“The worst fault in our civilization here,” said Lingg, “is that it is not complex enough. It holds up one prize before all of us – riches. But many of us do not wealth: we want small competency without care or fear. We ought to be able to get that as employees in some department of State. That would remove us from the competition, and tend to increase the wages of those who live in the whirl of competition. Some of us, too, are born students, want to give ourselves to the study of this, that, or another science; there ought to be chemical laboratories in every street; physical laboratories in every town with posts attached at small pay for those who would give their lives to the advancement of knowledge; studios, too, for artists; State-aided theaters. Life must be made rich by making it more complex. By not reserving whole fields of industry to the State, by giving everything to the individual we are driving all men into this mad race for riches: hence suffering, misery, discontent, the ill-health of the whole organism. The brain and heart have their own rights, and should not be forced to serve the belly. We can turn flowers into manure.”
The BOMB, pg 88
Frank Harris
first published 1909
No comments:
Post a Comment