy1 will be working  
in  that vast task of economic          
reconstruction--which from the point of 
view of the older socialism was the sole
 task before mankind4 ,they  will be    
conducting experiments and observing    
processes according to  their           
opportunities4 ,through ad hoc societies
 and journals  they will be comparing   
and examining their methods and         
preparing  reports and clear information
 for the movement at large4 ,the whole  
question of money and monetary methods  
in our modern communities1 so           
extraordinarily disregarded in socialist
 literature1 will be examined  under the
 assumption that money is the token of  
the community's  obligation1 direct or  
indirect1 to an individual1 and credit  
its  permission to deal freely with     
material4    ,the whole psychology of   

industry and industrial relationship    
needs  to be revised and restated in    
terms of the collective efficiency and  
welfare of mankind4 ,and just as far as 
can be contrived1 the counsel  and the  
confidences of those who now direct     
great industrial and  financial         
operations will be invoked4 ,the first  
special task of a  banker1 or a bank    
clerk for that matter1 who joins the    
,open ,conspiracy1  will be to answer   
the questions3 8,what is a bank80 8,what
 are you going  to do about it80 8,what 
have we to do about it80 ,the first     
question  to a manufacturer will be3    
8,what are you making and why80 and     
8,what  are you and we to do about it80 
,instead of the crude proposals to      
8expropriate0 and 8take over by the     
state0 of the primitive socialism1  the 
,open ,conspiracy will build up an      
encyclopdic conception of the  modern   
economic complex as a labyrinthine      
pseudo-system progressively  eliminating
 waste and working its way along        

multitudinous channels  towards unity1  
towards clarity of purpose and method1  
towards abundant  productivity and      
efficient social service4    ,let us    
come back now for a paragraph or so to  
the ordinary adherent  to the ,open     
,conspiracy1 the adherent considered not
 in relation to  his special aptitudes  
and services1 but in relation to the    
movement  as a whole and to those       
special constructive organisations      
outside  his own field4 ,it will be his 
duty to keep his mind in touch with the 
progressing concepts of the scientific  
work so far as he is able and  with the 
larger issues of the economic           
reconstruction that is afoot1 to  take  
his cues from the special groups and    
organisations engaged upon  that work1  
and to help where he finds his          
opportunity and when there  is a call   
upon him4 ,but no adherent of the ,open 
,conspiracy can remain  merely and      
completely an ordinary adherent4 ,there 
can be no pawns in  the game of the     

,open ,conspiracy1 no 8cannon fodder0 in
 its war4 ,a  special activity quite as 
much as a general understanding is      
demanded  from everyone who looks       
creatively towards the future of        
mankind4    ,we have instanced first the
 fine and distinctive world organisation
 of  pure science and then the huge     
massive movement towards co-operating   
unity of aim in the economic life until 
at last the production and  distribution
 of staple necessities is apprehended as
 one world  business1 and we have       
suggested that this latter movement may 
gradually  pervade and incorporate a    
very great bulk of human activities4    
,but  besides this fine current and this
 great torrent of evolving activities   
and relationships there are also a very 
considerable variety of other  great    
functions in the community towards which
 ,open ,conspiracy groups  must direct  
their organising enquiries and          
suggestions in their common  intention  
of ultimately assimilating all the      

confused processes of  to-day into a    
world community4    ,for example1 there 
must be a series of groups in close     
touch at  one end with biological       
science and at the other with the       
complex  of economic activity1 who will 
be concerned specially with the         
practical administration of the         
biological interests of the race1 from  
food-plants and industrial products to  
pestilences and population4 ,and        
another series of groups will gather    
together attention and energy to  focus 
them upon the educational process4 ,we  
have already pointed out in  ,chapter   
,nine that there is a strong disposition
 towards conservatism  in normal        
educational institutions4 ,they preserve
 traditions rather  than develop them4  
,they are likely to set up a            
considerable resistance  to the         
reconstruction of the world outlook upon
 the threefold basis  defined in        
,chapter ,twelve4 ,this resistance must 
be attacked by special  societies1 by   

the establishment of competing schools1 
by help and  promotion for enlightened  
teachers1 and1 wherever the attack is   
incompletely successful1 it must be     
supplemented by the energetic  diffusion
 of educational literature for adults1  
upon modern lines4 ,the  forces of the  
entire movement may be mobilised in a   
variety of ways to  bring pressure upon 
reactionary schools and institutions4   
,a set of activities correlated with    
most of the directly creative  ones will
 lie through existing political and     
administrative bodies4  ,the political  
work of the ,open ,conspiracy must be   
conducted upon  two levels and by       
entirely different methods4 ,its main   
political  idea1 its political strategy1
 is to weaken1 efface1 incorporate or   
supersede existing governments4 ,but    
there is also a tactical diversion  of  
administrative powers and resources to  
economic and educational  arrangements  
of a modern type4 ,because a country or 
a district is  inconvenient as a        

division and destined to ultimate       
absorption in  some more comprehensive  
and economical system of government1    
that is  no reason why its              
administration should not be brought    
meanwhile into  working co-operation    
with the development of the ,open       
,conspiracy4 ,free  ,trade nationalism  
in power is better than high tariff     
nationalism1 and  pacificist party      
liberalism better than aggressive party 
patriotism4    ,this evokes the         
anticipation of another series of       
groups1 a group in  every possible      
political division1 whose task it will  
be to organise  the whole strength of   
the ,open ,conspiracy in that division  
as an  effective voting or agitating    
force4 ,in many divisions this might    
soon become a sufficiently considerable 
block to affect the attitudes  and      
pledges of the national politicians4    
,the organisation of these  political   
groups into provincial or national      
conferences and systems  would follow   

hard upon their appearance4 ,in their   
programmes they would  be guided by     
meetings and discussions with the       
specifically economic1  educational1    
biological1 scientific and central      
groups1 but they would  also form their 
own special research bodies to work out 
the incessant  problems of transition   
between the old type of locally centred 
administrations and a developing world  
system of political controls4    ,in the
 preceding chapter we sketched the first
 practicable first phase  of the ,open  
,conspiracy as the propaganda of a group
 of interlocking  ideas1 a propaganda   
associated with pacificist action4 ,in  
the present  chapter we have given a    
scheme of branching and amplifying      
development4  ,in this scheme1 this     
scheme of the second phase1 we conceive 
of the  ,open ,conspiracy as consisting 
of a great multitude and variety of     
overlapping groups1 but now all         
organised for collective political1     
social and educational as well as       

propagandist action4 ,they will         
recognise each other much more clearly  
than they did at first and they  will   
have acquired a common name4    ,the    
groups1 however1 almost all of them1    
will still have specific  work also4    
,some will be organising a sounder      
setting for scientific  progress1 some  
exploring new social and educational    
possibilities1  many concentrated upon  
this or that phase in the reorganisation
 of the  world's economic life and so   
forth4 ,the individual ,open            
,conspirator  may belong to one or more 
groups and in addition to the ad hoc    
societies and organisations which the   
movement will sustain1 often in         
co-operation with partially sympathetic 
people still outside its ranks4    ,the 
character of the ,open ,conspiracy will 
now be plainly displayed4 ,it  will have
 become a great world movement as       
widespread and evident as  socialism or 
communism4 ,it will largely have taken  
the place of these  movements4 ,it will 

be more1 it will be a world religion4   
,this large  loose assimilatory mass of 
groups and societies will be definitely 
and  obviously attempting to swallow up 
the entire population of the world  and 
become the new human community4         
,chapter ,,xiv    ,,existing ,,and      
,,developing ,,movements ,,with ,,which 
,,the ,,open ,,conspiracy ,,may  ,,hope 
,,to ,,coalesce      ,a suggestion has  
already been made in an earlier chapter 
of this  essay which may perhaps be     
expanded here a little more4 ,it is that
  there already exist in the world a    
considerable number of movements  in    
industry1 in political life1 in social  
matters1 in education1  which point in  
the same direction as the ,open         
,conspiracy4 ,it will be  interesting to
 discuss how far some of these movements
 may not become  confluent with others  
and by a mere process of logical        
completion  identify themselves with the
 ,open ,conspiracy4    ,consider1 for   
example1 the movement for a scientific  

study and  control of population        
pressure1 known popularly as the ,birth 
,control  ,movement4 ,by itself1        
assuming existing political and economic
  conditions1 this movement lays itself 
open to the charge of being  no better  
than a scheme of 8race suicide40 ,if a  
population in some  area of high        
civilisation attempts to restrict       
increase1 organise  its economic life   
upon methods of maximum individual      
productivity  and impose order and      
beauty upon its entire territory1 that  
region  will become irresistibly        
attractive to any adjacent festering    
mass of  low-grade highly reproductive  
population4 ,the cheap humanity of the  
one community will make a constant      
attack upon the other1 affording  facile
 servility1 prostitutes1 toilers1 hand  
labour4 ,tariffs against  sweated       
products1 restriction of immigration1   
tensions leading at  last to a war of   
defensive massacre are inevitable4 ,the 
conquest of  an illiterate1 hungry and  

incontinent multitude may be almost as  
disastrous as defeat for the selector   
race4 ,indeed one finds that in         
discussion the propagandists of ,birth  
,control admit that their project  must 
be universal or dysgenic4 ,but yet quite
 a number of them do not  follow up     
these admissions to their logical       
consequences1 produce  the lines and    
continue the curves until the complete  
form of the  ,open ,conspiracy appears4 
,it will be the business of the early   
,open  ,conspiracy propagandists to make
 them do so1 and to install groups and  
representatives at every possible point 
of vantage in this movement4    ,and    
similarly the now very numerous         
associations for world peace halt  in   
alarm on the edge of their own          
implications4 ,world ,peace remains  a  
vast aspiration until there is some     
substitute for the present  competition 
of states for markets and raw material1 
and some restraint  upon population     
pressure4 ,league of ,nations ,societies

 and all forms of  pacificist           
organisation are either futile or       
insincere until they come  into line    
with the complementary propositions of  
the ,open ,conspiracy4    ,the various  
socialist movements again are partial   
projects professing  at present to be   
self-sufficient schemes4 ,most of them  
involve a  pretence that national and   
political forces are intangible phantoms
  and that the primary issue of         
population pressure can be ignored4     
,they  produce one woolly scheme after  
another for transferring the property   
in this1 that or the other economic     
plant and interest from bodies  of      
shareholders and company promoters to   
gangs of politicians or to  syndicates  
of workers--to be steered to efficiency1
 it would seem1 by  pillars of cloud by 
day and pillars of fire by night4 ,the  
communist  party has trained a whole    
generation of disciples to believe that 
the  overthrow of a vaguely apprehended 
8,capitalism0 is the simple solution  of

 all human difficulties4 ,no movement   
ever succeeded so completely  in        
substituting phrases for thought4 ,in   
,moscow communism has trampled          
8,capitalism0 underfoot for ten eventful
 years1 and still finds all the         
problems of social and political        
construction before it4    ,but as soon 
as the ,socialist or ,communist can be  
got to realise that  his repudiation of 
private monopolisation is not a complete
 programme  but just a preliminary      
principle1 he is ripe for the ampler    
concepts  of the modern outlook4 ,the   
,open ,conspiracy is the natural        
inheritor of  socialist and communist   
enthusiasms2 it may be in control of    
,moscow  before it is in control of ,new
 ,york4    ,the ,open ,conspiracy may   
achieve the more or less complete       
amalgamation  of all the radical        
impulses in the ,atlantic community of  
to-day4 ,but  its scope is not confined 
to the variety of sympathetic movements 
which  are brought to mind by that loose

 word radical4 ,in the past  fifty years
 or so while ,socialists and ,communists
 have been denouncing  the current      
processes of economic life in the same  
invariable phrases  and with the same   
undiscriminating animosity1 these       
processes have  been undergoing the     
profoundest and most interesting        
changes4 ,while  socialist thought has  
recited its phrases1 with witty rather  
than  substantial variations1 a thousand
 times as many clever people have  been 
busy upon industrial1 mercantile and    
financial processes4 ,the  ,socialist   
still reiterates that this greater body 
of intelligence has  been merely seeking
 private gain1 which has just as much   
truth in it  as is necessary to make it 
an intoxicating lie4 ,everywhere        
competitive  businesses have been giving
 way to amalgamated enterprises1        
marching  towards monopoly1 and         
personally owned businesses to          
organisations so  large as to acquire   
more and more the character of publicly 

responsible  bodies4 ,in theory in      
,great ,britain1 banks are privately    
owned and  railway transport is         
privately owned1 and they are run       
entirely for  profit--in practice their 
profit making is austerely restrained   
and  their proceedings are all the more 
sensitive to public welfare because     
they are outside the direct control of  
party politicians4    ,now this         
transformation of business1 trading and 
finance has been  so multitudinous and  
so rapid as to be still largely         
unconscious of  itself4 ,intelligent men
 have gone from combination to          
combination  and extended their range1  
year by year1 without realising how     
their  activities were enlarging them to
 conspicuousness and responsibility4    
,economic organisation is even now only 
discovering itself for what  it is4 ,it 
has accepted incompatible existing      
institutions to its own  great injury4  
,it has been patriotic and broken its   
shins against the  tariff walls its     

patriotism has raised to hamper its own 
movements2  it has been imperial and    
found itself taxed to the limits of its 
endurance1 8controlled0 by antiquated   
military and naval experts and  crippled
 altogether4 ,the younger1 more vigorous
 intelligences in the  great business   
directorates of to-day are beginning to 
realise the  uncompleted implications of
 their enterprise4 ,a day will come when
  the gentlemen who are trying to       
control the oil supplies of the world   
without reference to anything else      
except as a subsidiary factor in  their 
game1 will be considered to be quaint   
characters4 ,the ends of  ,big ,business
 must carry ,big ,business into the     
,open ,conspiracy1 just  as surely as   
every other creative and broadly        
organising movement is  carried4    ,now
 ,i know that to all this urging towards
 a unification of  constructive effort1 
a great number of people will be        
disposed to a  reply which will1 ,i     
hope1 be less popular in the future than

 it is  at the present time4 ,they will 
assume first an expression of great     
sagacity1 an elderly air4 ,then1 smiling
 gently1 they will ask whether  there is
 not something preposterously ambitious 
in looking at the  problem of life as   
one whole4 ,is it not wiser to          
concentrate our  forces on more         
practicable things1 to attempt one thing
 at a time1  not to antagonise the whole
 order of established things against our
  poor desires1 to begin tentatively to 
refrain from putting too great  a strain
 upon people1 to trust to the growing   
common sense of the  world to adjust    
this or that line of progress to the    
general scheme of  things4 ,far better  
accomplish something definite here and  
there than  challenge a general failure4
 ,that is1 they declare1 how reformers  
and  creative things have gone on in the
 past2 that is how they are going on    
now2 muddling forward in a mild and     
confused and partially successful  way4 
,why not trust them to go on like that8 

,let each man do his bit  with a        
complete disregard of the logical       
interlocking of progressive  effort to  
which ,i have been drawing attention4   
,now ,i must confess that1 popular as   
this style of argument is1 it gives  me 
so tedious a feeling that rather than   
argue against it in general  terms ,i   
will resort to a parable4 ,i will relate
 the story of the pig on  ,provinder    
,island4    ,there was1 you must        
understand1 only one pig on ,provinder  
,island1 and  ,heaven knows how it got  
there1 whether it escaped and swam      
ashore or  was put ashore from some     
vessel suddenly converted to            
vegetarianism1  ,i cannot imagine4 ,at  
first it was the only mammal there4 ,but
 later on  three sailors and a very     
small but observant cabin-boy were      
wrecked  there1 and after subsisting for
 a time on shell-fish and roots they    
became aware of this pig4 ,and          
simultaneously they became aware of a   
nearly intolerable craving for bacon4   

,the eldest of the three sailors  began 
to think of a ham he had met in his     
boyhood1 a beautiful ham  for which his 
father had had the carving knife        
specially sharpened2  the second of the 
three sailors dreamed repeatedly of a   
roast loin of  pork he had eaten at his 
sister's wedding1 and the third's mind  
ran  on chitterlings--,i know not why4  
,they sat about their meagre fire and   
conferred and expatiated upon these     
things until their mouths watered  and  
the shell-fish turned to water within   
them4 ,what dreams came to  the         
cabin-boy are unknown1 for it was their 
custom to discourage his  confidences4  
,but he sat apart brooding and was at   
last moved to speech4  8,let us hunt    
that old pig10 he said1 8and kill it40  
,now it may have been because it was the
 habit of these sailors to  discourage  
the cabin-boy and keep him in his place1
 but anyhow1 for  whatever reason it    
was1 all three sailors set themselves   
with one  accord to oppose that         

proposal4    8,who spoke of killing the 
pig80 said the eldest sailor loudly1    
looking  round to see if by any chance  
the pig was within hearing4 8,who spoke 
of killing the pig8 ,you're the sort of 
silly young devil who  jumps at ideas   
and hasn't no sense of difficulties4    
,what ,i said was  ,,am4 ,all ,i want is
 just a ,am to go with my roots and sea 
salt4  ,one ,am4 ,the ,left ,am4 ,i     
don't want the right one and ,i don't   
propose to  get it4 ,i've got a sense of
 proportion and a proper share of humour
 and  ,i know my limitations4 ,i'm a    
sound clear-headed practical man4 ,am is
  what ,i'm after1 and if ,i can get    
that1 ,i'm prepared to say ,quits and   
let the rest of the pig alone4 ,who's   
for joining me in a ,left ,am ,unt--a   
simple reasonable ,left ,am ,unt--just  
to get ,one ,left ,am80    ,nobody      
answered him directly1 but when his     
voice died away1 the next  sailor in    
order of seniority took up the tale4    
8,that ,boy10 he said1  8will die of    

,swelled ,ed1 and ,i pity im4 ,my idea  
is to follow up the  pig and get hold of
 a loin chop4 ,just simply a loin chop4 
,a loin chop  is good enough for me4    
,it's--feasible4 ,much more feasible    
than a great  ,am4 ,here we are1 we've  
got no gun1 we've got no wood of a sort 
to make  bows and arrows1 we've not     
nothing but our clasp knives1 and that  
pig  can run like ,ell4 ,it's ridiculous
 to think of killing that pig4 ,but  if 
one didn't trouble him1 if one kind of  
got into his confidence and  crept near 
him and just quietly and insidiously    
went for his loin--just  sort of as if  
one was tickling him--one might get a   
loin chop almost  before he knew of it40
    ,the third sailor sat crumpled up   
and downcast with his lean  fingers     
tangled in his shock of hair4           
8,chitterlings10 he murmured1           
8chitterlings4 ,i don't even want to    
think of the pig40    ,and the cabin-boy
 pursued his own ideas in silence1 for  
he deemed it  unwise to provoke his     

elders further4    ,on these lines it   
was the three sailors set about the     
gratifying of  their taste for pork1    
each in his own way1 separately and     
sanely and  modestly4 ,and each had his 
reward4 ,the first sailor after weeks of
  patience got within arm's length of   
the pig and smacked that coveted  left  
ham loud and good1 and felt success was 
near4 ,the other two  heard the smack   
and the grunt of dismay half a mile     
away4 ,but the  pig in a state of       
astonishment carried the ham off out of 
reach1  there and then1 and that was as 
close as the first sailor ever got  to  
his objective4 ,the roast loin hunter   
did no better4 ,he came upon  the pig   
asleep under a rock one day1 and jumped 
upon the very loin he  desired1 but the 
pig bit him deeply and septically1 and  
displayed so  much resentment that the  
question of a chop was dropped forthwith
 and  never again broached between them4
 ,and thereafter the arm of the second  
sailor was bandaged and swelled up and  

went from bad to worse4 ,and as  for the
 third sailor1 it is doubtful whether he
 even got wind of a  chitterling from   
the start to the finish of this parable4
 ,the cabin-boy  pursuing notions of his
 own made a pitfall for the whole pig1  
but as  the others did not help him1 and
 as he was an excessively small--though 
shrewd--cabin-boy1 it was a feeble and  
insufficient pitfall and all it  caught 
was the hunter of chitterlings who was  
wandering distraught4  ,after which the 
hunter of chitterlings became a hunter  
of cabin-boys1  and the cabin-boy's     
life1 for all his shrewdness1 was       
precarious and  unpleasant4 ,he slept   
only in snatches and learned the full   
bitterness  of insight misunderstood4   
,when at last a ship came to ,provinder 
,island and took off the three men  and 
the cabin-boy1 the pig was still bacon  
intact and quite gay and  cheerful1 and 
all four castaways were in a very       
emaciated condition  because at that    
season of the year shell-fish were rare 

and edible  roots were hard to find and 
the pig was very much cleverer than they
  were in finding them and digging them 
up--let alone digesting them4    ,from  
which parable it may be gathered that a 
partial enterprise is not  always wiser 
or more hopeful than a comprehensive    
one4    ,and in the same manner1 with   
myself in the rle of that minute but    
observant cabin-boy1 ,i would sustain   
the proposition that none of these      
movements of partial reconstruction has 
the sound common-sense quality  its     
supporters suppose4 ,all these movements
 are worth while if they  can be taken  
into a world-wide movement2 all in      
isolation are futile4  ,they will be    
overlaid and lost in the general drift4 
,the policy of the  whole hog is the    
best one1 the sanest one1 the easiest   
and the most  hopeful4 ,if sufficient   
men and women of intelligence can       
realise that  simple truth and give up  
their lives to it1 mankind may yet      
achieve a  civilisation and power and   

fullness of life beyond our present     
dreams4  ,if they do not1 frustration   
will triumph1 and war1 violence and a   
drivelling waste of time and strength   
and desire1 more disgusting even  than  
war1 will be the lot of our race down   
through the ages to its  emaciated and  
miserable end4    ,for this little      
planet of ours is quite off the course  
of any rescue  ships1 if the will in our
 species fails4          ,chapter ,,xv  
,,the ,,creative ,,home1 ,,social       
,,group ,,and ,,school3 ,,the ,,present 
,,waste ,,of  ,,youthful ,,seriousness  
,human society began with the family4   
,the natural history of  gregariousness 
is a history of the establishment of    
mutual toleration  among human animals1 
so that a litter or a herd keeps        
together instead  of breaking up4 ,it is
 in the family group that the           
restraints1  disciplines and            
self-sacrifices which make human society
 possible were  worked out and our      
fundamental prejudices established1 and 

it is in the  family group that our     
social life must be relearnt generation 
after  generation4    ,now in each      
generation the ,open ,conspiracy must   
remain a minority  movement of          
intelligent converts until it can       
develop its own  reproductive methods4  
,a unified progressive world community  
demands  its own type of home and       
training4 ,it needs to have its         
fundamental  concepts firmly established
 in as many minds as possible and to    
guard  its children from the infection  
of the old racial and national hatreds  
and jealousies1 old superstitions and   
bad mental habits1 and base             
interpretations of life4 ,from its      
outset the ,open ,conspiracy will be    
setting itself to influence the existing
 educational machinery1 but for  a long 
time it will find itself confronted in  
school and college by  powerful         
religious and political authorities     
determined to set back the  children at 
the point or even behind the point from 

which their parents  made their escape4 
,at best1 the liberalism of the         
state-controlled  schools will be a     
compromise4 ,during the early phases of 
its struggle1  therefore1 the ,open     
,conspiracy will be obliged to adopt a  
certain  sectarianism of domestic and   
social life in the interests of its     
children1 and it may even in many cases 
have to consider the grouping  of its   
families and the establishment of its   
own schools4 ,in many  modern           
communities1 the ,english-speaking      
states1 for example1 there is  still    
liberty to establish educational        
companies1 running schools of a  special
 type4 ,in every country where that     
right does not exist it has  to be      
fought for4    ,there lies a great work 
for various groups of the ,open         
,conspiracy4  ,successful schools would 
become laboratories of educational      
methods  and patterns for the state     
schools4 ,necessarily for a time1 the   
,open  ,conspiracy children would become

 a social lite1 they would begin from   
their first conscious moments to think  
and talk among clear-headed  people     
speaking distinctly and behaving        
frankly1 and it would be a  waste and   
loss to put them back for the scholastic
 stage among their  mentally indistinct 
and morally muddled contemporaries4 ,a  
phase when  there will be a special     
educational system for the ,open        
,conspiracy  is1 therefore1 clearly     
indicated4 ,its children will learn to  
speak1  draw1 think1 compute lucidly and
 subtly1 and into their vigorous minds  
they will take the broad concepts of    
history1 biology and mechanical         
progress1 the basis of the new world1   
naturally and easily4 ,meanwhile1  those
 who grow up outside the advancing      
educational frontier of the  ,open      
,conspiracy will never come under the   
full influence of its ideas1  or they   
will get hold of them only after a      
severe struggle against a  mass of      
misrepresentations and elaborately      

instilled prejudices4    ,the ,open     
,conspiracy will not be in health until 
it has segregated its  home life and    
much of its social life from the general
 confusions  of to-day1 until its       
adherents marry and associate           
preferentially  within the movement and 
keep themselves essentially aloof from  
the  prevalent methods of wasting time  
and interest4 ,they must evolve a new   
social atmosphere4 ,it will be a minor  
aspect of the world revolution  to live 
down the contemporary theatre1          
contemporary 8amusements10  the         
sentimental booms and imitative chatter1
 the ovine congregating  to gape at this
 or that1 the dull pursuit of sports and
 8games0 and  quasi-innocent vices1 the 
fashions and industrious futilities of  
current life so soon as it escapes from 
poverty4 ,the whole drift of  the       
contemporary world is to tempt and      
ensnare and waste our children4  ,it has
 a diabolical disposition to make life  
altogether trivial and  ineffective4    

,over all these matters women seem to   
have much more  aptitude and power than 
men4 ,it may not be true that 8woman's  
sphere is  the home10 but certainly the 
home and its immediate social atmosphere
  is her empire4 ,she can be the moral  
quite as much as the physical  mother of
 the days to come4           99       99
       99       99       99    ,always1 
as long as ,i can remember1 there has   
been a dispute and  invidious           
comparisons between the old and the     
young4 ,the young find the  old prey    
upon and restrain them and the old find 
the young1 shallow1  disappointing and  
aimless in vivid contrast to their own  
revised  memories of their own early    
days4 ,the present time is one in which 
these perennial accusations flower with 
exceptional vigour4 ,but there  does    
seem to be some truth in the statement  
that the facilities to live  frivolously
 are greater now than they have ever    
been for old and young  alike4 ,in the  
great communities that emerge from      

,christendom1 there is  a widespread    
disposition to regard ,sunday as merely 
a holiday4 ,but that  was certainly not 
the original intention of ,sunday4 ,as  
we have noted  already in an earlier    
chapter1 it was a day dedicated to the  
greater  issues of life4 ,now great     
multitudes of people do not even pretend
 to  set aside any time at all to the   
greater issues of life4 ,the churches   
are neglected and nothing of a unifying 
or exalting sort takes their  place4    
,now what the contemporary senior tells 
his junior to-day is perfectly  correct4
 ,in his youth1 no serious impulse of   
his went to waste4 ,he  was not         
distracted by a thousand gay but petty  
temptations1 and the  local religious   
powers1 whatever they happened to be1   
seemed to  believe in themselves more   
and made a more comprehensive attack    
upon  his conscience and imagination4   
,now the old faiths are damaged and     
discredited and the new and greater one1
 which is the ,open ,conspiracy1  takes 

shape only slowly4 ,a decade or so ago1 
socialism preached  its confident hopes1
 and patriotism and imperial pride      
shared its  attraction for the ever     
grave and passionate will of emergent   
youth4  ,now socialism and democracy are
 8under revision0 and the flags that    
once waved so bravely reek of poison    
gas1 are stiff with blood and mud  and  
shameful with exposed dishonesties4     
,youth is what youth has always  been1  
eager for fine interpretations of life1 
capable of splendid  resolves4 ,but it  
comes up out of its childhood to-day    
into a world of  ruthless exposures and 
cynical pretensions4 ,the past ten years
 has  seen the shy and powerful idealism
 of youth at a loss and dismayed as     
perhaps it has never been before4 ,it is
 in the world still1 but masked1  hiding
 even from itself in a whirl of small   
excitements and futile  defiant         
depravities4    ,the old flags and      
faiths have lost their magic for the    
intelligence of  the young2 they can    

command it no more2 it is in the mighty 
revolution  to which the ,open          
,conspiracy directs itself that the     
youth of mankind  must once more find   
its soul if ever it is to find its soul 
again4          ,chapter ,,xvi          
,,progressive ,,development ,,of ,,the  
,,activities ,,of ,,the ,,open          
,,conspiracy ,,into ,a  ,,world         
,,control ,,and ,,commonweal3 ,,the     
,,hazards ,,of ,,the ,,conflict      ,we
 have now sketched out in these ,blue   
,prints1 the methods by which the       
confused radicalism and constructive    
forces of the present time may  and can 
and probably will be drawn together     
about a core of modernised  religious   
feeling into one great and multifarious 
creative effort4  ,a way has been shown 
by which this effort may be developed   
from a  mere propagandist campaign and a
 merely resistant protest against       
contemporary militarism into an         
organised foreshadowing in research1    
publicity and experiment in educational1

 economic and political                 
reconstructions1 of that ,pax ,mundi1   
which has become already  the tantalised
 desire of great multitudes throughout  
the world4 ,these  foreshadowings and   
reconstructions will ignore and         
transcend the  political boundaries of  
to-day4 ,they will continually become   
more  substantial as project passes into
 attempt and performance4 ,in phase     
after phase and at point after point1   
therefore1 the ,open ,conspiracy  will  
come to grips with the powers that      
sustain these boundaries4    ,and it    
will not be merely topographical        
boundaries that will be passed4  ,the   
,open ,conspiracy will also be          
dissolving and repudiating many         
existing restrictions upon conduct and  
many social prejudices4 ,the ,open      
,conspiracy proposes to end and shows   
how an end may be put to that huge      
substratum of under-developed1          
under-educated1 subjugated1 exploited   
and frustrated lives upon which such    

civilisation as the world has  known    
hitherto has rested1 and upon which most
 of our social systems  still rest4     
,whenever possible1 the ,open           
,conspiracy will advance by illumination
 and  persuasion4 ,but it has to advance
 and even from the outset where it is   
not allowed to illuminate and persuade  
it must fight4 ,its first fights  will  
probably be for the right to spread its 
system of ideas plainly  and clearly    
throughout the world4    ,there is1 ,i  
suppose1 a flavour of treason about the 
assumption that any  established        
government is provisional1 and a quality
 of immorality in  any criticism of     
accepted moral standards4 ,still more is
 the proposal1  made even in times of   
peace1 to resist war levies and         
conscription1 an  offence against       
absolute conceptions of loyalty4 ,but   
the ampler wisdom  of the modern        
,atlantic communities1 already touched  
by premonitions of  change and futurity1
 has continually enlarged the common    

liberties of  thought for some          
generations1 and it is doubtful if there
 will be any  serious resistance to the 
dissemination of these views and the    
early  organisation of the ,open        
,conspiracy in any of the               
,english-speaking  communities or       
throughout the ,british ,empire1 in the 
,scandinavian  countries1 or in such    
liberal-minded countries as ,holland1   
,switzerland1  republican ,germany or   
,france4 ,france1 in the hasty years    
after the  war1 submitted to some       
repressive legislation against the      
discussion  of birth control or hostile 
criticism of the militarist attitude2   
but  such a check upon mental freedom is
 altogether contrary to the clear  and  
open quality of the ,french mind2 in    
practice it has already been            
effectively repudiated by such writers  
as ,victor ,margueritte1 and it is      
unlikely that there will be any         
effective suppression of the opening    
phases of the ,open ,conspiracy in      

,france4    ,this gives us a large      
portion of the existing civilised world 
in  which men's minds may be readjusted 
to the idea that their existing         
governments are in the position of      
trustees for the greater government  of 
the coming age4 ,throughout these       
communities it is conceivable that  the 
structural lines of the world community 
may be materialised and  established    
with only minor struggles1 local        
boycotts1 vigorous public               
controversies1 normal legislative       
obstruction1 social pressure and  overt 
political activities4 ,police1 jail1    
expulsions and so forth1 let  alone     
outlawry and warfare1 may scarcely be   
brought into this struggle  upon the    
high civilised level of the ,atlantic   
communities4 ,but where  they are       
brought in1 the ,open ,conspiracy to the
 best of its ability  and the full      
extent of its resources1 must become a  
fighting force and  organise itself upon
 resistant lines4    ,non-resistance1   

the restriction of activities to moral  
suasion1  is no part of the programme of
 the ,open ,conspiracy4 ,in the face of 
unscrupulous opposition creative ideas  
must become aggressive1 must  define    
their enemies and attack them4 ,by its  
own organisations or  through the police
 and military strength of governments   
amenable to  its ideas1 the movement is 
bound to find itself fighting for open  
roads1 open frontiers1 freedom of speech
 and the realities of peace  in regions 
of oppression4 ,the ,open ,conspiracy   
rests upon a disrespect  for nationality
 and there is no reason why it should   
tolerate noxious  or obstructive        
governments because they hold their own 
in this or that  patch of human         
territory4 ,it lies within the power of 
the ,atlantic  communities to impose    
peace upon the world and secure         
unimpeded  movement and free speech from
 end to end of the earth4 ,this is a    
fact  on which the ,open ,conspiracy    
must insist4 ,the ,english-speaking     

states1  ,france1 ,germany1 ,holland1   
,switzerland1 the ,scandinavian         
countries and  ,russia1 given only a not
 very extravagant frankness of          
understanding  between them1 and a      
common disposition towards the ideas of 
the ,open  ,conspiracy1 could cease to  
arm against each other and still exert  
enough strength to impose disarmament   
and a respect for human freedom  in     
every corner of the planet4 ,it is      
fantastic pedantry to wait for all  the 
world to accede before all the world is 
pacified and policed4    ,the most      
inconsistent factor in the liberal and  
radical thought of  to-day is its       
prejudice against the interference of   
highly developed  modern states in the  
affairs of less stable and less advanced
 regions4  ,this is denounced as        
8imperialism10 and regarded as criminal4
 ,it  may have assumed grotesque and    
dangerous forms under the now dying     
traditions of national competition1 but 
as the merger of the ,atlantic  states  

proceeds1 the possibility and necessity 
of bringing areas of  misgovernment and 
disorder under world control increase4  
,a great war  like the war of #aiad-aiah
 may never happen again4 ,the           
common-sense  of mankind may suffice to 
avert that4 ,but there is still much    
actual  warfare before mankind1 on the  
frontiers everywhere1 against brigands1 
against ancient loyalties and traditions
 which will become at last  no better   
than excuses for brigandage and         
obstructive exaction4 ,all  the weight  
of the ,open ,conspiracy will be on the 
side of the world  order and against    
that sort of local independence which   
holds back its  subject people from the 
citizenship of the world4    ,but in    
this broad prospect of far-reaching     
political amalgamations  under the      
impulses of the ,open ,conspiracy lurk a
 thousand antagonisms  and adverse      
chances1 like the unsuspected gulleys   
and ravines and  thickets in a wide and 
distant landscape4 ,we know not what    

unexpected  chasms may presently be     
discovered4 ,the ,open ,conspirator may 
realise  that he is one of an advancing 
and victorious force and still find     
himself outnumbered and outfought in his
 own particular corner of the           
battlefield4 ,no one can yet estimate   
the possible strength of reaction       
against world unification2 no one can   
foresee the extent of the  divisions and
 confusions that may arise among        
ourselves4 ,the ideas in  this book may 
be spread about without any serious     
resistance in most  civilised countries1
 but there are still governments under  
which the  persistent expression of such
 thoughts will be dealt with as crimes  
and  bring men and women to prison1     
torment and death4 ,nevertheless they   
must be expressed4    ,while the ,open  
,conspiracy is no more than a discussion
 it may spread  unopposed because it is 
disregarded4 ,as a mainly passive       
resistance  to militarism it may still  
be tolerable4 ,but as its knowledge and 

experience accumulate and its           
organisation becomes more effective and 
aggressive1 as it begins to lay hands   
upon education1 upon social  habits1    
upon business developments1 as it       
proceeds to take over the  organisation 
of the community1 it will marshal not   
only its own forces  but its enemies4 ,a
 complex of interests will find         
themselves restrained  and threatened by
 it and it may easily evoke that most   
dangerous of  human mass feelings1 fear4
 ,in ways quite unpredictable it may    
raise a  storm against itself beyond all
 our present imaginings4 ,our conception
  of an almost bloodless domination of  
the ,atlantic communities may be  merely
 the confident dream of a thinker whose 
thoughts have yet to be  squarely       
challenged4    ,we are not even sure of 
the common peace4 ,across the path of   
mankind  the storm of another ,great    
,war may break1 bringing with it for a  
time  more brutal repressions and vaster
 injuries even than its predecessor4    

,the scaffoldings and work-sheds of the 
,open ,conspiracy may fare  violently in
 that tornado4 ,the restoration of      
progress may seem an  almost hopeless   
struggle4    ,it is no part of the      
modern religion to incur needless       
hardship or  go out of the way to seek  
martyrdom4 ,if we can do our work easily
  and happily1 so it should be done4    
,but the work is not to be shirked      
because it cannot be done easily and    
happily4 ,the vision of a world at      
peace and liberated for an unending     
growth of knowledge and power is  worth 
every danger of the way4 ,and since in  
this age of confusion we  must live     
imperfectly and anyhow die1 we may as   
well suffer if need  be1 and die for a  
great end as for none4 ,never has the   
translation of  vision into realities   
been easy since the beginning of human  
effort4  ,the establishment of the world
 community will surely exact a          
price--and  who can tell what that price
 may be8--in toil1 suffering and blood4 

,chapter ,,xvii    ,,the ,,world        
,,community      ,the new life that the 
,open ,conspiracy struggles to achieve  
through  us for our race is first a life
 of liberations4 ,the oppression of     
incessant toil can surely be lifted from
 everyone1 and the miseries  due to a   
great multitude of infections and       
disorders of nutrition and  growth cease
 to be a part of human experience4 ,few 
people are perfectly  healthy nowadays  
except for brief periods of happiness1  
but the elation  of physical well-being 
will some day be the common lot of      
mankind4  ,and not only from natural    
evils will man be largely free4 ,he will
 not  be left with his soul tangled1    
haunted by monstrous and irrational     
fears and a prey to malicious impulse4  
,from his birth he will breathe         
sweetness and generosity and use his    
mind and hands cleanly and  exactly4 ,he
 will feel better1 will better1 think   
better1 see1 taste and  hear better than
 men do now4 ,all these things are      

plainly possible for  him4 ,they pass   
out of his tormented desire now1 they   
elude and mock  him1 because chance1    
confusion and squalor rule his life4    
,all the gifts  of destiny are overlaid 
and lost to him4 ,he must still suspect 
and fear4    ,within the peace and      
freedom our ,open ,conspiracy will win1 
all these  good things that escape us   
now may be ensured4 ,a graver humanity1 
stronger1 more lovely1 longer lived1    
will learn and develop the              
ever-enlarging possibilities of its     
destiny4 ,for the first time1 the  full 
beauty of this world will be revealed to
 its unhurried eyes4  ,its thoughts will
 be to our thoughts as the thoughts of a
 man to the  troubled mental            
experimenting of a child4 ,and all the  
best of us will  be living on in that   
ampler life1 as the child and the things
 it tried  and learnt still live in the 
man4 ,when we were children1 we could   
not  think or feel as we think and feel 
to-day1 but to-day we can peer back  and

 still recall something of the          
ignorances and guesses and wild hopes   
of these nigh forgotten years4 ,and so  
mankind1 ourselves still living1        
dispersed and reconstructed in the      
future1 will recall with affection  and 
understanding the desperate wishes and  
troubled efforts of our  present state4 
,how can we anticipate the habitations  
and ways1 the usages and  adventures1   
the mighty employments1 the             
ever-increasing knowledge and  power of 
the days to come8 ,no more than a child 
with its scribbling  paper and its box  
of bricks can picture or model the      
undertakings  of its adult years4 ,our  
battle is with cruelties and            
frustrations1  stupid1 heavy and hateful
 things from which we shall escape at   
last1  less like victors conquering a   
world than like sleepers awaking from  a
 nightmare in the dawn4 ,from any dream1
 however dismal and horrible1  one can  
escape by realising that it is a dream2 
by saying1 8,i will  awake40 ,the ,open 

,conspiracy is the awaking of mankind   
from a nightmare  of the struggle for   
existence and the inevitability of war4 
,the light  of day thrusts between our  
eyelids and the multitudinous sounds of 
morning clamour in our ears4 ,a time    
will come when men will sit with        
history before them or with some old    
newspaper before them1 and ask          
incredulously1 8,was there ever such a  
world80          ,,note ,,on ,,the      
,,margin ,,of ,,these ,,blue ,,prints   
,such is the truth of human possibility 
and our necessities as ,i  perceive it1 
and that is the way man must live if our
 species is to  survive and pass on to  
greater destinies4 ,i set down the truth
 as it is  given me to see it2 for me   
there can be no other truth4 ,on every  
hand  about us all is the darkness of   
the unknown1 but the light we have1     
when we have used our eyes to their     
utmost1 must be our guide4 ,because  of 
obtuseness and prepossessions1 ,i may   
but run beside the realities  ,i imagine

 ,i express4 ,necessarily reality which 
goes on all over the  universe and for  
every instant of time1 is infinitely    
more intricate  and wonderful than any  
statement1 teeming with possibilities   
still  unsuspected4 ,all the more do we 
need compass and map and plans to keep  
our direction through the jungle of its 
manifest marvels and dangers4  ,that    
this presentation of the current phase  
of human life as the  occasion for an   
,open ,conspiracy to establish a world  
commonweal will  seem to many an extreme
 simplification of our circumstances1   
should  not condemn it4 ,the value of a 
map lies in the fact that it is not a   
model nor a picture of reality but a    
reduced abstraction1 sufficiently  clear
 and sufficiently true to essentials and
 sufficiently free from  irrelevancies  
to guide4    ,this scheme to thrust     
forward and establish a human control   
over  the destinies of life and liberate
 it from its present dangers1           
uncertainties and miseries1 is offered  

here as an altogether  practicable one1 
subject only to one qualification1 that 
sufficient men  and women will be       
willing to serve it4 ,that there is no  
foretelling4  ,it is clear that the     
whole growth is dependent upon the      
appearance of  those primary groups1    
sustaining and spreading its fundamental
 ideas4  ,those ideas have to become the
 mental substratum of constructive      
effort4 ,if those ideas can find        
sufficient vigorous1 able and devoted   
people for their establishment1 the rest
 will follow4 ,there is need  of much   
leadership1 not indeed the leadership of
 a single leader1 for  the days of      
spiritual monarchies are over1 nor for  
the leadership of  exaggerated          
figureheads1 but for the energetic      
initiatives of many  co-operating       
personalities4 ,i will not speculate    
where these leaders  are now1 in        
universities1 in laboratories1 in       
studies1 in factories1 in  mines1 in    
technical schools1 but ,i have a firm   

belief that they will  come to the call 
of our mighty opportunities4    ,for my 
generation1 the rle of ,john the        
,baptist must be our extreme  ambition4 
,we can proclaim and make evident the   
advent of a new phase  of human faith   
and effort4 ,we can point out the path  
it has been  our lifework to discover4  
,we have struggled through the thought  
and  bitter experiences of our time4 ,we
 have hammered out our instinctive      
individualism on the anvil of socialism2
 we have witnessed the  apocalypse of   
the ,great ,war2 we have been misled1 we
 have stumbled  through depths of       
despair1 we have learnt4 8,here10 we    
say1 8is what  we have made of it all4  
,here is the basis for a new world40 ,in
 the  few years remaining to us we can  
hope to do no more than that4 ,it  is   
for you to say whether you will set your
 feet in this direction  and go along   
with us and go further4 ,upon           
you--individually and                   
multitudinously--the future rests4 ,here

 and there chance may correct  and      
supplement the efforts of our race and  
save us from the full  penalties of our 
mistakes and negligences1 but saving the
 impact of  some unimagined disaster    
from outer space1 the ultimate decision 
of the  fate of life upon this planet   
lies now in the will of man4      ,,the 
,,end          ,transcriber's ,note3    
,spelling1 hyphenation and punctuation  
have been retained as appears in  the   
original publication except as follows3 
,page viii      of the miscroscope      
changed to      of the microscope       
,page #gi      in power and auhority    
warlike classes changed to      in power
 and authority warlike classes          
,page #ih      no discrimination at last
 between changed to      no             
discrimination at least between         
,page #ajg      or how rapidy the       
knowledge changed to      or how rapidly
 the knowledge      ,page #afe      as  
defeat for the selecter changed to      
as defeat for the selector      ,page   

#bjj      mistakes and negligencies     
changed to      mistakes and negligences