T H E REV O LT

A G A I NS T C IV I L IZ A T IO N
THE M ENA CE OF T H E UND ER MA N

BY

LO T HR O P ST O D D A R D A , . M .
, PH D
. . H
( AR V )
.

“ "
A UT H O R or TH E r aw W O R L D o r I S L A M.
"
TH E m em o n ot or c o no n .
“ "
r a n S T A KE S o r n u w an , a rc.

NE W Y O R K
C HARL E S SCRIB NE R S SONS ’

1 922
 Com ment , 1 9 22 , B Y

C HARLES SC RI BNER S SONS ’

Printed in th e Unite d States of Am

e ric a.

P u b lis h ed M ay , 1 922
 P R E F A CE

T HE r evolutiona ry un rest w hi c h to—d ay afflicts the en

tire world goes far deeper than is generally supposed .

Its root cause is not Russian B olshevik propaganda

-
,

nor the late war n o r the French Revolution but a

, ,

proce ss of racial impoverishment whi ch destroyed the ,

great civilizations of the p as t and which threatens to

destroy our own .

Thi s grim blight of civili z ed society has been correctly

diagn osed only in recent years T h e momentou s bio .

logical discoveries o f th e past generation have revealed

the true workings of those hi therto mysterious laws of
life on which in the l as t an alysis all human activity
, ,

depends .

In the light of these biological discoveries confirmed ,

and amp lified by investigations in other fields o f science ,

especially psychology all political and social problems

,

nee d to be re-examined .

Su ch a re examination of o e of these problems the

n —
problem o f social revolution has been attempted in -

the present book .

L O T HRO P ST O DDA RD .

BR O O KL I NE ,
MA SS A CHU SE TT S ,

March 30, 1 922 .

 C O NT E NTS
C H A PT ER

I . THE B UR D E N or C I V I L I ZA TI O N

II . TH E I R ON LA W OF IN E Q UA L ITY

N EME S I S OF THE IN F E R I O R

IV . THE L UR E OF T HE P R I MITI V E

V . THE G R O UN D-S W E LL or R E V O LT

VI . T H E R E B E LL I ON OF T HE UN D E R-M A N

VI I . THE W A R A GA I N S T C HA O S

VI II . NE O -AR I S TO CR A C Y

IN D EX
 T HE R E V O L T
A GAINST C IVIL IZ ATI O N
THE REV OLT AGAINST CIVIL IZATION

CHA PTE R I

THE BURD E N OF C IV IL IZA TI ON

CIV I LIZA T IO N is the flowering of the human speci es I t .

is both a recen t and a fragile thing Th e first glimmer

.

ings of gen u ine civiliz ation appeare d only eight or ten

thousan d years ago This may seem a long t ime It
. .

d oe s n ot seem so long when we remember that behind

’
civili zation s dawn li es a vas t ni ght of barbarism o f sav ,

agery of bestiality estimate d at half a milli on years

, , ,

since the ape-man shambled forth from the steamin g

murk of tropic forests and scowling and blinking rais ed

, , ,

his eyes to the stars .

Civilization is complex It in volves the existence of

.

human communi ties characterized by political and social

organi zation ; d ominating and utilizing natural forces ;
adapting thems elves to the new man made environm ent-

thereby create d ; possessin g knowledge refinement arts , , ,

and sciences ; and (las t but emphatically not leas t) com

,

posed of individuals capable of sustainin g this elaborate

complex and of handing it on to a capable posterity .

This last consideration is in fact the crux o f the whole

, ,

matter ; the secret of success ; the secret likewise o f , ,

those tragic fai lures whi ch pe rplex an d sadden the stu

’
d ent of history M an s march athwart the ages has been
.
,
2 T HE RE VOLT A GAINST CIVILI ZATION
not a steady advance but rather a slow wandering now
, ,

breasting sunli t heights yet anon plunging into dank

,

s wamps and gloomy valleys Of the coun tless tribes of

.

men many have perished utterly while others have

,

s topped by the wayside apparently incapable o f going

,

f orward and have either vegetated o r sunk into deca

,

dence
’
Man s trail is littered with the wrecks of dead
.

civilizations and dotted with the graves of promising

peoples stricken by an untimely end .

Sharp an d insistent comes the query : Why ? Civiliza

tion seems so good a thing ! I t means relative protection
f rom the blind an d cruel forces of nature ; abolition of
the struggle against savage beasts an d amelioration of
the struggle between men ; Opportunity for comfort ,

leisure an d the development of the higher facult ies

,
.

Why then d o we find so many branches o f the human

,

—
,

species never attaining never really striving after

these eminently desirable boons ? Also (yet more note
worthy !) why do we find still other stocks after having ,

at tained civilization losing it and falli ng back to the

,

lower levels of barbarism or even of savagery ?

Mysteri ous though this may at first si ght appear there ,

is nevertheless an answer : Those stagnant or decadent

, ,

peoples coul d not bear the burden of civilization For .

civilization is a burden as well as a benefit This is in .

evitable in a uni verse governed by laws whi ch decree

that something may not come ou t of nothi ng Civili z a .

—
tion is not a cause but an eff ect the effect of sustained
human energy ; and this energy in turn springs from the
, ,

creative urge of superior germ plasm C ivilization is - .

 THE B UR D E N O F C IVI LI ZATI O N 3

thus fundamentally con ditione d by race I n any par .

ticular people civilization will progress jus t so far as

,

that people has the capacity to further it and the ability

to bear the correlative bur d en which it entails When .

this crucial point is reache d the civilization of that people

,

either stagnates or retrogra des Exactly how the process

.

works becomes clear by a glance at human history .

When the ape man emerge d from utter animality he

-
,

emerged with empty han ds an d an almost empty head .

E ver since that far-off d ay man has been filling both

,

—
han d s an d hea d his han ds with tools his hea d with ,

ideas B ut the filling h as procee d e d most un equally

.
,

because capacity has varie d greatly among the different

branches of mankin d Whether all human varieties
.

sp rin g from a single original stock we d o not know What .

we d o know is that the human species early appears di

vided into a number o f di ff erent varieties contrast ing

marke dly both in physical features an d mental capacities .

Thus differentiate d an d ever further differentiating man ,

kin d plo dd e d the long long trail lea ding from bestiality
,

to savagery from savagery to barbarism an d from bar

, ,

barism to civili z ation Slowly the empty han d s an d

.

head s began to fill The han ds graspe d chance sticks

.

an d stones then trimme d clubs an d chipped flints then

, ,

a combination of the twain These same han d s pres

.

ently fashione d the skins of beasts to clothe the body s ’

nake dness again st the col d kindled fires for warmth and
,

roaste d foo d mo d elled clay for pottery tame d wild crea

, ,

tures into d omestic aniIn als And behin d the hand was
.

the brain , not merely making these pu rely material in

4 THE R EV OLT AGAINST C IVILI ZATION
'

va ntions but also di scovering others of a higher order ,

lik e speech or even non-mate ri al con cepts from whi ch

spran g the rudim ents of social and political exis tence .

All this occurred whil e man was still a savage With

the next stage —barbaris m—came fresh discoveries like
.

agriculture and the smelting of metals together with a ,

variety of new i deas ( especially the momentous art of

writing) which brought man kin d to the th reshold of

,

civilization .

Now it is obvious that at this stage of his development

man was a vastly differen t creature from the bestial being
of earlier times Starting from nake d destitution an d
.

brutis h ignorance man h ad gradually gathere d to him

,

self an increas ing mass of tools possessions and ideas , ,

.

This made lif e much more comf ortable an d agreeable .

B ut it al so made life much more complex Such a lif e .

require d vastly more effort in telli gence an d character

, ,

than had the in stin ctive animd existence of primeval

,

days In other words long before the dawn of true civi li

.
,

zation the burden of progress had begun to weigh upon

,

In d eed even the first light burdens h ad in some cas es

,

p roved too heavy to be borne Not all the bran ches of .

the human species attained the threshold of civiliz ation .

Some indeed never reached even the limits of savagery

, ,
.

E xisting survivals of low-type savage man such as the ,

B us hmen of South Africa and the Australian B lack “

fellows have vegetated for countles s ages in primeval

”
,

squ al or and seem in capable o f rising even to the level

o f b arbarism mu ch less to that of civili z ation

,
I t is for .
 T HE BUR D E N O F C IVILI ZAT ION 5

tu n ate for the future of mankind that most o f these sur

vivals from the remote past are to day o n the verge o f
-

extinction Their persistence and possible incorporation

.

into hi gher stocks would produce the most depressive

and retrogressive results .

Much more serious is the problem presented by those

far more numerous stocks which whi le transcending the
,

plane o f mere savagery have stopped at some level o f

,

barbarism No t only have these stocks never originated

.

a civilization themselves but they also seem constitu

,

tion ally incapable o f assimilating the civilization o f

others D eceptive veneers o f civilization may be ac
.

quired but reversion to congenital barbarism u ltimately

,

takes place To such barbarian stocks belong many o f

.

the peoples o f Asia the American Indians and the

, ,

African negroes These congenital barbari ans have al

.

ways been dangerous foes of progress Many a promis .

ing civilization has been ravaged and ruined by barbarians

without the wit to rebuild what they had destroyed T O .

day the progress of science may have freed our own civi
,

liz ation from the peril of armed conquest by barbarian

hordes ; nevertheless these peoples still thr eaten us with
,
“ ”
the subtler menace of pacifi c penetration Usually .

hi ghly prolific often endowed with extraordinary phys

,

ical vigor an d able to migrate easily owing to modern

, ,

facilities of transportation the more backward peoples

,

o f the earth tend increasingly to seek the centres o f civi

liz ation attracte d thither by the hi gh wages and easier

,

living conditions wh i ch there prevail The influx o f such

.

lower elements into civilized societies is an unmitigated

6 THE RE VOLT A GAINST CIVILI ZATI O N
di saster It upse t s livin g st andards socially sterilizes
.
,

the hi gher native st ocks and if (as usually happens in

,

the long run) interbreeding occurs the racial f ou nda ,

tions o f civilization are undermined and the mongrelized ,

population unable to bear the burden sinks to a lower

, ,

plane .

So much for savagery and barbarism Now what .

about civilization ? F or the last eight or ten thousand

years civilizations have been appearin g all the way from
E astern Asia to E urope and North Africa At first these .

—
civilizations were lo cal mere points of light in a vast
night of barbarism and savagery Th ey were also iso .

late d ; the civili z ations of Egypt Chaldea India and , , ,

China d eveloping separately with slight infl uence Upon ,

each other But gradually civilizations spread met

.
, ,

interacted syn thesized Finally in Europe a great

,
.
, ,

civilizing tide set in first displayin g itself in the Clas

,

sic civilization oi G reece and Rome and persisting

”
,
“ ”
down to the Western Civilization of our own days .

A remarkable fact about civilization is its intensifica

tion of features already observed on the savage and bar
barian planes Th e civilized man has vastly more secu
.

rity power opportuni ty comf ort leisure than h as the

, , , , ,

barbarian or the savage ; he has amassed a wealth o f

ins truments possessions and ideas infinitely transcend
, ,

ing the paltry hoar ds of earlier days ; he lives in a man

“

”
made environment astoundingly diff erent from the
“ ”
state of nature This is especially true of modern
.

Western civilization Our civilization may be inferior

.

to others in some respects It may lack the beauty of.

 THE B UR D E N O F CIVI LI ZATI ON 7

th e C reek, the du rabili ty o f the Chinese the spirituality ,

o f the Medi e val B ut in dynamic energy in mastery

.
,

over the forces of nature an d in all roun d efficiency it

,
-

far transcends anything the world h as ever seen .

In fac t within the past century we have broken the

,

ag old tempo of mate ri al progress an d have leaped

e-

clear over into a new self m ade worl d D own to a trifl e

-
.

over a century ago man s material progress ha d bee n a

’

g ra d ual —a very gra d ua l — e volution Hi s tools though .

,

more numerous were m ai nly elaborations of those dis

,

c overed by his remo te ancestors A few ins truments like

.

the printing press an d the mariner s compass were ab out

-
’

the only notable innovations Man s control over natural

.
’

res ources had likewise not greatly expan d e d With the .

exception of gunpowd er he had tappe d no new sources

,

o f mate ri al energy since ve ry ancient times His chief .

so urce o f power was muscle animal and human ( d o we

,
“ ”
not still reckon in horse power- and for the rest he , ,

filled hi s sails with the breeze an d turne d clumsy water

wheels by us in g brooks an d streams But the ancient s .

had done all these things As for methods o f communica

.

tion they h ad if anythin g d eteri orated In the year

, , ,
.

1 800 there was no system o f highways wh ich equalled

,

the Roman road s no posting service as quick as C aesar s

,
-
’
,

no method o f signallin g which coul d compare wi th the

semaphore telegraphy o f the P ersians and probably
“ ”
,

no ship which could not have been overhauled by a Ph ce

nician g alley in a mo d erate se a .

Suddenly astoun dingly all was chan ge d The hidden

, ,
.

forces of nature yielded themselves wholesale as tho ugh ,

8 T HE REVOLT A GAINST CIVILIZATION
’
at the w ave of a magician s wand Steam electricity .
,
”
petrol and a whole seri es of mysterious rays and
,
”
waves gave man powers of whi ch he had not even
dreamed These powers were promptly harnesse d to
.

innumerable mach ines which soon transformed every

phase o f human existence Production and transporta .

tion were alike revoluti oni zed di stance was well nigh ,
-

abolished and the very planet shrunk to the measure of

,

human hands In o ther words man suddenly entered a

.
,

new material world diff erin g not merely in degree but in

,

kind from that of hi s grandfathers .

Now all thi s insp i red modern man with that spirit of
c o nfi dence an d Optimi stic hope in an ill imitably glorious

future whi ch characterized the greater part of the nine

teenth centu ry An d yet a little reflection and a modi
.
,

cum o f hi storical knowledge shoul d have made intelligent

persons do some hard thin kin g Modern civilization was .

not the first civilization It was merely the las t of a long

.

seri es o f civi lizations which had bloomed gloriously—and

had then stagnated decayed or utterly perished Fur
, , .

th ermore save for a few exceptional cases where civiliza

,

ti ons were uprooted in their prime by a bl as t of foreign

conquest the basic cause of disaster was always a decline
,

o r breakdown from withi n .

Here obviously was food for thought

, ,
An d as a .
,

matter of fact a large number of thoughtful persons

,

gave the matter their earnest considerat i on Was our .

glori ous modern c ivilization ultimately destined to be

? So it might seem : un
“ ”
on e with Nineveh o r Tyre
“
les s perchance ours turned out to be the exception
,
‘

,
10 THE REVOLT A GAINST CIVILIZATION
women are able to support it the st ructure rises broad, ,

bas ed and serene ; but let the li ving foundations prove

unequal to their t as k and the mi ght iest civilizati on sags
, ,

cracks an d at las t crashes down into chaotic ruin

, .

Civilization thus depends absolutely upon the quality of

its human supporters Mere numbers mean nothing The
. .

most bri lliant civilization the world has ever seen arose
—
in Athens a tiny community where the number o f free
men (i e genuine Atheni ans) numbered perhaps
. .
,

all told We therefore see that for civilization to arise

.
,

at all a superior human stock is fi rst necessary ; while t o

,

perfect or even to maintain that civilization the human

, ,

stock must be kept superior An d these are requi re .

ments more exacting than might be imagined S u rvey .

ing hum an history we fin d that superior stocks are the

,

except i on rather than the rule We have already seen .

how man y races of men have never ris en above the planes
o f savagery o r barbaris m while relatively few races have
,

shown the ability to create hi gh and enduri ng civi lizations .

Fu rthermore even inside the superior racial groups

,

there exists a similar differentiation Wh en we speak of .

“ ”
a superi or race we do not imply that all the membe rs
of that race stan d on the same lofty plane Of cours e .
,

the average level run s hi gher than do the averages of

less favored races But besides this statisti cal consi dera
.
~

tion there is the even more important fact that wi thin

the higher group itself there exist a relatively large num
ber of very superior individuals charact eri zed by un usual
,

energy ability talent or genius It is this élite whi ch

, , ,
.

leavens the group and initi ates progress Here again we .

, ,
 THE BUR D E N OF CIVILIZATION 11

see the supreme importance of quality In no h uman .

society has the percentage o f really superior individuals

—
ever been large in fact their percentage has been always
,

s tatis tically negligible Their influence however has

.
, ,

been in calcu lable Athens was not m ad e up o f Platos or

.

X enophons : it had its quota of d u llards knaves and , ,

—
fools as is vividly shown in the immortal satires of Aris
tOph anes Yet the dynamic power of its élite made
.

Athens the glory o f the world and o nl y when the Ath e ,

nian stock cease d to produce superio rs did Athens sink

into in significan ce .

Thus we see that civilization depen ds absolutely upon

q uality w hi
,
le quality in turn depends upon
,
i nheritance
, .

E nvironment may b ri n g ou t all there is in a man but ,

heredity pre determin es what there is to b ri ng We now .

“
begin to see the fall acy of such fatalistic notions as Th e
Law of Civili zation and D ecay ”
Civili zations unlik e .
,

livin g organ is ms have no appointe d cycle o f life and

,

death G iven a hi gh type stock producing an adequate

.
-

quota o f superior in di viduals an d a civilization might ,

be immortal .

Why then has thi s never occurre d ? It has n o t oc

, ,

c urre d main ly because o i three destructive tendencies

whi ch have always sooner or later brought civilizations

, ,

to declin e an d ruin These three tendencies are : ( 1 ) the

.

tendency to structural overloading ; (2) the tendency to

biological regression ; (3) the tendency to atavis tic re
volt Here are the three grim Nemeses that have dogged
.

the footsteps o f the most promis ing peoples Let us con .

sider them in t urn .

12 T HE REVOLT A GAINST C IVILIZATION
We have observed how c ivili zations as they progress , ,

inevitably become more complex E ach succeeding gen .

eration elaborate s the soc i al environment of the past ,

makes fresh ad di t ions and passes it on to the next gen

,

c ration which repeat s t he process in turn

,
This ability .

to transmit social acqui rements both material and men ,

tal is one o f the chi ef points markin g man off from the
,
“
animals It h as in fact b een happily termed social
.
, ,

heredi ty Because of soci al heredity each human

.
“

generation is able to start at a hi gher environment level ,

and is not forced like the animals to depend upon in

, ,

stin ct and blin d e xp eri en ce Indeed soc i al hered ity

“ ”
.
,

forms the basis of all those theories whi ch assert that

environment is the chief factor in human progress and
which minimize t rue (i e biological) heredi ty as a minor
. .
,

o r even a negli gible factor .

“
These environmentalist arguments however omi t , ,

o n e essential fact which vit i ates their conclus i on s Thi s .

fact is that while hereditary qualit ies are implanted in

,

the individual with no action on his part social acqui re ,

ments are taken over only at the cost of distinct effort .

H ow great thi s effort may become is easily seen by the

long years o f strenuous mental labor required in modern
youth to assimilate the kn owledge already gained by
“
adu lts That old saying There is no royal road to
.
,
”
learning illus trates the hard fact that each succes
,

sive generation must tread the same thorny path if the

acquirements of the p as t are to be ret ained Of course .
,

it is obvious that the more acquirement s incre as e the ,

longer and steeper the path mus t be And this raises the .
 T HE BUR D E N OF CIVILI ZAT ION 13

que ry : May there not come a point where the youthf ul

—
traveller will be unable to scale the height where the
eff ort required will be beyond his powers ?
Well this is precisely what has happened numberl ess
,

times in the p as t It is happening to mul titud es of in

.

dividu als about us every day . When it occurs o n a s uf

ficien tly gran d scale we wi tness those social regressions
“
o f entire commun ities which we call a decline in civili
” “ ”
z ation
. A declin e in civili zation means that the
social environment h as outru n in herited capaci ty E rr.

th ermore the grim frequency of su ch declin es thr oughout

,

his tory seems to show that in every highly d evelop ed

society the increasingly massive complex su perstructure
,

of civi lization tends to overload the human foun dations .

Now why do es this overloading in high civilizations

always ten d to take place ? F or the very simple reason
that the complexity (and therefore the burden) of a
, ,

civi liz ation may incre ase with tremendous rapidity to an

inconceivable degree ; whereas the capacity of its human
bearers remains virtually const an t or positively declin es .

The sobering truth was un til recently obscured by the

wide-spread belief (first elaborated about a century ago
by the French scientist L am arck) that acquired char
acteristics were inherite d In other words it used to be
.
,

thought that the acquirements of o ne generation could

be p as s ed on by actual inheritance to the next La .

marck s th eory excited enthu si astic hopes and youn g

’
,
“
men contemplating matrimony used to go in for hi gh
thinkin g in order to have brai ny sons while expectant
,

mothers in spired their months of gestation by readin g ,

14 T HE RE VOLT A GAINST CIVILI ZATION
the classics confident that their off sprin g would be b orn
,

with a marked tas te for good li t erature Tod ay this.

amiable doctri ne is explo d ed virtually all biologists now

,

agreeing that acquired characteristics are not inheri ted .

An abundant weight of evidence proves that duri ng ,

the entire his toric period at an y rate mankind h as made

,

no racial pro gress in either physical power or brain ca

p a city . Th e skeletal remains of the ancients show them
to have possessed brains and bodies fully equal to our
o wn . An d these anatomi cal observations are confirmed
by the teachin gs of history The earliest civilized peoples
.

o f whom we have an y knowledge displayed capaci t ies ,

initiative and imagination quite comparable to ours Of

, .

course their stock of social experi ence was very much

,

less than ours but their inherent qualities c an not be

,

deemed inf erior Certainly those ancient peoples pro

.

du ced their full share of great men . Can we show greater

p hilosophers than Plato or Aristotle greater scientists
,

than Archimedes or Ptolemy greater generals than C aesar

,

o r Alex an der greater poets than H omer or H esiod greater

, ,

spiritual guides than Buddha or Jesus ? Surely the peo ,

ples who produced such immortal personalities ranked

not beneath us in the biological scale .

But if this be so ; if even the hi ghest human types have

made no perceptible biological advance duri ng the last
t en thousand years ; what does this mean ? It mean s
that all the increasin gly vast su perstructures of civiliza
t i on which have aris en during those millennia have
been raised on similar hum an foundations I t means .

that men have been called upon to carry heavier loads

 THE BUR D E N OF CIVILI ZATION 15

with no correlative increase of strength to b ear them .

The gli tter o f civilization h as so blind ed us to the inner

truth of thin gs that we have long believed that as a civi ,

liz ation progressed the quality of the hum an stock con

,

cerned in building it progressed too In other words .

,

we have imagined that we saw an improving race where ,

as all we actually saw was a race express ing itself under

improving conditions .

A dangerous delusion this ! E specially for us whose

, ,

civilization is the most complex the world h as ever s een ,

and whose burden is therefore the heaviest ever borne

, ,
.

I f past civili zations have crushed men beneath the load ,

what may happen to our civilization and ourselves ?

,

Ou r an alysis has thus far shown that civilizations ten d

towar d structural overloading both from their own in
,

c reasing complexity and also from the influence o f other

civilizations wh ich ad d sudden strains an d stresses
,

hi therto unknown . E ven if thi s were the only danger

to which civilizations were expose d the matter woul d
,

be serious enough B ut the problem is more complex

. .

We have already in dicated that other destructive ten

den cies exi st . T o the second of these tenden cies biolog fi

—
ical regression let us now turn .

Up to thi s point we have viewed civilization mainly in

its structural aspect We have estimated its pressure
.

upon the human foundations and have provisionally

,

treat e d these fo undations as fixed quantities B ut that .

is only one phase of the problem because civi lization

,

exerts upon its living bearers not merely mechanical but ,

also vital influenc es of the profoun dest signifi c ance An d .

,
16 T HE RE VOLT A GAINST CIVILIZAT ION
un fortun ate ly th ese vital influences are mainly of a de
,

stru c tive charac t er The stem truth of th e matter i s

.

that civilizati on tends to impair the in nate qualities of

its human bearers ; to use up stron g stocks ; to un make
those very rac i al values whi ch first enabled a people to
undertake its civili zing task .

Let us see how thi s comes about .

Consi der first man s condition before the advent of

, ,
’

civilization Far far back in its life history the hum an

.
,

species u nderwent a profoun d differentiation Fossil .

bones tens o f thousands of years old show m ankind al ,

ready divided into distinct races diff eri ng markedly not

merely in bodily structure but also in brain capaci ty ,

an d hence in intelli gence This diff erentiation probably

.

began early and proceeded rapidly since biology teaches ,

us that species are plasti c when new gradually losing ,

this plasti city as they set with time an d development

“ ”
.

H owever at whatever rate it proceeded di ff erenti ation

, ,

went on f or untold ages O perating not only between ,

separate races but also wi thin the vari ous stocks so that ,

each stock came to consist of many strains varyin g

“ ”

considerably from on e another in both physical and men

tal capac i ty .

Now the fate of these strains depended n ot upon ,

chance but upon the very prac tical questi on whether

,

o r not they coul d survi ve An d since man was then liv

.

ing in the st at e of nature qualiti es lik e strength in

“ ”
, ,

telligen ce an d vigor were absolutely necessary for lif e

, ,

while we ak ness duln ess an d degeneracy spelled speedy

, ,

death A ccordin gly individuals endowed with the for

.
,
18 TH E RE VOLT A GAINST C IVILI ZATION
range Of opportuni ties and responsibiliti es Under primi .

tive conditi ons opportuniti es for self-expression were

,

few and simple the most prized being desirable mates

,

and sturdy offspring Among savages and barbari an s

.

the choi ces t women and many chi ldren are the ackn owl
edged perquis ites of the successful and the successful are ,

those men endowed wi th quali ti es like strength vigor , ,

and resou rceful intelligence which are not only essential

,

for continued su rvival under p rimitive con di ti ons but ,

which are equally ess enti al for the upbuil di ng and mai n
ten an ce o f civilizat ion In short when a people enters
.
,

the st age O f civilization it is in the pink of condition ,

b ecause nat ural selecti on h as for ages been m ul tiplyin g

su perior st rains and eli minating inferi ors .

Such was the high b i ological level o f the selected stocks

which attained the plane of civili zation But as time .
,

pass ed the situati on altered The successful superi ors

,
.

who st ood in the vanguard o f progress were alike allured

and cons t rained by a host o f novel influences Power .
,

wealth luxury leis ure art sc i ence learning govern

, , , , , ,

ment—these and many o ther matt ers increasingly com

plicated life An d good or bad temptati ons o r resp on
.
, ,

sib ilities they all had thi s in co mmon : t hat they tended
,

t o d ivert human energy from racial ends to individual

and social ends .

Now thi s divert ed energy flowed mainly from the

superi or strai ns i n the popul ati on Upon the successful .

supe ri or c ivili zati on lai d both her hi ghest gift s and her
,

heaviest burdens The effect upon the individual was of

.
,

cou rs e s t ri kin g
,
. P owerf u fly stimul ated he put forth hi s ,
 THE B UR D E N O F C IVI LI ZATI O N 19

inh eri te d energies G lowing wi th the fire Of achi evement

.
,

he advanced both himself and his civilization B ut in .

,

this very fire he was apt to be racially consume d Ab

, .

sorbed in personal and social matters racial matters ,

were neglected Late marriage fewer children an d celi

.
, ,

b acy combined to thin the ranks of the succ essful ,

diminish the number of superior strains an d thus grad ,

u ally impoverish the race .

Meanwhile as the numbers of the superior diminis he d

, ,

the numbers of the inferior in cre as e d N o longer ruth .

lessly weede d by natural selection the inf erior survived ,

and multiplie d .

Here then was what had come to p as s : instead of

, ,

dying off at the bas e an d growin g at the top civiliz ed ,

society was dying at the top an d spreading out below .

The result of this dual process was of course as dis astrou s

, ,

as it was inevitable D rained of its superiors and satu

.
,

rate d with dullard s an d degenerates the stock coul d n o ,

longer support its civi lization And the upper layers o f

.
,

the hum an foun d ation having withered away the civ i

,

liz ation either sank to a lower level or collapse d in utter

ruin The stock had regres se d gone back an d the
.
“ ”
, ,

civili z ation went back too .

Such are the workings o f that fatal ten d ency to biolog

ical regression which has blighted past civilizations Its .

e ffects on our own civilization an d the peculi ar perils

which these entail will be di scus se d in subsequent chap
ters O ne fu rther point should however be here noted
.
, , .

This is the irreparable character o f racial impoverish

men t O nce a stock h as been thoroughly draine d of its
.
20 THE REVOLT A GAINST C IVILIZATIO N
superior strains i t sinks into permanent me di ocri ty and
, ,

can never again either create or support a h i gh c iv ili z a

tion Physi cally the st ock may survive ; unfortunately
.
,

for human progress it only too often does survive to

, ,

contaminate better breeds o f men But mentally and .

—
spiritually it is played ou t and can never revive save
perchance through some age—
,

,
long process o f biological
restorat ion akin to that seen in the slow reforestin g of
a mountain range stripped to the bare rock .

We have observed that civili zati ons tend to fall both

by their own increasing weight and by the decay of their
human foundations But we have indicated that there
.

e xist s yet another destructive tendency which may be ,

termed atavistic revol t

“ ”
Let us see precisely what
.

thi s implies .

C ivili zat ion depends upon superior raci al stocks But .

stocks are made u p o f indivi duals who far from being , ,

preci sely equal differ widely in qualities and capaci ti es

,
.

At one end of the human scale are a number o f superior

in di vi duals at the other end a number of inferior in
,

dividu als while between the two extremes stands the

,

mass of intermediate indi vidual s who likewise grade up ,

o r down the scale .

” “
Of course these superiors
,
inferi ors and inter , ,

medi at es are not parked off by clear cut lines ; on the

”
,
-

cont rary they shade impercep tibly into each other and
, ,

between the classes there lie intermedi ate zones com

posed of border line in dividuals whose exact classi
-

fi cation is har d to determine Nevert heless these classes

.
,

do exist just as day and night exi st At dawn or twi

, .
 THE BUR D E N OF CIVILI ZATION 21

light , we cannot say of any p articul ar min ute : This is

day and next minute will be ni ght
,
”
Yet day and ni ght
.

are facts of transcendent importance and we accor di ngly ,

grade the hours int o categories of light and darkne ss

whi ch though slightly arbitrary are essentially true
, ,
.

Now among ou r human categories we have observed

,

that progress is primarily due to the superiors It is .

they who found and further civili z ations As for the .

intermedi ate mass it accepts the achi evements of its

,

creative pioneers I ts attitude is receptive Thi s re

. .

ce ptivity is due to the fact that most o f the inte rme di ate

grades are near enough to the superiors to underst an d

and as similate what the superiors have initiated .

But what ab out the inferiors ? Hitherto we have n ot

analyzed their attitude We have seen that they are
.

incapable o f either creating or furthering civilization ,

and are thus a negative hindrance to progress But the .

infe ri ors are n ot mere negative factors in civilized life ;

—
they are also positive in an inverse d estructive sense .
,

The infe ri or elements are instinctively or consciously

, ,

the enemies o f civilization And they are its enemi es

.
,

n ot by chance but because they are more o r less a n

,

ci vi lizable We must remember that the level of society

.

never coincides with the levels o f its hum an units .

Th e soc i al level is a sort o f compromise— a bal an ce o f

const ituent forces This very fact im ies that the in
.
m
dividu als must be diff erentially spaced An d so it is . .

Superior individuals stand above the social level ; some

—
times far above that level whence the saying about men
“
ahead o f their times ”
But what about men behin d
.
“
22 TH E RE VOLT A GAI NST C IVILIZATION
”
their times ? They have always been numerous and , ,

the hi gher the civiliz ation the more of them there are
,

apt to be .

The truth is that as a civilization advances it leaves

behi nd multitudes of human beings who have not the
capacity to keep pace The laggards of course vary
.
, ,

greatly among themselves Some are congenit al savages

.

o r barbarians ; men who could not fit into any civiliza

tion and who cons equently fall behind from the start
, .

“ ” “ ”
These are not degenerates ; they are primitives ,

carried over into a social environment in which they do

not belong They must b e clearly distinguished from
.

the true degenerates : the imbecil e the feeble minded

,
-
,

—
the neurotic the insane all those melancholy waste
,

products whi ch every living spec ies excretes but which

are promptly extirpated in the state of natu re whereas ,

in human societies they are too O ften preserved .

Moreover besides primitives and degenerates civili

, ,

zation by its very advance automatic ally condemns fresh

mul titudes to the ranks of the inferior

“ ” “
Just as primi
.

”
tives who would be quite at home in savage or barbarian
environments are ali en to any sort of civi lization so many , ,

individuals who rub along well enough in civilization s ’

early phases have neither the wit nor the moral fibre to
meet the sterner demands of hi gh complex civilizations
,
.

“ ”
Most poignan t of all is the lot of the border liners -

those who just fail to achi eve a social order which they ,

can comp rehend but in whi ch they somehow cannot suc

ceed .

Such are the ran ks of

—
the inf erior the vast army of
 THE B UR D E N O F , C IVIL I ZATION 23

the unad aptable an d the in capable Le t me again em .

p h asiz e that
“
inf erior d oes not ne cessarily mean “
de
”
generate . The degenerate are of cou rse included but , , ,
” “
the word inf eri or is a relative term signi fying be
” ”
low or beneath in thi s case meanin g persons beneath
,

o r below the standard o f civilizat ion The wor d inf erior .

h as however been so often employed as a synonym for

, ,

degenerate that it ten d s to produce conf usion o f thought ,

and to avoid this I have coined a term which seems to

describe collectively all those kinds of persons whom I
have j u st dis cuss e d Thi s term is The Under M n the
. a — -

man who measures u nder the standards o f capacity and

adaptabili ty imposed by the social order in which he
lives An d this term I shall henceforth employ
. .

Now how does the Under Man look at civilization ? -

This civili zation offers hi m few benefits and fewer hopes .

It usually affords him little beyond a meagre subsistence .

An d sooner o r later he inst inctively senses that he is

, ,
’
a failure ; that civilizati on s p ri zes are n ot for him But .

this civilization which withh olds benefits d oes not hesi

, ,

tate to impose bur dens We have previously stated that

.

civilization s heavi est burdens are borne by the superior

’
.

’
Absolutely this is true ; relatively the Under M an s
, ,
-

intrinsically lighte r b u rdens feel heavier because of his

innate in capacity The very dis ciplin e of the social order
.

oppresses the Under Man ; it thwarts and chas tises him

-

a t every turn To wild natures society is a torment

.
,

while the congenital caveman placed in civilization is , ,

always in trouble an d usually in j ail .

All this seems to be in evitable But in addition to .

,
24 TH E RE VOLT AGAINST C IVILI ZATION
these social han di caps the Under Man often suf fers from
,
-

the acti on of better— placed individuals who take advan ,

tage of his weakness and incapacity to exploit him and

drive him down to social levels even lower than those
whi ch he would normally occupy .

’
Such is the Under Man s unhappy lot Now what is
-
.
,

his attitude toward that civilization from whi ch he has

so little to hope ? What but instinctive O ppositi on and
dis content ? These feelings o f course vary all the way
, ,

from dull unreasoning dise to flaming hatred and re

,

bellion But in the last an alysis they are directed not

.
, ,

merely against imperfections in the social order bu t ,

agains t the s oci al order itself Thi s is a point which is

.

rarely mentioned and still more rarely understood Yet

,
.

it is the meat of the whole matter We mus t realize .

clearly that the basic attitude o f the Under Man is an -

ins tin ctive and natural revolt agains t civi lization The .

reform of abuses may dimin ish the intensity of soci al

discontent It may also dimi nish the numbers of the
.

di scontente d becaus e social abus es precipitate into the

,

depths many persons who do not really belong there ;

pe rsons who were innately capable o f achieving the social
order if they had had a fair chan ce But excluding all .
,

such anomalous cases there remains a vast res i due of

,

unadaptable depreciated humanity essentially un civi

, ,

li z able and incorrigibly hostile to civili z ati on E very .

soci ety engenders withi n itself hordes of savages and

barbarians ri pe for revolt and ever ready to pour forth
,

an d dest roy .

In normal times these elements of chaos go almost

26 THE RE VOLT A GAINST CIVILIZATION
which he jus t fails to ach ieve Most of such persons fail
.

—
because of some fatal defect a t aint of character or
“
a mental twi st ”
In o ther respects they may be very
.

superior and possess brilliant talents whi ch they can use

,

against society with powerful eff ect .

We have also noted the disinh erited the man in ,

n ately capable o f civilized success but cast into the

depths by social injustice or individual wrong doing -

.

Deprived of their b i rth ri ght the di sinherit ed are like

,

wise apt to be bitter foes of soc i ety They enli st gladly

.

in the army of chaos (where they do not really belong) ,

and if they possess marked talents they may be very

dangerous enemi es .

Lastly there is the misguided superior

,
He is a .

strange phenomenon ! Placed by nature in the van o f

civili zation he goes over to i t s enemies Thi s seems in
,
.

expl i cable Yet i t can be explained As the Under Man

. .
-

revolts because civilizati on is so far ah ead of hi m so the ,

misgu ided superior revolts because it is so far behind .

E xasperated by its slow progress shocked at it s faul t s

, ,

and erroneously ascrib ing t o mankind in general his o wn

lofty impulses the mi sgui ded superi or dreams short cut s
,

to the millenni u m and j oin s the forces of soci al revolt ,

not realizing that their ends are profoun dly diff erent
even though their methods may be somewhat the same .

The misgui ded supe ri or is probably the most patheti c

figu re in human history Flattered by designi ng s cou n
.

drels used to sanctify sini ster schemes and pushed for

, ,

ward as a figu reh ead during the early stages o f revolu

tio n ary agi t ati on the tri umph o f the revoluti on brings
,
 THE B UR D E N O F C IVI LI ZATI O N 27

him to a tragic en d Horrified at sight of barbarism s

.
’

unm as ked face he tries to stay its destructive course

,
.

I n vain ! The Under Man turns upon his former cham

-

pion with a snarl and tramples him into the mu d .

Th e social revolution is now in full swing Such up .

h eavals are profoundly terrible I have descri bed them .

“ ”
as atavistic An d that is just what they are
. throw
”
backs to a far lower social plane The complex fabric .

of society slowly and painfully woven is torn to tatters ;

, ,

the social controls vanish and civilization is left naked to

,

the assaults of anarchy In truth disruption goes deeper

.
,

still Not only is society in the grip o f its barbarians

.
,

but every individual falls more or less under the sway of

his own lower inst incts For in this respect the indi
.
, ,

vidual is like society E ach o f us h as within him an

.

” Under Man that primitive anim ality which is the

-
,

heritage o f ou r human and even our prehum an past

, ,
.

T hi s Under Man may be buri ed d eep in the recesses o f

-

o u r be i ng ; but he is there an d psychoanalysis informs ,

us o f his latent power Thi s p ri mitive animali ty p o

.
,

tentially present even in the noblest natures continuously ,

dominates the lower social strata especially the pauper , ,

,
—
cri minal and degenerate elements civilization s inner “ ’

” ’
barbarians . N OW when society s dregs boil to the top
, ,

a similar process takes place in indi viduals to whatever ,

social level they may belong In virtually every member .

o f the co mm un ity there is a di stinct resurgence o f the

brute and the savage and the at avi st i c trend thus b e

,

comes prac ti cally un iversal .

This explain s most o f the seem ingly mysterio us phe

28 THE REVOLT A GAINST C IVILI ZATION
no men a ofrevolution It accounts for the ment al con
.

tagion which infects all class es ; the wild elat ion wi th

whi ch the revoluti on is at first hailed ; the way in whi ch
even well poised men throw themselves into the stream
-
,

let it carry them whither it lists and commit acts which ,

they afterward not only cannot explain but cann ot even

remember G eneral atavistic resu rgence also accounts
.

for the ferocious temper displayed not merely by the ,

revolutioni sts but by their counter revolutionary op

,
-

p o n en ts as well H owever
. much they may dif fer in their
prin ciples Reds and Whites di splay the same sav
,
“ “

age spiri t and commit similar cruelties This is becaus e .

society and the indi vidual have been alike reb arb ariz ed .

In time the revolutionary tempest passes C ivilized .

men will not forever endure the mis rule of their own bar
b arian s ; they will not lastingly tolerate what Burke
rightly termed the tyrann y of a bas e oligarchy
“ ”
Sooner .

or lat er the Under Man is again mastered new social

-
,

controls are forged and a stable social order is once more

,

establi shed .

—
But what sort of a social order ? I t may well be on e
inf eri or to the O ld Of course few revolut i ons are wholly
.
,

evil Their very destructiveness implies a sweeping away

.

of old abuses Yet at what a cost ! N 0 other process i s

.

so terri bly exp ensive as revolut ion B oth the social and .

the human losses are usually appalling and are frequently ,

irreparable In h is bri ef hour the Under Man does hi s

.
,
-

work Hating not merely civil i zat ion but also the civi
.

li z ed the Under Man wreaks hi s destructi ve fury on in

,
-

di vidu als as well as on institut ions An d the superi or are .

 THE B UR D E N OF CIVILI ZATION 29

al ways hi s special targets His phi losophy of lif e is ever

.

“ ”
a levelli ng equality and he tries to attain it by lopping
,

o ff all hea ds whi ch ri se cons picuously above hi s own .

The result of thi s inverse selec t ion may be such a de

“ ”

crease o i superior persons that the stock is permanently

impoveri shed and cann ot produce the talent and energy
needed to repair the destruction which the revolutionary
cataclysm has wrought . In such c as es civilization has
su ff ered a mortal woun d an d declin es to a perm an ently
lower plane .

This is especially true of high civilizations Th e more

.

c omplex the society and the more diff erentiated the stock ,

the graver the liab ility to irreparable disaster Our own .

civilization is a striking example The destruction to

.

day being wrought by social revolution in Russia great ,

as it is ,
woul d p al e beside the far greater destruction
which such an upheaval would produce in the more ad
van ced societies o f western E urope and Am erica It .

would mean nothi ng short of ruin and would almost in

,

fallibly spell permanent decadence This g ri m peril to

.

our civiliz ation an d our race future we will carefully

ex am ine in subsequent chapters .

So ends our preliminary survey We have sketched

.

’
man s ascent from bestiality through savagery and bar
b aris m to civilized lif e
. We have considered the b as ic
re asons for his successes and hi s failures Let us now
.

p as s to a more detailed examination o f the great factors

in human progress and decline with spec i al reference to
,

the possibili ties and perils o f ou r own civili zation .

 CHAPTE R II
THE IR O N LAW OF I NE Q UA L ITY

THE idea o f Natural E quality is on e of the most per

ni ciou s delus ions t hat h as ever af fli cted manki nd It is .

a figment o f the human imagination Nature knows no

.

equali ty The most cursory examination o f natural

.

phenomena reveals the presence of a Law of Inequality

as universal an d inflexible as the Law o f G ravit at ion .

The evoluti on of lif e is the most st ri kin g ins tance of thi s

fundamental truth E volution is a process of diff erent i a
.

— —
tion o f increas ing dif ferenti ati on from the simple one
celled b it o f protoplasm to the infinitely diff erenti ated ,

complex lif e forms of the present day .

An d the evolut ionary process is not merely quantita

tive ; it is qualit ative as well These successive dif fere n
.

tiation s imply in creasrn g Inequaliti es Nobody but a

.

madman could seri ously contend that the mi cro s 0 0 pic

speck of prot oplasmic j elly floating in the tep i d waters
o f t he Palaeozoic Sea was equa to a hum an being .

But this is only the beginning of the story Not only .

are the vari ous lif e types profoundly unequal in quali

ties and capaciti es ; the individual members o f each type
are similarly different i ated among t hemselves N 0 two .

individuals are ever precisely alik e We have already

.

seen h ow greatly thi s dual process o f differenti ati on both

o f t ype and individual has affected t he human species ,

and how basi c a fact or it has been in human progress .

Furthermore in divi dual inequaliti es st eadily increase

,

30
 THE IRON LAW OF INE QUALITY 31

we as cend the biological scale The amoeba difl ers

'

as .

very little from hi s fellows ; the dog much more so ; man

most o f all An d inequalities between men likewise b e
.

come ever more pronounced Th e inn ate differences b e .

tween members of a low grade savage t ri be are as no thing

-

compared wi th the abyss sun deri ng the idi ot and the

geni us who coexis t in a high grade civilization - .

Thus we see that evolution means a process of ever

,

growin g inequality There is in fact no such word as

.
, ,
“ ” ’
equality in nature s lexicon With an increasingly .

uneven hand she distributes he al th beauty vigor in , , ,

lli n ,
—
te ge ce geniu s all the qualities whi ch confer o n their
possessors superio ri ty over their fellows .

N ow in the face of all this how has the d elusion of

, ,

natural equality ” — —
obtained and retained s o stub
,

born a hold on mankind ? As to both its antiquity an d

persistency there can be no shadow o f doubt The slogan .

“ ”
of equality was raised far back in the remote past ,

an d instead o f lessening was never more loudly trum

, ,

p e te d t han to—day It is a cu
.ri ous fact that j ust when
the advance of knowledge and the increasing complexity
o f civili zation have enh ance d in dividual diff erences and

ren d ered superi or capacities supremely important the ,

cry for equality should have become fiercer than ever ,

should have been embodi ed in all sorts of levelling do c

trines and should have been actually attempted in Bol
,

shevik Russia with the most fanatical fury and the most
appalli ng results .

Here is obviously something requ iring careful analysis .

“
As a matter of fact the passion for natura,
equality
32 THE REVOLT A GAINST CIV ILI ZATION
s eems to spring pri marily from certain impulses of the
ego ,
the self p articularly from the impulses of self
,

preservation and self esteem E very individual is in evi

-
.

tably the centre of his world and instinctively tends to ,

regard his own existen ce and well bein g as matters of -

su preme import an ce Thi s instinctive egoism is o f

.
,

co urs e modified by experience observation and reflec

, , ,

tion and may be so overlaid that it becomes sc arcely

,

recogniz able e ven by the individu al himself Never .

th eless it remain s and subtly colors every th ought and

, ,

attitude In his heart of hearts each individual feels

.
,

that he is really a person of importan ce No matter h ow .

low may be his capaciti es no matter how egregious hi s,

fail ures no matter how unf avorable the judgment o f his

,

fellows ; still his in born instincts of self preservation an d -

self love whis per that he should surv ive an d prosper

-
,
“ ”
that things are not right and that if the world were ,

properly ordered he would be much bet ter placed .

Fear and wounded vani ty thus inspire the individual

to resent un favorable statu and this resentment tends s
,

to take the form of protest agai nst injusti ce

“ ”
Injus .

t i ce o f what ? Of fate “ ” “
nature ” “
circumstances
,
”
, ,

—
perhaps ; yet more often inj ustice of p ersons individ
, ,

u ally o r coll ec ti vely (i e . .But (argues the

,

di scontent ed ego) since all thi s is un just those be t ter

, ,
“
placed persons have no ri ght to succeed where he fails .

Though more fortunate they are not re ally his superiors

,
.

”
He is as good as they are Hence either he should .
,

—
be up wit h them o r they should be down with him .

”
We are all men We are all equal !
.
34 T HE R E VOLT A GAINST CIVILI ZATION
o ur own days when the n ew bi ological revelation (for it
,

is nothing short of that) has taught us the supreme im

portance of heredi ty mankind tended to believe that
,

environment rather than heredi ty was the main factor

in human existence We simply cannot overestimate th e
.

change which biology is effecting in our whole outlook on

l ife It is unquestionably inaugurating the mightiest
.

transformation o f ideas that the world has ever seen .

Let us glance at the state of human knowledge a f ew

short decades ago to appreciate its full significance .

Down to that time the exact nature of the life process

remained a mystery This mystery has now been cleared
.

up The researches of Weismann and other modern

.

biologists have revealed the fact that all living beings

are due to a continuous stream of germ p lasm whi ch has - .

existed ever since life first appeared on earth and which ,

will con tinue to exist as long as any life remains This .

germ plasm consists of minute germ cells which have

- -

the power o f developing into living beings All human .

beings sp ri ng from the union of a male sperm cell and a -

female egg cell Right here however occurs the basic

-
.
, ,

feature o f the life process The new individual consists

.
,

from the start of two sorts of plasm Alm ost the whole
, .

o f him is body plasm — — the ever multiplyin g cells which

-

diff erentiate into the organs of the body But he also .

contains germ plasm At his very conception a tiny bit

- .

o f t he l i fe stuff from whi ch he sp rings is set aside is care ,

fully i solated from the body-plasm and follows a course ,

o f development en t irely it s own In fact the germ plasm

.
,
-

is not really part of the individual ; he is merely its

 THE IRON LAW OF IN EQUALITY 35

bearer, destine d to pass it on to other bearers of the lif e

Now all this was not only unknown but even unsus
p ecte d down to a very short t ime ago I ts discovery was .

in fact dependent upon modern scientific methods Cer .

tainly it was not likely to suggest itself to even the most

,

phi losophic mind Thus down to about a generation

.
,

ago the life stuff was supposed to be a pro duct o f the

,

body not differing essentially in character from other

,

body products This assumption had two important

.

cons equences In the first place it tende d to obscure

.
,

the very concept of here dity and le d men to think of ,

environm ent as virtually all important ; in the second -

place even where the importance o f heredity was diml y

,

perceive d the role of the individual was misun derstood

, ,

and he was conceive d as a creator rather than a mere

transmi tter This was the reas on for the false theory o f
.

“ ”
the inheri tance of acquired characteristics formul ated ,

by Lamarck and Upheld by most scientists until almost

the end of the nineteenth century O f course Lamarck .
,
“
ism was merely a modification of the tradition a en
vironmentalist
”
attitude : it admi tte d that heredity
possesse d some importance but it maintaine d environ ,

ment as the basic factor .

’
Now a moment s reflection must suggest the tre
mendons practical di fferences between the theori es o f
environment and here di ty This is no mere academic .

matter ; it involves a radically diff erent outlook on every

phase o f life from religion and government to personal
,

conduct Let us examine the facts of the case

. .
36 T HE REVOLT A GAINST CIVILI ZATION
Down to our own days mankind had generally believed
t hat environm ent was the chi ef fact or in existence Thi s .

was only natural The true character of the li fe process

.

was so closely veil ed that it could not well be discovered

except by the methods of modern science ; the workings
o f heredi ty were O bscure and easily co nf ounded with

environmental infl uences The workings of environ

.

ment on the other hand were clear as day and forced

, ,

themselves on the attenti on of the dullest observer To .

the press ing problems of environment therefore man , ,

devoted himself seeking in the control o f his surroun d

,

in gs both the bet terment of the race and the curing of its
ill s Only occasionally did a few reflective minds catch
.

a glimpse of the heredi tary factor in the problem o f lif e .

That marvellous breed of men the ancient G reeks had

, ,

such glimpses of the hi gher truth With their charac

.

teristic ins ight they discerned clearly the p ri nc iple of

heredi ty gave consi derable thought to it and ac tually
, ,

evolved a theory of race bett erment by the weeding ou t

-

o f inferior s t rai ns and the multipli cati on of superiors

“ ”
in other words the E ugenics theory of to day
,
-
.

For example as early as t he sixth century B C the

,
. .

G reek poet Th eognis o f Megara wrote : We look for

“

rams and asses and st allions o f good stock and on e b e ,

lieves that good will come from good ; yet a good man
minds n ot to wed the evil daught er of an evil si re .

Marvel not that the st ock o f our folk i s t arn i shed for ,

the good i s mi ngling with the base ”

A cent ury later
.

Plat o was much i nt erest ed i n b i ologi cal selecti on as the

best method for race improvement He suggest ed that
.
 THE IRON LA W OF IN EQ UALITY 37

the state should mate the best with the best and the
worst with the worst ; the former sho ul d be encouraged
to breed freely while the o ffspring of the un fit shoul d be
,

destroyed Ari stotle likewise held that the state should

.

strongly encourage the increase of superior types .

Of course these were but the visions o f a few seers

, ,

whi ch had no practical results The sam e is true o f those

.

other rare thinkers who like Shakespear with his famous

,
“ ” “ ”
lines about nature and nurture evidently grasped ,

the hereditarian idea The mass of m an kind continued

.

to hold that environment was the great matter for con

sideration .

Now a belief in the transcendent importance of eu

vironment leads inevitably to certain concl u sions o f great

practical importan ce In the first pla ce if it be true that

.
,

man is moulded primarily by hi s environment it logically ,

follows that he has merely to gain control over hi s en

viron men t in order to change himself al most at will .

Therefore accordin g to the environmentalist progress

, ,

depends not on h u man nature but on conditions and

, ,

institutions Again if man is the product o f his environ

.
,

ment human differences are merely eff ects o f environ

,

mental di fferences and can be rapi dly modified by en

,

vironmen tal changes Lastly before the supreme im

.
,

portance o f environment all hu man diff erences whether

,

individual o r racial sink into insignifican ce an d all men ,

are potenti ally equal

“
.

Such are the logical deducti ons from the environmen

talist theory An d thi s theo ry was certainly attractive
. .

It not only appealed t o those wounded feelings of self

38 THE RE VOLT A GAINST CIVILIZATION
preservation and self esteem among the ill endowed and
- -

the unfortunate which we have previously examined but ,

i t appealed als o to many of the most superi or minds of

the race What could be more attrac tive than the
.

thought that humani ty s ills were due not to in born

’
,

shortcomings but to faul ty surr oun di ngs and that the ,

most backward and degraded hu man bein gs mi ght pos

sib ly be raised to the hi ghest levels if only t he environ

ment were suffici ently improved ? This appeal t o al

truism was powerfully st rengthened by the Chri stian
doctrine of the equality of all souls before G od What .

wonder then that philosophers an d scien ti sts combined

, ,

to elaborate theori es about mankind of a wholly environ

ment ali st character ?
All the great thi nkers of the eighteenth centu ry (who
still influence our ideas and institutions t o a far greater
degree than we may imagi ne) were convin ced believers
in natural equali ty
“ ”
Locke and Hume for example
.
, ,

taught that at birth the human mind i s a blank sheet ,

and the brain a stru ctureless mass lack ing inherent or ,

gan iz ation or tendencies to develop in thi s way or that ;

a mere mass of undefined potentialities whi ch t hrough ,

experience associ ati on and habit through education

, , , ,

in short could be moulded and developed to an unli mit ed

,

ext ent and in any manner or direction ” 1

The doc t ri n e .

of natural equality was brilli an tly formul ated by Rous

seau and was expli c itly st at ed both in the Am eri can
,

Declarati on of Independence and in the French Declara

t i on of the Rights of Man The doctrine in its most .
,

1
W M c D ou gall I s A meri ca S af e f or Democracy ? (Lo well Ins titu te
York
.
,

Le c tures ) , p 2 1 ( New
.
,
 THE IRON LAW OF IN EQUAL IT Y
un compromis ing form held its ground until well p as t
,

the middle of the nineteent h cen t ury At that period .

so notable a thi nker as John Stuart M ill coul d declare

“
roundly : Of all vulgar modes of escaping from the con
sideration o f the eff ect of social and moral influences o n
the human mind the most vulgar is that of att ri buting
,

the diversities o f con d uct an d character to inh erent nat

”
ural diff erences .

Mills s utterance may be cons idere d an expres sion of

’

pure environmentalis m At the moment when he spoke

.
,

however the doctrine had already been cons i derably

,

modifie d In fact by the beginning of the nineteenth

.
,

century the progress o f s cience had begun to lif t the

,

veil which obscured the mystery of heredi ty and scien ,

tists were commencing to give close attention to such

matters At first the phenomena o f inh eri tance were not
.

believed to aff ect the bas ic importance of environment .

This idea was clearly stated early in the nineteenth cen

t u ry by the French naturalist Lamarck Lamarck as .

serted that the forms and functions of living be ings arose

and developed through use an d that such changes were

,

di rectly transmi tted from generation to generation In .

other words Lamarck fo rmulated the theo ry of the in

,

heri t ance o f acqui red characteristics which was destin ed

”

to domin ate biological thinking down to a generation

“
ago This theory which is usually termed Lamarck
.
,

ism was merely a modification of the old environmen

,

talis t philosophy It admi t ted the factor of here dity

.
,

but it considered heredity d epen d ent upon environmental

influences .

It is dif ficult to overestimate the tremen d ous ractical

40 T HE RE VOLT A GAINST CIV ILIZATION
con sequences o f Lamarckism not merely upon the nine
,

teenth century bu t also upon our own t imes The pri mal .

importance of heredity may to— day be accepted by most

scientist s and by an increasing number Of forward looking -

persons everywhere but it has as yet neither deeply pene

,

trated the popular consciousness nor sensibly modi fied

our institut i ons The march of new ideas is slow at be st
.
,

and however much we may be ch an gin g our thinking we ,

are still living an d acting un der the environ mentalist

theories of the past Our political educational and so

.
, ,

cial systems remain alike rooted in Lamarckis m an d

proceed on the basic premise that environment rather

than heredi ty is the chief factor in human exist ence .

The emoti onal grip of Lamarcki sm is very strong It .

is an O ptimistic creed appealing to both hopes and sym

,

pathics To Lamarcki sm was due in large measure the

.

cheery self c onfiden ce of the nineteenth century with its

-
,

as surance o f au t omat ic and illimi t able progress Indeed .

,

in some respects Lamarcki sm incre as ed rather than

,

dimini shed the tradi ti on al faith in environment Before .

Lamarck men had believed that the new born in di vidual

,
-

was a blank sheet on whi ch society could wri te Now .

came Lamarck as sertin g that much o f this wri ting could

,

be passed on by inh erit ance to succeeding generations

with cumulative eff ect Consi dering the powerful agen
.

—
c ies whi ch society had at it s dis posal governm ent the ,

church the home the school philanthr opy etc it was

, , , ,
.
,

easy to believe that a wiser and in t enser appli cati on of

these social agenci es off ered a sure and speedy road to
the millennium .
42 THE R E VOLT A GAINST C IVILIZATION
ent social and educati onal systems are fou nded in large
part on thi s false foundation ” 1
.

Let us now consider the rise of the new biology whi ch ,

has already exerted so powerful an influence upon our

philosophy o f life and which promises to affect profoun dly
the destinies of mankin d Modern biology can be said .

’
to date from the publication o f Darwin s work on The
Origin of S p eci es by M eans of Natu ral S elec tion in the ,

year 1 8 59 Thi s epoch making book was fiercely chal

.
-

lenged and was not generally accep t ed even by the s cien

tifi c world until the last quarter o f the nineteenth century .

Its acceptance however marked nothin g short o f a revo

, ,

lution in the realm of ideas Darwin establis hed th e.

p ri nciple of evolu tion and showed that evolution p ro

ceed ed by h eredi ty A second great step was soon tak en
.

by Francis G alton the founder o f the science of Eu

,
“

geni os or Race Bett erment

” “ ”
Darwin had centred his .

attention upon animals G alton applied Darwin s teach

.
’

ing to man and went on to break new ground by point

,

ing out not merely the inborn diff erences between men ,

but the fact that these dif ferences could be controlled ;

that the human stock could be su rely and lastingly im
proved by increasing the number o f in dividuals endowed
with superior qualities and decreasing the number of in
f eriors In other words G al t on gras ped fully the mo
.
,

mentou s implications of heredi ty (whi ch Darwi n had not

done) an d an nounced clearly that heredity rather than
,

environment was the bas ic factor in lif e and the pw e

lever of human progress .

P pe oe n d J hn s
1
o n A pp li d E g ics p 33 ( New Y k
a o on , e u en , . or ,
 T HE IRON LAW O F IN EQUAL ITY 43

Like most intellectual pioneers G alton had to wait ,

long for adequat e recognition Al though his first eugeni c

.

wri t ings appeare d as early as 1 8 65 they did not attract ,

a tithe of the attention excited by D arwin s work and ’

,

it was not until the very close of the nineteenth century

that his theo ry gained wide acceptan ce even in scientific
circles whil e the educated publi c did not become really
,

aware o f it un til the openin g years of the present centu ry .

Once fairly started however the idea made rapid prog

, ,

ress In every part o f the civilize d world scientis ts took

.

up the work an d soon a series o f remarkable discoveries

,

by biologists lik e Weismann DeV ries an d others put the

, ,

1
new science on a sure and authoritative foundation .

We have al ready indicated how momentous has been

the change in outlook wrought by the new biological
revelation not merely in the field o f abstract science but
, ,

als o in every phase of practical human e xistence The .

discovery o f the t rue nature of the life process the cer ,

tainty that the v as t inequalities among men are due

primarily to heredi ty rather than environment and the ,

discovery o f a scientific method of race improvemen t ,

are matters of transcendent importance Let us examine .

some of their practical aspects .

O ne of the most striking features of the life process is

1
Th e mas s o f mo d ern b io lo gical lit era tu re is very grea t , an d in a ge n
eral wo r k k li e mi n e e lab o ra te re f e re n ce f oo t n o t es wo u ld b e o u t O fp
lace .

I will, t h e ref ore , m erely ref er th e re ad er to two e xc elle n t man u als o n t hi s

p
fi eld , wi th s e cia l re f ere nce to its eu ge ni cs s ide : P o p en o e an d J o hn s o n , A p
p lied E u gen i cs ( Ne w Y o r , k and S J
H o lm es , T he Trend of th e
k k f
. .

R ace ( Ne w Y o r , T h e la tte r wo r c o n t ains goo d an d f a irly u ll

p p
b ib lio gra hies at th e e n d o f e ach ch a ter ro m th es e two man u als th e
. F
rea d er wh o des ir es to go d ee er in t o th e field can fin d th e n eces s ary clews
p .
44 T HE RE VOLT A GAI NST C IVILI ZATION
the tremendous pheredi ty The marvellous p o
ower o f .

ten cy of the germ plasm is increasingly revealed by each

-

fresh biological discovery Carefully isolated and pro .

tected against external influences the germ plasm per ,

-

sistently follows its predetermined course and even ,

when actually interfered with it tends to overcome the

dif ficulty and resume its normal evolution .

This persistency o f the germ plasm is seen at every -

stage of its development from the isolated germ-c ell to

,

the mature individual Consider it first at its earli est

.

stage Ten years ago biologists generally believed that

.

—
the germ plasm was permanently in jured and perma
-

n ently mo dified
— b y certain chemical substances and
diseas e toxins like lead alcohol syphili s e t c These
, , ,
.

noxious influences were termed racial poi sons and ”

,

were believed to be prime caus es of racial degeneracy .

In other words here was a field where b i ologist s us ed to

,

admi t that environment directly modified heredity in

1

profoun d and lastin g fas hion To-day the weigh t of evi .

dence is clearly t he other way While i t is still generally .

admi tted that inj ury to the germ plasm does occur most -
,

b i ologists now think that such injury is a temporary in

“

du ction
”
,
that is a change in the germ cells whi ch d oes
,
-

not permanently al ter the nature of the inherit ed t raits

and which will di sappear in a few generations if the in
jury be not repeated .

1
t t t t
Th e di s in c io n b e wee n direc and in dire c eff e c s sh ou ld b e e t t k pt
clearly in mi n d p f t
Of co urse , it is er ec ly evid en h a enviro n men does tt t t
f — t p
.

t t
in direc ly aff ec all f orms O lif e n o ab ly b y f avorin g cer ain y es and t t
pp t t
h an dica in g o h ers , an d so resul in g in th e in crease o f th e ormer and f
th e decrease o f th e la er tt .
 TH E IR O N LAW O F INEQUAL ITY 45

To quote from an authoritative source : We are thus

’
in a position to state that from the eugenist s point of ,

view the ori gination of degeneracy by some direct action

, ,

on the germ pl as m is a contingency that har dl y needs

-
,

to be reckoned with The germ plas m is so care -

fully isolated and guar d ed that it is almost impossible

to injure it except by treatment so severe as to kill it
,

al together ; and the degeneracy with which the eugeni sts

are called on to deal is a d egeneracy which is running

along from generation to generation and which when ,

once stopped by the ce ssation o f reproduction is in lit tle ,

danger of being originate d an ew thr ough some racial

poi son ”1

—
.

Consider now the life process at its next stage the

stage between conception and b irth It us ed to be .

thought that the germ plasm of the growing embryo -

could be inj ure d and permanently altered not merely ,

“ ”
by the racial poisons above mentioned but also by
“ ”
certain prenatal in fluences such as the mother s ,
’

undernourishment chr onic exhaustion fright worry or

, , , ,

shock To d ay such i de as are utterly discredited Th ere

.
-
.

is n ot a shr ed o f evidence that the mother s circumstances ’

o r fee lin gs can aff ect in an y way the gervn plasm o f her -

’
unbo rn child Of course the mother s condition may
.
,
’
profoundly aff ect the embryo s body plasm so that the -
,

chil d may be born stunted or diseased But the child .

will not pass on tho se handicaps by heredi ty to its off

sp ri ng Conversely it is equally certain t hat nothin g
.
,

the mother can do to improve her un born child will better

1
P o penoe an d J o h nso n , op . ci t ,
pp . 63 64 — .
46 THE RE VOLT A GAINST C IVILI ZATION
i t s germ plas m She may give her child a sounder body
-
.
,

but it s here di ty was fixed irrevocably the instant it was

con ceived Here then is another field where the theory
.
, ,

o f direct ac t ion o f environm ent on heredi ty has been

defini t ely di sproved .

Let us pass t o the next stage Birth has taken place. .

The individual is out in t he worl d and is exposed to en

vironm en tal influences vast ly greater than those which

acted upon hi m during hi s embryoni c st age But these .

envir onmental influences fall upon his body pl asm ; hi s -

germ plas m i s as carefully isolated and prot ected as was

-

hi s parents so that the same laws whi ch we have already

’
,

discussed will apply t o him as well as to them .

Furt hermore the eff ect o f the envir onment even upon
,

the body plasm will depend largely upon what sort of

-

a creature the parti cular indivi dual may be B i ology .

has recent ly discovered that the effect o f envir onment

decreases as we ascend the li fe scale ; in other words ,

the simpler types are most af fected while man the hi gh , ,

est b i ologi cal typ e seems t o be af fected least of all Thi s

,
.

is a poin t of great import ance Certain envir on mentali st

.

wri t ers have mai ntained that even though the germ ,

plasm were unalt ered man i s so moulded by his envir on

,

ment that with each generation the hereditary tendenci es

are overcome by c ircums t ances and are thus rendered
p r ac tic a lly of secondary i mportance Such w ri ters base .

t heir argum ents largely upon scient ific experiments made

upon primit ive forms of ani mal lif e where striking bodily ,

changes have been brought about As appli ed t o man .

,

however these argument s are misleading because the

, ,
 T HE IRON LAW O F IN EQUALITY 47

same influences which profoun dly affect lower forms have

relatively little eff ect upon the hi gher animals and still
less upon man hi mself Man is therefore least aff ected .
, ,

by and most independent of envir onmental influences

, ,
.

Th is matter h as been ably summed up by the American

“
biologist Woods who has formulated it as The Law o f
,

D i minis hing Environmental Infl u en ces ” 1

Woods shows .

not only that environment al influence diminishes accord

’
ing to the individual s rank in the biological scale but ,

also that even within the body of the parti cular indi
,

vidual envi ronmental infl uence diminishes with the evo

,

lu tion ary rank of the tissue af fected and in proportion to

its age This is important in connection with possible
.

environment al influence upon the human brain Says .

Woo ds : It must be remembered that the brain cells

“
-
,

even o f a child are of all tissues farthest removed from

, , ,

any of these primordial states The cells o f the brain .

ce as ed subdivision long before b irth Therefore a pri ori .

, ,

we must expect relatively li ttle modification of brain

”
function Fin ally Woods shows that environm ental
.
,

influence diminishes wi th the organism s power of choice ’

.

This is o f course o f the utmost importance regarding

, ,
“
man For as Woods says : This may be the chief reason
.
,

why human bein gs who o f all creatures have the greatest

,

power to choose the su rroundings congenial to their spe

cial nee ds an d natures are so li t tle aff ected by outward ,

con di tions The occasional able ambi ti ous and deter

.
, ,

mined member of an obsc ure or degenerate family can

1
Fre derick d
A ams W o o ds L aws o f D im in is hing E n vir o nm en
“
t al In
p
,

flu en ces , ”
P opu la r S ci enc e M on th ly, A ril, 1 9 1 0 .
48 TH E REVOLT A GAI NST CIVI LI ZATION
get free from his un congenial as sociates So can the weak
.

o r lazy or vic i ous ( even if a black sheep from the fin es t

”
fold) easily find his natural haun ts .

From all thi s Woo ds concludes : E xperi mentally and

statistically there is not a grai n of proof that ordinary
,

environment can alter the salient mental and moral trai t s

in any measurable degree from what they were prede
”
termin ed to be thr ough innate influences .

We thus see that man is moul ded more by heredity

and less by environment than an y other living creat ure ,

and that the vas t diff erences observable between human

beings are mainly predetermined at the instant o f con
ception ,
with relatively li ttle regard to what happens
af terward .

Let us now ob serve some of the actual workings of

heredity in man both in the good and bad sense In
,
.

the present chapter we will devote our attention mainly

to the superi or typ es leaving our cons ideration of the
,

inf eri or for the next chap t er .

Now what do we know about superi or in dividuals ?

We know that they exis t and that they are due to h e
redi ty
. That is a good beginnin g but it would not ge t
,

us very far unl ess we knew more along the same lines .

Fort unately we not only know that superi ors tend to

,

produce superior offsp ri ng but that they produce such

,

offspring according t o natural laws whi ch can be deter

mined stati sti cally with a high degr ee of accuracy (An d
.
,

o f course t he same is true of the production o f inf e ri ors )

,
.

The production of superi or persons h as been st u di ed

by modern bi ologist s from G alton down to the present
50 T HE RE VOLT A G AINST C IVILI ZATION
men Nevert heless desp ite diff erent ratios of h eritabil
.
,

i ty superiority still remains a family af fair ; G al ton found

,

that nearly half of the great men of England had dis

tin guish ed close relatives .

’
Galton s studi es of English greatness have been criti
cis ed as applying to a coun t ry where caste lines are sharply

dr awn To test these obj ections the Ameri can biologis t

.

Woo ds transferred the inquiry to the United States a —

land where O pportuni t ies have been much more equal
and rigid caste lin es virtually absent How was it with .

the great men of Am erica ? If they were found to have

fewer di stinguished relatives than the great men of E ng
land it wou ld be a great feather in the environmentalists
,
’

cap s ince it would tend to show that given equal Opp or

, ,

tunity success does not depend on family s t ock

, On the .

o ther hand if what was tru e of England should hold

,

good also o f America the theory of here di t ary superiot

,

woul d be much more firmly establis hed .

The result o f Woods s st udy was a strikin g confirma

1 ’

t i on of Galton s researches Woods took two groups of

’
.

distinguished Am ericans : a large group o f list ed as

eminent in the st andard di c ti onaries o f biography ; and
a small group o f the 46 very eminent Ameri cans admi tt ed
t o the Hall of Fame
“ ”
Now how were these eminent
.

persons relat ed to each other ? If su p eriot di d not

run in famili es it i s evident t hat their chances o f re
”
,

lation ship would be no greater than that of the rest o f

—
the populati on which rati o Woods foun d to be stati s
1
Fr e deri c k Ad ams W o o ds ,
“
H eredi t y an d th e Hall of F
a me , Pop ula r
S cienc e M on th ly, M ay, 1 9 1 3 .
 THE IR O N LAW OF INEQUALITY 51

tic ally 1 in 500 However as a matter of fact the

.
, ,

eminent Ameri cans were found to be related to each

other n ot as 1 to 500 but as 1 to 5 Furthermore by
,
.
,

picki ng o u t the more eminent among the and form

ing a new group th is group was found to be related to
,

each o ther as 1 to 3 Most striking of all were the re

.

sults obtained by co nsiderin g the very supe ri or group

listed in the Hall o f Fame Here the ratio o f relat ionship .

rose to 1 in 2 while if all their eminent relations were

,

coun ted in they averaged more than on e apiece Thus

,
.
,

distinguis hed Ameri cans are discovered to be from 500 to

t imes as much relate d to other dis tin guished per
sons as is the ordinary American Or to put it in an .
,

other way someth ing like 1 per cent of the pop ul ation
,

o f the United States is as likely to produce a genius as

—
is all the rest of the country put together the other
99 per cent .

I t might to be sure be obj ected that even in Am erica

, ,

the early environment of emi nent men mi ght be on the

average more favorable than t hat of the mass O f the pop
’
ul ation Thi s objection is met by another of Woods s
.

—
investi gations a very able and elaborate study of the
rov al famili es of E urope
1
Here is a class of persons where
.

no on e can doubt that the environment is uniformly

favorable If O pportun ity rather than inh erited capaci ty
.

be the cause of success then most of the members of thi s,

1
Frederick Adams W oo ds , M enta l a nd M oral H ered ity i n Roya lty, N ew
Y ko r , 1 906 k
See als o his b oo , The I nfl u enc e of M ona rchs , N ew Y o r , k
pp
.

1 9 1 3 , a n d hi s art icle, S o vere igns an d th e S u o s ed I nfl u e n ce o f O p p o r

tu ni ty, S cience, 1 9 Ju n e, 1 9 14, wh ere D o c to r W oo ds ans wers s o me criti
”

cis ms o f hi s wo r k .
52 T HE RE VOLT A GAINST C IVILIZATION
class ought to have succeeded and succeeded in about ,

the same degree because to every on e of royal blood

,

the door o f opportuni ty stands O pen Yet the resu lt o f .

Woods s study was jus t the reverse of this Desp ite the
’
.

good environment almost uniformly present superiority ,

in royalty as in other class es is found to be a dis tinctly

, ,
“
family mat ter ”
Royal geniuses are not scattered hap
.

hazard over the genealogical chart ; they are concentrated

in i solated chains of closely related indi viduals One .

chain centres in Frederick the G reat another in Q ueen ,

Isabella of Spain a third in William the Silent and a

, ,

fourth in G ust avus Adolphus An d be i t also not ed .

, ,

inferi ority in royalty is equally segregated royal du llards ,

and degenerates als o runnin g by families .

But how about superior individuals who ri se from ap

p aren tly medi ocre stocks ? E nvironmen t alist wri ters are
forever compiling li sts o f great men who came from
nothin g ”
These c as es have however been carefully , ,

investigated and the more they are stu died the more
,

convin c ing grows the evidence that greatness never arises

ou t o f
“
nothin g Take Abraham Lincoln He was
. .

long a shi ning example f or t he envi ronmentalist thesis .

Lincoln is popularly supposed t o have come from poor “

whi t e tras h of a very inferior order But careful in

”
.

vestigation proves that this is emphatically not so As .

o n e o f the invest igato rs remarks :

“
So far from his later
career be ing unaccounted f or in his origin and early his
tory i t is as fully accoun ted for as is the c as e o f any
,

An d a recen t authori ty goes on to state :

” 1
man . The
1
Ida M . T arb ell, Th e E arly L if e of A bra ham L inco ln , New Yo rk ,
1 8 96 .
 T HE IRON LAW OF IN EQUALITY 53

Lincoln family was one of the best in Ameri ca and while ,

Abraham s own father was an eccentri c person he was

’
,

yet a man o f cons iderable force of character by no means ,

the poor white trash which he is oft en represented to

‘
,
’

have been The Hanks family to whi ch the E man ei

.
,

p a to r s mother belonged
’
had also ma i ntained a high ,

level of ability in every generation 1

Furthermore .
,

Thomas L incoln and Nancy H ank s the parents of Abra ,

”2
ham Lincoln were first cous ins ,
.

Of course there are a cons iderable number of distin

,

g ui sh ed individuals whose greatness genealogy cannot

as yet explain But in most cas es this is becaus e very

.

little is discoverable about their ancestors Fu rthermore .

,
“
as Holmes j us tly remarks : It should be borne in mind
that greatness involves a peculiar complex of qualities
the lack of any one o f which may prevent an in dividual
from achieving an eminent position A great man h as .

to do more than simply ex ist ; he must accomplish labors

o f a particularly noteworthy ki nd before he is cro wned

with fame and many a man o f splendi d natural endow

,

ments h as fallen short of achieving greatness through

some inherent weakness of character or the lack o f suf
fi cien t inspiration or dri ving force G reat men n ot only .

have to be born great ; they also have to achieve great

ness and if they receive their proper recogni tion in the
,

eyes of the world greatne ss h as to be thrus t upon them

,

besides G reat men it is t rue seem to ri se hi gher than

.
, ,

1
F or t dy o f
a s u Lincoln
’
s mat ernal lin e, s ee C H Hit ch co c k, Nancy
New Yo rk
. .

H an ks , 1 8 99
p
.
,

P o p eno e an d J o h ns o n , o p . ci t ,
. . 333 .
54 THE RE V O LT A GAIN ST C IVIL I ZATI O N
their source Generally they come from an an cestry
.

considerably above mediocrity An d I venture to ex .

press the opinion that a great man has never been pro
du ced from parents of subnormal mentality A great .

man is more apt to ari se if both parents are of very su

perior ab ility than if only one parent is above mediocrity .

Where the great man appears to stand far above the level
o f hi s imme diate ancestors it is due in large part I believe , ,

to the fact that each parent supplied peculiar quali t ies

lacking in the other assisted als o by qualities from more
,

remote ancestors which may have conspired to furnish

the necessary complement of heredi tary factors .

One thing is certain and that is that you cannot mak e

,

greatness ou t of mediocrity or good abili ty ou t of inborn

duln ess by all the ai ds which environment and education
”1
o r anythi ng else can possibly o ff er .

Indeed even if w
,
e a dmit that great men may occa

sion ally arise from stocks whi ch had never shown any

signs o f superi ori ty thi s ought to strengthen rather than

,

weaken our beli ef in the force o f heredi ty As Woo ds .

well says when it is considered how rarely such an an

,

c estry produces a great man it must be evident that hi s

,

greatness is due to an accidental conjunction of favorable

t raits converging through hi s parents and meeting in

Finally how except by heredity can we explain the

,

enormous dif ferences in achievement between great num

bers of persons exposed to the same environment and
enj oying similar opport unities ? “
In terms of environ
1
S J H lm
. . The T nd f th R
o es , re pp 1 1 5 1 16 (N w Y k
o e ace, .
- e or ,
 THE IRON LAW OF INEQUALITY 55

ment the O ppo rtunity to become a great physicist was

,

open to every on e of the thous ands of university students

who were the contemporaries o f Lord Kelvin ; the op
p o rtu n ity to become a great musician has been O pen to
all the pupils in all the conservatories o f music which
have flouri shed since Johann Sebas ti an Bach was a choir
boy at Liinebu rg ; the opportunity to become a multi
millionaire has bee n open to every clerk who h as wielde d
a pen sin ce John D Rockefell er was a bookkeeper in a
.

Clevel an d store ; the O pportuni ty to become a great mer

chant has been O pen to every boy who has attended an
American public school since the time when John Wana
maker at fourteen years of age was an errand boy in a
, ,

Philadelphia book store ” 1

.

Such are the investigations of biology con cerni ng h u

man inequaliti es They are certainly striking and they
.
,

all point to the same conclus ions namely : that such ,

inequalities are inborn ; that they are predetermined by

heredity ; an d that they are not inherently mo difie d by
either environm ent or opportuni ty .

But thi s is o nl y half the story Within the p as t twenty

.

years t he problem of human inequality has been ap

p ro ac h e d along a wholly new line by a diff erent branch
—
,

o f science psychology And the fin din gs o f thes e psy

.

ch ological investigatio ns have not o nly tallied with tho s e

of biology in fur ther revealin g the inheri ted nature of

human capacities but have also proved it in even more
,

striking fashion an d with far greater possibiliti es of prac

tical application .

1
All yn e I elan d Democracy and the H m n Equatio n p 153 ( New
e r , u a , .

Yo k r ,
56 THE REVOLT A GAINST C IVILI ZATION
The novelty of the psychological approach to the prob
lem is evident when we realize that W here as biology has ,

been investigating m ainly the individual s ancestry or ’

actions psychology examin es the mind itself The best

,
.

known instruments o f psychological investigati on are

“
the so called Intelli gence Tests first invented by the
-
,
’
French psychologist Binet in the year 1 905 From Binet s .

relatively modest beginning the mental tests have in

cre as ed enormously in both complexity and s 0 0 pe cul ,

mi nating in those gigantic investi gations conducted by

the American army authorities during the late war when ,

more than men were men t ally tested in a va

riety of ways Furthermore despite the notable progress
1
.
,

whi ch it has already made the psychologi cal me thod ap ,

pears to be still in its inf ancy and seems likely to yield ,

f ar more extraor di nary results in the near futur e .

Yet the results already at t ained are of profound signif

ic an ce It has been conclusively proved that intelligen ce
.

is predetermined by heredi ty ; that individuals come into

the world diff erin g vas tly in mental capacities ; that such
diff erences rem ain virtually constant throughout lif e and
cannot be lessened by environment or education ; that the
“

present mental level of any individual can be definitely

’
as certained and even a child s future adult mental level
,

1
Th e d at a ga h ere t
d by th e Uni ted States army in telligence tes ts h ave
b ee n p u b li sh ed in d e tail in : M emo i of th e N ati on a l A cad emy of S ci ences
rs

vo l X V edi ted b y M ajo r R M Y erk es

,

.
, A us ef u l ab ridgmen t c o nt ain
. . .
,

in g many of th e is th e s m aller vo lume b y Majors

c h ief co n clu s ions , e tc

k k k
.
,

Yer es an d Yo a um : A rmy M en tal Tests , New Yor , 1 920 See als o val .

t tt
hi s m a er in : P u blication s of th e A meri ca n S ocio lo g
n ab le dis c us sio ns o f
i ca l S o cwty, vo l X V , . 1 02 1 24 pp —
F o r f ur h er dis cussio ns , see o oks by
. . t b
C o nklin , Irelan d, an d M cDou gall, alrea y cite d d .
58 THE RE VOLT A GAINST CIVILIZATI O N
there is usually no further growth of mental capacity
albeit exceptionally superi or intellects continue to grow
in capacity for several years thereafter .

A large number of careful investigations made among

school children have revealed literally amazing dis
crep an cies between their chronological and their mental

ages In classes of first grade gramm ar school childr en

.
- -
,

where the chronological age is about six years some pupils ,

are found with mental ages as low as th ree while other

pupils are found with mental ages as high as nin e or ten .

Similarly in first-year high school classes where the

,
-
,

chronological age is about fourteen years the mental ,

age of some pupils may rank as low as ten or eleven while ,

the mental age of others may rise as high as nineteen or

twenty .

An d be it remembere d the I Q
, ,
of any individu al . .

child once di scovered can be counted on as a constant

, ,

factor which does not change with the lapse of tims

,

For example : Take two children rated by their birth

certificates as bein g both four years old but with mental ,

ages of three and five respectively Wh en they are chr on .

ologically eight years old the mental age of the duller

,

ch ild will be about six wh ile the mental age of the

,

brighter child will be about ten And when they are .

chronologically twelve years old their respective mental ,

ages will be approximately nin e an d fifteen Assumin g .

that growth of mental capacity stops in both children at

the chronological age of sixteen the ratio of their mental
,

ages as then attained will remain const ant between them

all the rest of their lives That is why the mental ages
.
 THE IR O N LAW O F IN EQUALITY 59

of persons over sixteen once as certained can be regard e d

, ,

as fixed quantities The only exceptions are those com

.

p ar atively rare individuals of very supe i

r or mentality
whose intelligence contin ues to grow a few years longer ,

an d who are consequently very far in advance o f their

f ellows Two methods o f mental grading are employed :

.

c hil dren are gra d ed according to years ; adu lts are

“ ”

grad ed accordin g to qualitative ratings rangin g from

“ ” “ ” “ ”
very superior through average to very inferior
, , .

Space forbids any detaile d dis cussion of the actual

make-up of mental tests Their number is legion an d .

th eir specialization is min ute Yet they all yield the .

“
s ame general res ults No matter what trait of the
.

individual be chosen results are analogous I f one takes

,
.

the simplest traits to eliminate the most chances for

,

confusion one fin ds the same conditions every time

,
.

Whether it be sp eed in marking off all the A s in a pri nted ’

sheet o f capitals or in putting together the pieces of a

,

puzzle or in giving a reaction to some certain stimulus

, ,

o r in makin g associations between i d eas or drawin g fig ,

ures or memory for various thin gs or giving the opp o

, ,
~

sites of words or discrimination of lifted weights or suc

, ,

cess in any one of hun dreds of other mental tests the ,

conclusion is the s ame There are wi d e diff erences in .

the abili ties of indivi duals no two being alike either , ,

” 1
mentally or physically at b irth or any time thereafter ,
.

We thus see that human beings are sp ace d on widely

dif ferent mental levels ; that they have a vari ety of men
tal statures just as they have a variety of physical
,

P pe o e d J h ns
1 o pp 77— 78n an o on , . .
60 TH E REVOLT A GAINST CIV ILI ZATION
statures and that both are b as i cally due to inheri tance
, .

Furthermore it is extremely si gnificant to observe how

,

closely intelligence is correlated with industrial or pro

f ession al occupat i on social and economi c status and
, ,

rac i al origin Nowhere does the power of heredity show

.

forth more clearly than in the way innate superiority

tends to be related to actual achievement Despite the.

fact that our social system contains many defects which

h an dicap superi or in dividuals and foster inferiors ; de
Spite the fact that our ideas laws and inst itut i ons are
, ,

largely based on the fallacies of environmentalism and

“
natural equal i ty nevertheless the imperi ous urge o f
,

superior germ pl as m beats against these man made bar

- -

riers and tends to raise the superior individuals who be ar

—
it albeit only too often at the cost of their racial ste
rility thr ough their failure to leave chi ldren .

Another noteworthy point is the way psychology has

confirmed biological and sociological theories Both .

biologists and soci ologists have long been coming more

and more to regard social an d racial status as vali d in
dication s of innate quality Now comes psychology
.
,

approaching the problem from a new angle and with

diff erent methods and its findin gs coincide closely with
,

those which the other sciences have already made How .

close is thi s coinc idence a few examples will show .

Taking first a couple of English researches : a com

pari son was made o f the in tellectual capac i ty of the boys
at a certain private school who were mostly the sons of
Oxford dons (i e members of the un iversity faculty)
”
. .
,

and the capacity of the boys at a municipal school at

 THE IR O N LAW OF INEQ UALITY 61

tended by boys from the town population I will quote .

the resul ts in the words of Professor McD ougall who ,

supervised the experiment and of Mr H B E nglish , . . .

,

who conducted it Says Professor McDou gall : Th e .

“

municipal school was an exceptionally good school of its

kind the teachi ng being in many resp ects better than in
,

—
the other the private school ; the boys were from good
—
homes sons of good plain citizens s hopkeepers and
,

skilled artisan s and so forth Without going into detail

,
.

I may say summarily that the result was to show a very

, ,

marked superiority of the boys of the school frequented

” 1
by the intellectual class An d Mr English states : . .

Al though the groups are small they are exceedingly ,

homogeneous and thoroughly representative of the chi l

dren in two social or economi c strata The wri ter does .

not hesitate therefore to predicate these results for the

, ,

children of the entire classes represented o r to conclude

that the children of the professional class exh i bit between
twelve and fourteen years o f age a very marked superi
An d P rofessor M c Dou gall adds
”
o rity in intelligence
2
.

“
the follo wing interesting comment : The result is all
the more striking if you reflect on the follo wing facts :
,

First every boy h as two parents and inherits his quali

,

ties from both Secondly it has not been shown that

.
,

uni versity dons prefer clever wives or that they are par ,

ticu larly clever in choosing clever wives I t remains .

,

then highly probable that if the wives of these men were

, ,

1
M cD ou gall 61 ,
p . .

1
H B E n gli sh , Ya le
. . P sy h c olo n S tu dies qu o te d b y McDou g
all .
62 T HE REVOLT A GAINST CIVILI ZAT ION
all as superi or in respect of int ellect as their hus bands ,

the superiority o f their sons t o the boys of the other group

” 1
woul d have been still more marked .

In thi s connection let me quote the conclusions o f,

another British psychologis t who made a similar experi

ment with li ke res ults : For all these re asons we may
“

conclude that the superior proficiency at intelligen ce

tests on the part of boys of superi or parentage was in
born An d thus we seem to have proved marked in
.

herit ability in the case of a mental character of the high

‘ ” ’
est civic worth .
1

Let us now p as s to America The Uni ted States off ers .

a more instruc tive field because with its more fluid social , ,

structure and its heterogeneo us racial make-u p the cor ,

relat i ons between intelligence social or economic status , ,

and rac i al origin can be studied simultaneous ly .

Before dis cussing thes e Am erican experiments let us ,

recall certain facts For a long time past American b iolo

.

gist s and sociologis ts have been coming more and more

to the foll owing conclus ions : ( 1) That the old Nat ive
“

Ameri can st ock favorably selected as it was from the

”
,

races of northern E urope is the most superi or element ,

in the American population ; (2) that subsequent im

migrants from northern E urope though coming from ,

substanti ally the same racial stocks were less favorably ,

selected and average somewhat less superior ; (3) that

the more recent immigrants from southern and eas tern
1 M cD ou gall pp 61 62 —
p
. .
,
2 C ril B urt “
E x erim en tal T es ts o f General In telligen ce , ”
Britis h
y ,

J ou rna l of P sychology, vol III q u o ted b y M cDo u gall

. .
 THE IRON LAW O F IN EQUALITY 63

Europe average decidedly in feri or to the north E uropean

elements ; (4) that the negroes are inf eri or to all other
elements Now let us see how psychological tests have
.

confi rme d these biologic al and sociological conclusions .

One of the most recent of these experi ments was that

1

conducted upon several hun dred school childr en in the

primary grades The children were clas sified in two
.

ways : accordin g to racial o ri gin an d accor ding to eco ,

nomic social status of parents The racial classifications

- .

were : (a) children of Ameri can born whi te parents ; (b) -

children o f Italian immigran ts (mostly south Italians) ;

(c) colore d (negroes an d mulattoes) The economic .

so cial classifications of p ar ents were : ( 1) professional ;

(2) semi professional and higher bus in ess ; (3) skilled
-

labor ; (4) semi-skille d an d un skilled labor The I Q“

. . .

( intelligence quotient) of each category was then ob

tain ed the obj ect being to di s cover what correlations
,

( if any) exis ted between racial o ri gin economic social ,

-

status an d in telligence Here are the results :

,
.

Amer i cans of so cial status ( 1 ) I .

Q . 1 25
(2 ) I .
Q . 1 18

(3 ) I .
Q . 1 07
I .
Q . 92
All Ameri cans grou pe d to gether I .
Q . 106
I talian s I .
Q . 84
Colored I .
Q . 83

1
Th is e xp erimen t condu c ted by Miss A H Arlitt, o f Bryn M awr C ol
q u o t ed b y M c D ou gall ( pp 6 3
. .
,

lege, is h e h avin g Ob t aine d th e d at a

p
.

directly f rom Miss Arli tt in adva n ce o f h er o wn u b li ca t ion Th e experi.

men t see ms to h ave been td

c on du c e in th e year 1 920 .
64 T H E RE VOLT A GAINST C IVIL IZAT ION
A similar experi ment made on children in New York
City public schools by the well— known authority Pro ,
1
f essor S M Terman yields st rik ingly simil ar results
. .
,
.

In thi s case the children were graded sim ply accordi ng

to racial ori gin o f parents the classifications being : ( 1)
,

Parents native born W hi te Americans ; (2) parents north

-

E uropean immi grants ; (3) parents Itali an immi grants ;

( 4) parents Po rtuguese immi grants H ere are the re .

sults

Amer i can
No rth Europ ean
I tali an .

P ortu gu ese I .
Q . 84

Note how the respective I Q s of bot h the Ameri can . .

’

and the Italian groups are identical in both experim ent s ,

although the children examined were of cou rse not the , ,

same .

H ere are the conclusions of Professor Terman regard

in g the correlati on between economi c social stat us o f
'

parents and intelli gence in chil dren as a result of his ,

many researches upon school chil dren from New York

to Californi a : Intelligence o f 1 1 0 to 1 20 I Q (thi s range
“
. .

is defined as superi or in telli gence ) is approximately five

‘ ’

t imes as common among children of superior soci al status

as among ch ildren o f inferi or social status the proport i on ,

among the former being about 24 per cent of all and

among the latt er only 5 per cent of all The group o f .

‘
superi or int elligence is made up largely of children of
,
’

S M T m
1
. . I t lli g n
er f S h l Chi ld
an , n e p 5 6 (N w Y k
e ce o c oo ren , . e or ,
66 T HE RE V O LT A GAINST CIVILIZATION
telligen ce of
adults Fortunately we possess a great
.
,

mas s o f valuable data from the mammoth investigati ons

conducted by the Uni ted States army authori t ies upon
‘
more than ofli cers and men during the late

war 1
These investigations were planned and directed
.

by a board of emin ent psychologists It is interesting to .

note that they were ins pired not by abstract scientific ,

motives but by motives of practical efli cien cy In the

,
.

words of t wo leading members of the inves tigating board ,

Maj ors Yoakum and Yerkes :

“
The human factors in most practical situations have
been neglected largely becaus e of our consciousness of
ignorance and our inability to control them Whereas .

engineers deal cons tantly with physical problems o f qual

ity capacity stress an d strain they have tended to think
, , ,

of problems of human conduct and experi ence either as

unsolved or as insoluble At the same time there h as.

exis ted a growin g cons ciousness of the practical signif

ican ce of t hese human factors and of the importance of
such systematic research as shall extend our knowledge
of them and in cre as e ou r direc tive power .

Th e grea t war from which we are now emergin g into

a c ivilizati on in many respects new has already worked
marvellous changes in our po ints of V iew our expect a ,
r

tions and practi cal demands Relatively early in this

,
.

Supreme s t ruggle it became clear to certain individuals

,

that the proper utilizati on of man power and more par -

,

ticul arly of mind or brain power would assure ultimate -

,

victory . All this h ad t o be done in t he least possible

See p b li t i n
1
ul dy q ted n th i po in t
ca o s a re a uo o s .
 THE IR O N LAW O F INEQUALITY 67

time N ever before in the hi story of civili z ation was

.

brain as contrasted with brawn so important ; never

, ,

before the proper placement an d utiliz ation of brain

,

power so essential to success .

Our War D epartment nerve d to ex ceptional risks by

“
,

the stern necessity for early victory saw an d immediately ,

seized its O pportuni ty to develop vari ous new lines of

personnel work Among these is numbered the psy
.

ch ological service G reat will be our goo d fortune if the

.

lesson in human engineeri n g whi ch the war has taught

is carri ed over di rectly and eff ectively into our civil in
” 1
stitu tion s an d activities .

The purpose s of these psychological tests were as ,

stated in the army orders : (a) to aid in segregating the

mentally incompetent (b) to classify men accor din g to
,

their mental capacity (c) to as s ist in selecting competent

,
”
men f or responsible positions An d to quote a sub .

sequent official pronoun cement after the admini stration

o f the tests : In the O pini on of this O ffice these reports
indicate very d efini tely that the desire d results have
been achi eved .

So much f or the aims behin d the tests Now for the .

tests themselves As already state d they were adminis

.
,

tered to more than ofli cers and men G reat .

care was taken to elimin ate the disturbing infl uence

o f environmental factors li ke lack of education and ig

n oran ce o f the E nglish language Separate tests were .

devis ed an d the close correlations O btained showed

,

that inborn intelli gence had been suc cessfu lly segregated .

1
Yoaku m n d Y kes A my M e tal T t p p V —
a er , rviii ( I t od ti n )
n es s , . II n r uc o .
68 THE RE VOLT A GAINST CIV ILI ZAT ION
Besides general intelligence gradings speci al studies ao ,

cording to army rank c ivilian occupati on raci al origin

, , ,

etc were made on large groups consi sting o f samples

.
,
“ ”

t ak en at many poin ts from the general mass .

The following is the system of general grading em

ployed to indicat e the degree of individual int elli gence :
A very su perior intelli gen ce
B su perior intelligen ce
C high ave age intelli gen ce
r

C ave ag e in t ellig en ce
r

C lo w av ge i te lligen ce
era n

D inf e io i telli gen e

r r n c

D ve y inf erio intelli gen ce

r r

u nt ea c h ab le men reje cte d t hort

“ ”
E ,
at o n ce or af er a s

time
Le t us now see how the men examined graded
according t o intelligence and what men tal age these ,

cl as sificati ons impl i ed :

Thi s t able is as suredly depressin g Probably never .

before has the relative scarc ity of high int elligence been
so vivi dly demonstrated It st rikin gly reinforces what
.

biologi st s and sociologist s have long been t elli ng us : that

 THE I RON LAW or INEQ UALIT Y 59

the number of re ally su perior persons is small an d that ,

the great maj o ri ty of even the most civilized p Opul a

r l —
tions are o f mediocre o low intel igen ce which be i t ,

remembered neither education nor any other environ

,

mental agency can ever raise Think of thi s table s soc i al

.
’

si gnificance ! Assuming that these men are

a fair sample of the entire population o f approximMely
(and there is every reason to believe that it
is a fair sample) thi s means that the average mental age
,

O f Americans is onl y about fo u rteen ; that forty five mil -

lions or nearly o n e half of the whole population will

,
-
,

never develop mental capacity beyond the stage repre

sented by a normal twelve year old child ; that only
- -

thirteen and on e-h alf milli ons will ever show superi or
intelligence and t hat onl y four and one-half millions can
,
“ ”
be considered talented .

Still more alarming is the prospect for the futu re The .

overwhelming weight of evidence (as we sh all later show)

in dicates that the A and B elements in America are barely
reproducing themselves while the other elements are in
,

creasing at rates proportionate to their decre as in g intel

lec tual capacity : in other words that intelli gence is to
,

day bein g steadily bred ou t of the Americ an population .

So much for the general results of the Ame ri can army

tests Now let us consider some o f the special class ifi ca
.

tions notably those relat ing to the correlation o f in tel

,

ligen ce with army rank civilian occupation and racial

, ,

In all these special clas sifications the correlations were

precisely what o ur study might lead us to expec t First .
,
70 THE RE VOLT A GAINST CIVILI ZATION
as to army rank : the great maj ority o f officers whether ,

ac tually comm issi oned or in officers train ing—camps were ’

,

found t o be of A and B intelligence Furthermore in .

,

those branches of the service where a hi gh degree of tech

nical kn owledge is required the highest degree of intel
,

ligen ce was found In the engineers and the artill ery

.

nearly all the off icers graded A whereas in the veter ,

in ary corps less than on e sixth of the ofli cers graded A

-
,

and nearly two fif th s graded C Am ong the non coms

- .
-

( sergeants and corporals) one half o r more graded C-

.

The rank and file were mostly C men with a small mi ,

’
n ority of A s and B s and a somewhat larger minority
’
,

o f D s (E men o f course be ing excluded from the ser

’
, ,

vice).

Next as to the correlation between in telligence and

,

civilian occupati ons : the professi ons were foun d to con

tain a great maj ority of A and B men ; the percentage
o f superi or intelligence sank st eadily through t he skilled

and semi skilled occupati ons un ti l i t was least of all

-
,

among the common laborers very few of whom were ,

foun d to possess intelli gence grading hi gher than C while ,

most of them graded C or D Space forb i ds the tex

.

tual reproduction of the st atisti cal tables whi ch are very ,

elaborate ; but any one who cares t o exami ne them in

the works already quoted will see at a glance how sym
metrical and logical are the gradings .

Finally as to the correlati on between in t elli gence an d

,

racial origin : two separate researches were made Th e .

first o f these was a compari son between white and colored

drafted men ; the other was a double grading of drafted
 THE IRON LAW O F I NE QUAL ITY 71

men o f foreign birth Le t

visuali ze the results of the
. us
—
intelli gence ratings of white and colored by the follow
—
ing table adding one other category (that of the officers)
to visualiz e the diff erence between the intelligence level
of the oflicers corps an d the levels of both white and
’

colore d drafted men :

D D

C o lored —D f tra

The abo ve table needs no comment : it speaks for it

self !
Now as to the se con d stu dy concerning the correlation
between intelli gence and racial origin : the grading o f
foreign born drafted men This investigation as alread y
- .
,

stated was dual : the men were grad ed both up and down
,

the scale ; i e both according to superi ority an d in

. .
,
“
f eriot o f intelli gence In the followin g tables
. su

grades combine d while in

” “
p erio rity means A an d B ,

f eriori ty means D an d E grad es combined .

TAB LE I : PE R CE NT AGE O F INF E R IO R ITY

Co u n try o f B i
r th

N o rway
H o llan d
Irelan d
S co t lan d k
T u r ey
Gree ce
72 TH E RE VOLT A GAINST CIVILIZATIO N

T ABLE II : PER CE NTA GE O F SUP E R IOR IT Y

C o rmtr y of Bi th
r

E n glan d
t
Sc o lan d
H o lla n d
C an ada
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Sweden
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

These tables are very interesting Note how cons tant

.

are the posit ions o f the national groups in bo th t ables .

Als o note how surely a high percentage of su perio ri ty

,

c onnotes a low percen t age of inferio ri ty

— and vi ce versa .

Of course these tables refer merely to the intelligence

,

o f forei gn born groups i n A meric a ;

- they may not be
particularly good c ri t eria for the ent ire home pop ul ations
o f the countries ment i oned But they do give us a good
.

indication of the sort o f people Ameri ca is getting by

immigration from those coun tries and they indicate ,

clearly the intelligence levels o f the various fore i gn born -

g roups in A m erica A n d .once more

,
we see a c o nfirm a

tion o f those biological soci ological and psychological

, ,

researches whi ch we have previously menti oned ; viz .

that the in telli gence level of the racial element s which

America has received from northern E urope i s far above
that of the south and east E uropean elements .

We have already indicat ed how great are the possibili

ties for the prac ti cal employment of mental t est s not ,

merely in the army but also in educati on indust ry and , ,

74 T H E RE V O L T A GAINST C IVILI ZATI O N
they are disciplined and controlled The c as e is somewhat .

similar with respect to the emoti ons Probably it .

will not be long until we shall have some method of mea

suring the quality of emo tional disturbances and thi s ,

will increase the accuracy o f our judgments ; but to what

ever degree o f independence the emotions may be as
si gned ,
their utility is determined by the disc ipline o f
intelligence Emo ti onal control is we ak in those of low
.

mental level The higher the level the greater the pos
.
,
” 1
sib ility o f rational control .

We have thus far considered the nature of intelligen ce ,

an d we have found it to be an inborn quali ty whose c a

p a city is predeter m i ned by heredity B i ologically t his .

,

is important because a man may not make much actual

,

us e of his t al ents and yet p as s them on to chil dren who

will make use o f them In every day life however ca

.
-
, ,

p a city is important chi efly as it expresses itself in p rac

tical performance as evidenced by knowledge and acti on .

We here enter a field where environment plays an im

portant part since what a man actually learns or doe s
,

depen ds O bviously upon environmental factors like edu

cation training and Opportunity Let us once more re
, ,
.

call the di st incti on between intelligence and knowl

“ ” “

edge intelligence being the capacity o f t he mind knowl ,

edge the filling of the min d Let us also remember the

.

” — “
true meanin g of the word educati on “
a bringing
forth of that which pot enti ally exist s
”
.

Now preci sely how does environment affect perform

ance ? In extreme c ases environment may be of maj o r
Li h t b g
1
c enp it p 104
er er, o . c .
, . .
 THE IR O N LAW OF INEQUALITY 75

importance A genius condemned for lif e to the fate of

.
,

Robinson C rusoe would obviously accomplish very little ;

,

while on the other hand a man of mediocre capacity if

, , ,

g iven every poss i ble advantage m i ght make

, the utmost
o f hi s slender t alen t s But how is it under ordinary cir
—
.

cumstan ces espec i ally under those substantially equal

circumstances which it is the avowed aim of modern
d emocratic ide al s to produce ?
Before discussing thi s point in d etail however let us , ,
“
stop and find o u t j ust what we mean by equal circum
stan ces . Do we mean equality o f Opportu nity? O r do
we mean equali ty o f p erformance and recomp ens e ? The
two ideas are poles as under ; yet they are O ften conf used
in thought and frequently intentionally confused in
,

argum ent E quality of opportunity means freedom of

.

diff erent individuals to make the most o f similar con

dition s and by logical impli cation freedom to reap re
, , ,

wards proport i onate to respective achievements E qual .

ity of performance and recompense on the contrary , ,

means the fixin g of certain standards accordin g to which

action will be st imulat ed and rewards apportioned Thi s
last is what most of the hot—
.

gospellers of levelling social

equality have in the back o f their heads They may .

camouflage t heir doctrines with fine phr as es but what ,

they really intend is to han di cap and defraud supe ri or

“ ”
intelli gence in order to give everybody a fair show .

Even in o ur present soci al system we see many instances

“ ”
o f the was te and injustice caused by levellin g prac
tices : bright pupils held back to keep step wit h dullards ,

and bright workmen discouraged from doing their best

76 THE RE VOLT A GAINST C IVILIZATION
by graspin g employers or ordered to go slow by union
rules setting the pace by their less compet ent fellows .

Th is distinction being understood let us n ow see how ,

environment aff ects performance with individuals under

conditions of equal opportunity How for example does .
, ,

equality of training or education aff ect indivi dual achieve

ment ? The answer is another striking proof of the power
o f heredi ty Not only is such equality of conditi ons un
.

able to level the inborn diff erences between indi viduals ;

o n the contrary it increases the difierences in resu lts
,
“
achieved .E quali zin g practice se ems to increase diff er
en ces The superior man seems to have got his present
.

su periority by hi s own nature rather than by superior

advant ages of the p as t since duri ng a peri od of equal , ,

As McD ou gall
” 1
advantage for all he increases his lead
,
.

“
j ustly remarks : The higher the level of innate capacity ,
” 2
the more is it improved by education .

We th us see that even where superior individuals have

no better opportunities than inf eriors environment tends ,

to accentuate rather than equalize the diff erences between

men an d that the only way to prevent incre as ing in
,

equality is by deliberately holding the superiors down .

Certainly the whole trend of civilizati on is towar d

,

increas in g in equali ty In the first place the deman ds .

,

made upon the individual are more and more complex

an d diff erentiated The di fferences in trainin g and edu
.

cation between savages are relat i vely insi gn ificant ; the

1
P O pen oe an d J o hns on , 92 Th e au th o rs cit e several c aref ul psych olo g
p
p p
. .

i cal tes ts b y whi ch t his rin ci le is clearly es tab li sh ed

p
.

1
McD ou gall, 48 . .
 TH E IR O N LAW O F INE QUALITY 77

diff erences between the feudal baron and his serf were
comparatively slight ; the di ff erences to— day between
cas u al laborers and captains of indus try are eno rmous .

Never before has the function of capacity been so impor

tant and so evident .

The truth is that as civilization progresses social

, ,

status ten ds to coin cide more and more closely with

racial value ; in other words a given population tends
,

to become more and more differentiated biologically the ,

upper social clas ses containing an ever larger proportion

o f persons o f superior natural endowments while the

lower social clas ses contain a growmg proportion o f in

f eriors The intelli gence tests which we have previous ly
.

cons idered show us how ma rked thi s tendency h as b e

come in advan ced modern societies like England and the
Unite d States and there is every reason to believe that
,

unl ess the civi lizing process be interrupted t h is strati

fi cation will become even sharper in the futur e .

Now precisely how does this incre asing stratification

come about ? We have already discus sed this point in
a general way We have seen how the dynami c urge of
.

superior germ pl as m surmounts environmental barriers

-

an d rais es the individual socially ; whi le conversely in

, ,

f erior individuals tend to sink in the social scale .

Let us n ow look at the matter more closely Thi s .

proces s by which in dividuals mi grate socially upward

,
“
o r downward from class to cl as s is termed ,
The Soci al
L adder ”
. The e as e with whi ch people can go up or down
this ladder depends on the flexibili ty o f the social order ,

and soc ial flexibili ty in turn characterizes progress ive

78 TH E RE VO LT A GAINST CIVILI ZATION
civiliz ations In the less advanced types of civilization
.
,

social flexibili ty is rare Society crystalli zes into closed

.

c as tes sons are compelled to foll ow the callin gs of their

,

fathers superi or in dividuals cannot rise and hi gh born

, ,
-

inf eriors are kept from sinkin g to their proper levels .

Thi s means waste inefficiency and imperfect utili zation

,

o f hum an resources .

However as c ivilization progresses its very complexity

, ,

and needs compel greater efficiency ; soc i ety becomes

“ ”
more flexible ; and the social ladder works better and
better Latent talent ri ses more eas ily from the ranks
.
,

while the upper class cut s ou t more of it s dead wood and -

,

thus tends to free itself from degenerate tain ts whi ch

have ruined so many aristocrati c cast es The abou nding .

vigor of Am erican lif e f or example is largely due to the

, ,

way in which abili ty ten ds to be recogni zed wherever it

‘‘”
appears and 1 s given a chan ce to make good Thus .
,

in course of time the superi or strains In a popul ation ris e

,

to the top whil e the inf eri or element s sin k t o the bottom
,
.

The upper classes are continually enriched by good new

blood while the lower clas ses drained o f their best ele
, ,

ments are in creasin gly impoverished and become in

,
a

creasin gly inf erior .

Thi s segregati on o f populations according to raci al

value is produced not merely by the soc i al ladder but
, ,

by an o ther process known as assortative mat ing

“ ”
Con .

trary to cert ain romant i c but erroneous not ions careful ,

sc i entific investigati on has proved conclusively that like “

tends to mate with like ”

Gi ant s are not prone to marry
.

dwarfs nor do extreme blonds us ually prefer dark bru

,
 THE IR O N LAW O F IN EQUAL ITY 79

nettes An d what is true of physical ch aracteris tics is

.

equally true of mental and emotional qualities P eople .

tend to marry those n ot too un e themselves An d in .

,

addition to the acti on o f pers onal preference there is ,

superad ded the e ffect of propinquity Indivi duals are .

usu ally attracte d to those with whom they associate .

These are us ually of their own class with common stand ,

ards similar tas tes and like educati onal attainments

, ,
.

B ut th ose are the very persons who are apt to be of the

same general type Thus as populations get more dif
.
,

f erentiated as so rtative mating widens the class gaps

,
.

Superiors tend more an d more to marry superiors medi ,

o crity tends to mate with me di ocrity while the inf erior ,

and the degenerate become segregate d by themselves .

At first sight it might seem as though the act i on of the

social ladder would nullify the action of assortative mat
ing B ut when we look at the matter more closely we
.

see that this is not the c ase Where social flexibili ty per
.

mits individuals to migrate e as ily like tends oftener to

,

as sociat e and hence to mate with lik e

“
The self made .
-

”
man is more apt to find a wife o f his own caliber and ,

is not compelled to choose exclusively from among the

women o f the lower social cl ass in which he was born .

“
On the other hand high born incompetents or black
,
-

”
sheep sinkin g rapidly are less likely to drag down with
, ,

t hem hi gh type mates Thus the social ladder and as

-
.

s o rtative mating far from conflicting reinforce each

, ,

other and sift the population according to true racial

val ues with cumulative eff ect .

The sustained intermarriage o f a well -selected upper

80 TH E REVOLT A GAINST C IV ILI ZATION
’
class raises society s apex into a sharply defined peak or
cone Woods h as termed this process Social Conific a
.

”1 “
tion . The members of such con ifi ed groups dis play
clearly marked traits and possess hi gh average rac i al
value On the other hand the lowest social classes seg
.
, ,

regated and dr ained of their best elements similarly ,

“ ”
conif y into well marked racial inf eriority-
.

The extent to which these selective processes workin g ,

for generations in a hi ghly civili zed society may drain ,

the lower soci al classes of their best racial elements is ,

strikingly shown by the case of E ngland That marked .

diff erences of in born capacity exist between the Bri t ish

upper and lower social strata has of course long been , ,

realized but the rapidity with which the gap has been
,

widenin g has been recently shown by two hi stori cal mea

su remen ts of the social distribution of geni u s and talent

in the Uni ted Kin gdom conducted respectively by Have

lock Ellis and Doctor Woods The results of these studies .

have been ably summari z ed by Alleyn e Irelan d whom I ,

will quote .

Says Ireland : What these investigations dis close is

t hat over a peri od of several centuri es there has occurred

1
D oct or H ederick Ad ams W ood s h as made b
a n u m er of caref ul re
search es o n thi s qu estion hi s lates t b ein g a genealogic al s tu dy of leading
M assa ch u se tts fam ilies with s p ecial ref eren ce to th eir in termarriages
,

traced o ver a perio d of appro ximately three h u ndre d ye ars f rom th e found
, ,

ing O f th e M ass ach u s e tts Bay C o lon y ( 1630 ) to th e p re sen t d ay His

d a ta h a ve n o t yet b een p u b lis h ed b u t D o c t o r W o ods h as s h own th em
.

to me in M SS Fur th ermore at th e Secon d In ternational C on gress o f

E u geni cs h eld at New York C ity in Se p t emb er 1 921 D o c tor W oo ds read
.
,

a p a per s ummariz in g th e res ul ts o f this s tu dy which will b e pu blish ed in

, , ,

th e C o n gress
’
s Procee di
n gs .
82 TH E RE VOLT A GAINST C IV ILIZATION
public and a title of nobility in the appreciation of th e
,

polit i cal leaders .

With every circumstance o f lif e growing constantly

more favorable to the self assertion of genius and talent
-

’
in the lower clas ses in England how was it that the
‘
,

contributi ons to eminent achievement from that group

fell from an average of per cent of the total to a pro
portion o f per cent ?
“
It seems to me that as the vast improvement in eu
vironmen tal conditions had not only failed to produce

an increase in hi gh achievement by those whom thi s im

provement had done most to serve but had on the con, ,

trary taken place p ari passu with a very seri ous decline
,

in achievement the cause mus t be sought in an influence

,

powerful enough to off set whatever b en eficent effects

improved environment might actually exert upon a sta
tion ary class duri ng a single generation .

“
This influence I deem to have been that of as sor
tative matin g Its operation appears to have been of
.

a dual character On the one hand the eff ect in heredity

.
,

of intelligence mating with intelligence of stupidity wi th ,

—
stupidi ty o f success with s uccess to put the matter
,

—
roughly h as been to perpetuate and to in crease these
traits in the re spective groups On the o ther hand the
.
,

practical social consequenc es of these eff ects being pro

du ced under condit i ons of an ever broadeni ng demo c-

ratiz ation o f soc ial life h as been that the more intelli gent
‘ ’
and successful elements in the lower classes have been
constan tly ri sing out of their clas s into one socially above
it This movement must have the consequence of drain
.
 THE IR O N LAW OF INEQ UAL ITY 83

ing the lower classes o f talent and genius and thr ough
‘ ’
, ,

a process o f social migration o f incre as ing the genius

,

and talent o f each succee di ng upper layer in the social

”1
seri es .

We thus see that as civilization progresses inborn

, ,

superiority tends to drain ou t of the lower soci al levels

Up into the higher social classes And probably never .

before in human his tory has th is selective proces s gon e

o n so rapidly and so thoroughly as to day -
.

But it may be asked : Is this not a matter for rejoic

ing ? Does not this imply the eventual forma tion of an
”
aristocracy o f supermen blessing all classes with th e
,

fl owerin gs o f its creative genius ?

Unf ort u nately no ; n ot as society is now cons titu ted
,
.

O n the contrary if these tendencies continue under pres

,

ent socia l condi tions the con centration o f superiority in

,

the upper social levels will spell general racial impoveris h

ment and hence a general decline of civilization Let u s .

remember that fatal tendency ( discussed in the preced

ing cha pter) to use up and exterminate racial values ;
to impoverish human stocks by the dual process o f s o
cially ster ilizing superior strains and m ul t i plying in

f eriors The history o f civilization is a series o f racial

.

’
trage dies Race after race has entered civilization s por
.

tals ; entered in the pink o f condi t ion full of superio r ,

strains slowly selected an d accumul at ed by the drastic

methods of primitive life Then on e by on e these race s
.
, ,

have been insidiously drained o f their best until unable , ,

1
Alleyn e I relan d , Democracy and the H u ma n E quatio n , pp .
—
1 39 1 42
( New Y or , k
84 THE R E VOLT A GAINST CIVILIZATIO N
to carry they have sunk back into impotent medi
on ,

o crity . The only reason why the torch of civilizati on

has continued to flame high is because it has been passed
o n from hand to hand ; becaus e there have always been

good stocks still racially protected by primitive con di

tions who could take up the task .

T o— day however this is no longer so The local civili

, , .

z atio ns of the p ast have merged in to a world-ci vi liza tion ,

which draws insistently on every high type stock in exist -

ence That is why our modern civilization has made

.

—
such marvellous progress because it h as had behind it
the pooled intelligence o f the planet B ut let us not .

deceive ourselves ! Behind this brave show the same

fatal tendencies that have wrought such havoc in the
—
past are still working working as never before ! In the
next chapter we shall consider closely these factors o f
racial decline Suff ice it here to state that in every civi
.

"

liz ed country to day the superior elements in the p Opu

-

lation are virtually stationary or actually declining in

numbers while the mediocre and inf erior elements are
,

rapidly increasing .

Such is ou r racial balan ce sheet And be it remem

-
.
,

bered : our civilization unlike its predecessors cannot

, ,

s hif t the burden to other shoul ders because there are no ,

” “
more untapped racial reserves No noble barbari
.

”
ans wait to step forward as in the past ; the barbarians
and savages who still remain in the world are demon
s trab ly o f inf erior caliber and can contribute little o r

nothing to the progress of civilization .

If then ou r civilization is to survive it mus t cons erve

, , ,
 T HE IRON LAW O F INEQ UALITY 85

and foster its o wn rac e values Happily our civili zation

.

possess es two great advantages over past times : scientific

knowledge and the scientific spiri t To us have been .

revealed secrets of life our forebears never knew And .

to us has been vouchsafed a passion for tru th such as the

world h as never seen Other ages have sought trut h
.

from the lips of seers an d prophets ; our age se eks it from

scientific proof Other ages have had their saints and
.

—
martyrs d auntless souls who clung to their faith with
unshakable constancy Yet o ur age has also its saints
.

—
and martyrs heroes who cannot only face death for
their faith but who can also s crap their faith when facts
,

have proved it wrong There indeed is courage ! And

.
, ,

therein lies our h Op e .

This matchless love o f truth this spiri t o f science which

,

combines kn owledge and faith in the syn thesis o f a hi gher

wis dom as yet inspires o nl y the elite of our t ime Most

,
.

o f us are still more o r less under the spell of the past

the spell of passion prejudice an d u nre ason It is thus

, , .

that ideas and ideals clearly disproved by science yet

claim the all egi an ce of multitudes of worthy men .

The dead hand of false doctrines and fallacious hopes

lies indeed heavy Upon us Laws institutions customs
, ,
.
, , ,

ideas and ideals are all stamped deep with its imprint
,
.

Our very min ds and sou ls are imbued with delusions like
environmentalism and natural equali ty from whose
“ ”

emotional grip it is hard to escape Mighty as is the .

new truth our eyes are yet blinded to its full meaning
, ,

our hearts sh ri nk instinctively from its wider implications ,

an d our feet falter on the path to higher d es tinie s .

86 T HE RE VOLT A GAINST C IVILI ZATION
These reactionary forces stub bornly impede the prog
ress of those deep going eugeni c reforms which must
-

spee di ly be undert aken i f o ur c ivilization is to be saved

from declin e and o u r race from decay .

Thi s i s seri ous enough But there is something more

.

serious still The reac tionary forces which we have just

.

described though powerful are aft er all essen ti ally

, , , ,

negative i n character With the spread of enlightenment

.

—
they would soon wither if they stood alone But they .

do not st and alone Behind them sheltered by them

.
, ,

lurks a positive aggressive force : Th e Under Man !

,
-

The Under Man is unconvertible He will not bow to

-
.

the new truth because h e knows that th e n ew tru th is not

,

f or him . Why should he work for a higher c i v ili za ti on ,

when even the present civi lization is beyond hi s powers ?

What the Under Man wants is no t progress but regress
-
, ,

”
regress to more primi tive conditi ons in whi ch he woul d
be at home In fact the more he grasps the significance
.
,

o f t he new eugenic tru t h the uglier grows his mood

,
So .

long as all men beli eved all men potentially equal the ,

Under Man could delude hi mself into thinking that

-

changed circumst ances mi ght rai se him to the top Now .

that nature herself proclaims him irremedi ably inf erior ,

hi s hatred of superi ority knows no bounds .

Thi s hat red he has always instinctively felt Envy .

and resentment of superi ority have ever been the badges

of base mi nds Yet never have these badges been so
.

fiercely flau n ted so defiantly worn as t o—

,
day Thi s ex ,
.

plains the seemi ng paradox that j ust when the character ,

o f superiori ty becomes supremely manifest the cry f or ,

 TH E IR ON LAW OF INEQUALITY 87

levellin g equali ty rises supremely shri ll The Under .

Man revolts against progress ! Nat u re herself having

decreed him uncivili z able the Under Man declares war
,
-

o n civilization .

These are not pretty facts B ut we had better face

.

them lest they face us and catch us unawares Let us

, , .
,

then unders t an d once and for all that we have among

,

—
us a rebel army the vas t host of the unadaptable the ,

incapable the envious the di scontented filled with in

, , ,

s tin ctive hatred of civilizat ion and progress and ready ,

o n the instant to rise in revolt .

Here are foes that need watching Let us watch

.

them .
 CHAPTE R III
THE NEM ES IS OF THE IN F E R IO R

RACIAL impoverishment is the plague of civilizati on .

This insidious disease with i t s twin symptoms the ex

,

tirpation oi superior strains and the mu ltipli cati on of

inferiors h as ravaged humani ty like a consuming fire
, ,

reducing the proudest societies to charred and squalid

We have already examined the lif e process which per

p etu ates both superi ors and inferi ors according to their
kind so we can now pass to a practical cons i deration of
,

inferi or types .

First o f all however let us carefully di stinguish

, ,

between inf eri ori ty s two aspects : physi cal inferiori t y

’

an d mental inf eri ori ty It is mental inferiority which is

.

o ur chief concern Physically the human species seems

.
,

equal to all demands which are lik ely t o be made upon

it Desp it e civilizati on s d elet erious aspects and desp i te
.
’
,

the combined acti on o f modern medi cin e and phil an

th rOpy in keep ing alive physically weak in divi duals ,

humani ty does n ot appear t o be threatened with general

physi cal decay We are hei rs of a physi cal selecti on whi ch
.

goes back tens o f milli ons perhaps hundreds of m illi ons

,

o f years to t he very o ri g in o f lif e and it s benefi c i al in

,

fl e ce
u n is so wide spread -
and deep —goin g that a few mil
lennia o f partial escape from its workings have pro
du ced only superficial eff ects .

88
90 TH E RE VOLT A GAINST C IVILIZATION
days this was beli eved to be a normal rather than an
, ,

abnormal phenomenon ,
Our forebears considered so .

ciety s wi t hering away at the top and breeding from b e

’

low as natu ral an d inevitable Take the attit ude of the .

Romans for example Roman soci ety was divided int o

,
.

six classes The sixth or lowest social class made up

.
, , ,

o f paupers vagabonds and degenerates was exemp t

, , ,

from c ivic duties mili tary service and t he payment of

, ,

taxes But was t his class debarred from having children ?

.

Not at all On the contrary it was posit ively encouraged

.
,

to do so These dregs of the Roman populace were

.

“
termed proletari ans ” “
producers of off spring ” !
In
,

other words a man might be incapable of civic duties

, ,

incapable of bearin g arms incapable of paying taxes but , ,

was considered not only capable but spec ially apt f or

h earing children who were accepted as his contribution
,

to society Think what an att itude on racial matters

.

thi s implies ! No wonder Rome fe l ! An d yet let us

l —
not forget that thi s was subst antially the attitude of our
grandf athers and that i t is still the att itude of millions
—
,

o f so called
“
educated persons Here i s once more
”
.

evident the dead hand of the past perpetuating old errors ,

and blocking the effective spread of new truths .

This mi ngling of old and new forces i s in fact mainly , ,

r esponsible for the peculi arly acut e nat ure of our social
an d racial problems Tradi t ional infl uences makin g for
.

racial decay are as active as ever perhaps more so On ,

.

the other han d many new factors like universal educa

,

tion high standards preventive medicine and birth

, , ,

control all of which may be come powerful agents Of rac e

,
 THE NE M E SIS O F T HE INFE RIO R 91

betterment have thus far worked mainly in the direction

,

o f racial decay by speeding up both the social steriliz a

,
r

tion of superi or individuals and the preservation of in ,

f eri ors .

Perhaps never before have social condi tions been so

”
dysgenic so destructive of racial values as to day
, ,
-
.

In the earlier stages of society man interfered li ttle ,

with natural selection But duri ng the last century the .

increase of the philanthropic spirit and the progress o f

medi cine have done a great deal to interfere with the
selective process In some ways selection in the human
.
,

race h as almost ceased ; in many ways it is actually re

versed that is it results in the survival of the inferi or
, ,

rather than the supe ri or In the olden days the crimin al .

was summarily execute d the weakly child died soon ,

after birth through lack of proper care and medical at

tention the insane were dealt with so violently that if
,

they were not killed by the treatment they were at least

left hopelessly incurable and had li ttle chance o f b e
‘
,
’

coming parents Harsh measures all of t hese ; but they

.
,

kept the germ plas m of the race reasonably purified

-
.

To day how is it ? The in efficients the was trels

-
, , ,

the physi cal mental and moral c ri pples are carefully

, ,

preserved at public expense The criminal is turned ou t .

o n parole aft er a few yea rs to become t he father of a ,

‘ ’
family The insane is discharged as cured again to
.
,

take up the duties o f c iti zenship The feeble min ded .

-

c h ild is pain ful ly educat ed oft en at the expense of his

‘
,
’

normal brother o r sist er In short the u ndesirables o f .

,

the race with whom the bloody hand of natural selection

,
92 THE RE VOLT A GAINST CIV ILIZATION
would have made short work early in life are now nur sed ,

An d as already s t at ed factors like

” 1
along to old age .
, ,

birth control educati on and hi gh social standards are

, ,

simultaneous ly extirp ating the superior elements at an

u nprecedented rat e .

Such is the situation Now what is to be done ? R e

.
,

turn to the gri m methods of natural selecti on ? Of

“ ”

course n ot No sensible person could possibly advocate

.

such a thing It would not only outrage our moral sense

.
,

bu t it would also yield results far inferior to other methods

o f race betterment which science has already discovered

and elaborated That is the hopeful aspect of the situ a

.

tion G rave though our present plight may be we do

.
,

not have to waste precious time cas ting about for theo
retical solutions Science especially that branch o f
.
,

sc i ence known as Eugen i cs or Race Betterment

“ ” “ ”
,

shows us a way far more efficient as well as infin itely

more humane than the crude was teful methods of natural ,

sele ction which while killing out most of the bad took
, , ,

m an y of the good at the same time Science there .

,

fore off ers us a way of escape from impen di ng perils

, ,

not by a retu rn to natural selec ti on but by way of an ,

improved social selection based Upon natural law ins tead

o f as hi therto Upon ignorance and haphazard
, ,
Det ailed .

di scussion of the eugeni c programme will be deferred t ill

the concluding chapter of this book At present let us .
,

continue our survey of hum an inf e ri ori ty in order better ,

to apprec i ate how imperative the speedy application of

eugeni c me as ures to society h as come to be .

P pen oe nd J hn o
1 o p p 1 48 1 49
a o s n, .
-
.
94 TH E R E VOLT A GAINST C IV ILI ZATION
improvidence , et c It is highly here dit ary and u nf or
.
,

tu nately it i s frequently assoc i ated wi th great physi cal

strength and vit ality so tha t feeble-minded persons
,

usually breed rapidly with no regard for consequences

, .

In former times the n umbers of the feeble minded were -

kept down by the stern processes of natural selecti on ,

but modern charity and philanthr opy have protected

them and have thus favored t heir rapid multipli cation .

Th e feeble minded are becoming an in creas ingly serious

-

problem in every civili zed country to— day The number .

of obviously feeble— minded persons in the United States

is est imated to be at le as t Duri ng the last few
decades t o be sur e many of the worst cases have been
, ,

segregated in instituti ons where t hey are of course kep t

,

from breeding ; but even to— day the number of the segre
gated is only about 1 0 or 1 5 per cent of t hose who shoul d
—
clearly be under insti tut i onal care the balance mean ,

while causing endless trouble for both the present and

,

future generati ons .

The rap i di ty with which feeble minded stocks spread -

,

and the damage they do are vi vi dly illustrated by nu

,

merou s scient ific s tu dies which have been compiled Both .

in E urope and Ameri ca these st udies tell the same story :

feeble— minded in di viduals segregating in clans spread
“ ”
,

ing lik e cancerous growths dist urb ing the soc i al life and
,

infecting the blood of whole communi ti es and thri ving ,

o n mi sgui ded ef fort s t o bett er thei r conditi on by

“ ”
,

chari ty and other forms of soci al service

“ ”1
.

1
Su mm arie s o f s ev eral o f th e b es t- k no wn o f th ese s tu dies may b e f oun d
in H o lm es , pp —
2 7 4 0 ; P Op en o e a n d
. J ohn s on , pp 1 59—16 1
. .
 TH E NE ME SIS OF T HE INFE RIOR 95

Atyp ical c as e is that o f the Juke Family whi ch

was first investigated in the year 1 8 77 and re—
,

investi ,

gated in 1 91 5 To quote from the ori gin al study : Fro m

.
“

‘ ’
one lazy vagabond nicknamed Juk e born in rural ,

New York in 1 720 whose two sons marri ed five degen

,

erate sisters six generations numbe ri n g about

,
per
sons of every grade o f idleness viciousness lewdness , , ,

pauperism disease idiocy insanity and criminali ty

, , , ,

were traced Of the total seven generations 300 died

.
,

in i nfancy ; 3 1 0 were profes sional paupers kept in alms ,

houses a total of years ; 440 were physically wrecked

‘ ’
by their own diseased wickedness ; more than half
the women fell into prostitution ; 1 30 were convicted
criminals ; 60 were thi eves ; 7 were murderers ; o nly 20
learned a trade 1 0 of t hese in state prison and all at a
, ,

state cost of over By the year 1 91 5 the ,

clan had reached its ninth generation and had greatly ,

lengthened its evil record It then numbered . in

di vidu als half of whom were alive About the year 1 880
, .

the Ju kes had left their original home and had scattered
widely over the country but change o f environment
,

had made no material change in their natures for they ,

still showed the same feeble mindedness indolence

“
-
, ,

licentiousne ss and dishonesty even when not handi

, ,

capped by the as sociations of their h ad family name and

despite the fact of their bein g surrounded by better social
con di t i ons The cost to the state had now risen t o
” 2
.

about As the investigator remarks all this ,

evil might have been averted by preventing the repro

1
Q o
u te d b y P p oan d J h
e n oen so p 1
o 5 9 n, I bid
. pp 1 5 9.
—
1 60 1
.
, . .
96 THE RE VOLT A GAI NST C IVILI ZATIO N
duction of the first Juk es As it is the Jukes problem is .
,
“
still with us in growing severi ty for in 1 91 5 out of ap , ,

proximately 600 living feeble-minded and epileptic Jukes ,

there are only three now in custo di al care .

A strikin g illustration of how superiori ty and degen

cracy are alike rigidly determi ned by here dity is aff orded
“ ”
by the Kallikak Family o f New Jersey During the
2
,
.

”
Revolutionary War one Martin Kallikak a young , ,

soldier of good stock had an illicit aff air wi th a feeble,

min ded servant girl by whom he had a son Some years

-
, .

later Martin marri ed a woman of good family by whom

,

he had several legitim ate children N ow th is is what .

happened : Martin s legitimate chil dren by the woman

’

o f good stock all turned out well and founded one of the

most distinguis hed famili es in New Jersey

“
In this .

family and its collateral bran ches we find nothi ng but

good representative citizenshi p There are doctors law .
,

yers judges educato rs traders landholders in short

, , , , , ,

respectable citi zens men and women promi nent in every

,

phase o f social lif e They have scattered over the United

.

States and are prominent in their commu ni ties wherever

they have gone There have been no feeble—
. minded
among them ; no ill egitimate chil dren ; no immoral
”
women ; only on e man was sexually loose In sharp .
3

contrast to thi s branch of the family stand the des cen

1
This is , of co urs e, n o t th e rea l n a me of It is a s cie n t ifi c
th e f amily
” —
k p k
.

ni c n ame , c o m oun ded f ro m th e “ “

G ree wo rds go o d an d b ad in ~

s h or ,
“
tT h e G oo d Bad
- amily,
”
F to ch arac t eriz e th e s tro ng ly di vergen t
t
ch arac e r O f its two ran ch es b
p
.

1
Holmes , 31 . .
98 TH E RE VOLT A GAINST CIVILIZATION
Unlike feeble-mindedness insanity is often associated ,

with very superior quali ti es whi ch may render the af

1
,

fli cted individuals an acute menace to society The .

feeble minded never overturned a state An essentially

-
.

negative element they may drag a civilization down ,

t oward sodden degeneracy but they have not the wi t ,

to disrupt it The in sane on the other hand are apt to

.
, ,

be intensely dynamic and to misuse their powers for de

structive ends We sh all presently see how many apostles
.

o f an archic violence and fu rious discontent have been

persons of ill balanced mind Such persons are o f course

-
.
, ,

rarely insane in the techni cal sens e o f being clearly

“ ”

“ ”
committable to an asylum They repres ent merely .

one as pect o f that vast outer fri nge of ment al un

”

soun dness which is scattered so widely thr ough the gen

“ ”
eral population But even the acute as ylum c as es .

are lamentably numerous In the United States for .

,

example the asylum popul ation numbers over

,

and it i s well known that besides those actu ally in ins ti

tu tion s there are multi tudes o f equally a f fli cted persons
in private cus tody or even at large .

Anot her class of pronounced defectives are the epi

lep tics Ep ilepsy i s clearly here di t ary being probably
.
,

1
t
An e x raordin ary idea u s ed to b e widely h eld h a geniu s was a o rm t t f
o f ins an i y t t
C aref u l s cien ific in ves iga io n h as clearly dis ro ved his tt p t
p
.

t
n o io n t
F o r o n e hi n g, elab o ra e s a is ic al s u dies o f emin e n
. t ers o nst t t t t
t
h ave s h o wn h em to b e les s liab le to in sa ni y h an is th e gen eral p op u la t t
t io n Of co u rs e , a c o ns iderab le nu mb er o f e m in e n m en can b e li s e d wh o t t
pt
.

t
u n q u es io n ab ly s uff ere d f ro m vario u s n eu ro a h ic rai s B u t it w as n o t t t .

t t t t t t
h o s e rai s h a m a de h em emin en ; o n th e c o n rary, h es e were h an d t t t
icap s k t
Somewh ere b ac in h eir a n ces ry a ain was in rod u ce d in o a t t t t t
p p
.

s o u n d , s u erio r s rain , and t

ro du ce d his dish armo nic co mb ina io n o f t t
q ua li ies t .
 THE NE M E SIS OF T HE INFE RIOR 99

due like feeble mindedness and hereditary insanity to

,
-
,

some factor in the germ plasm whi ch causes abnormal -

development Like insanity it is often associated with

.
,

superior mental qualities but it is even more often asso ,

ciate d with feeble min dedness and its V ic tims tend to

-
,

be dangerously antisocial epilepsy being frequently con ,

n e cted with the worst crimes o f v i olence The spreadin g .

o f epileptic strains amo ng sound stocks is un questionably

disastrous causing grave social dangers and lamentabl e

,

racial losses .

Besides these outstanding causes of degeneracy there

are some other forms of defect whi ch though in dividually ,

n o t so serio u s represent in the aggregate a distinct b ur

,

den to socie ty and drain upon the race Among thes e .

may be classed congenital deafness and blindness some ,

types of deformi ty and certain crippling diseases lik e

,

H u nt ington s chorea All such defects being hereditary

’
.
, ,

inflict repeated damage from generation to generation ,

and tend to spread into sound stocks .

So en ds ou r melancholy s urvey o f the defective

clas ses ”
.In every civilized coun t ry their aggregate num
bers are enormous and under present social con di tions
, , ,

they are rapidly increas ing In the United States f or .

,

example the total number o f the patently feeble minded

,
-
,

in sane and ep ileptic is est imated to be fully

,

And as already stated even t his alarming total rep re

, ,

sents merely those persons sufferin g from the more ex

treme forms of taints which extend broadc as t thr ough
the general population The extent of such contamina .

t i on is revealed by several estimates made independently

1 00 TH E REVOLT A GAINST C I V ILIZATION

by competent investigat ors who all cons i der that over

3 0 per cent o f the ent ire pop ul ati on of the Uni ted S t ates
carri es some form of ment al defect 1
In great part t o .
,

be sure defect is latent in the germ plasm and does the

,
-

bearers no harm Yet the taints are there and are apt
.
,

to come ou t in the ir children especially if they marry ,

persons carrying a similar defect in their inherit ance .

An d even if we exclude from cons i derati on all purely

,

latent defect s the problem presented by those actually

,

s uff erin g from less acut e forms o f defect than those pre
viou sly desc ri bed is o n e o f alm ost incalculable gravi t y

for both society and the race There can be no ques tion .

that in effic i ency stup i dity pauperism crime and other

, , , ,

forms of an ti social conduct are largely (perhaps mainly)

due to inborn degeneracy The careful scien t ific inves .

tigatio ns conducted in many co u ntries on paupers ,

t ramps criminals prostitutes ch ronic inebriates drug

, , , ,

fiends etc have all revealed a high percentage of mental

,
.
,

defect When to these ou t and out social failures we

.
2 - -

add the numberless semi failures gradin g all the way -

,
“ ”
from the unemployable casual laborer to the erratic
genius was ting or perverting his talents we begin to ,

re ali ze the truly terrible action of inheri t ed degeneracy ,

working generation after generation taintin g and spoil .

1
p
Su ch is th e O in ion of some o f th e memb ers o f th e Eu geni cs R ec ord
O ffi ce, th e leadin g Ameri can s cien t ifi c inves t iga tio n cen t re o n th ese rob p
lems k p
Th e well- no wn sychi a t ris ts R os anoff an d O rr b elieve th a t o ver
pp p p p
.

3 1 p er ce n t o f a are n tly n o rmal e o le are carriers o f n e uro a thi c d e

f t
ee .

F or mm aries o f s everal o f th ese t t b t

inves iga ions , o h American and
— —
su
Euro ean, p see P open oe an d Joh ns o n , pp 1 57 1 60 ; 1 7 6 1 83 ; H o lmes ,
. pp .

73-9 7 .
1 02 T HE REVOLT A GAINST C IVI LIZATION
that the mobs which sp ri ng up from nowhere at the sli ght
est let u p in police cont rol are mostly Ameri can born
- -
,

with scarcely an illi t erat e am ong them ; yet they revert

to the sway of their animal ins t incts qu it e as spon
tan eo usly as benighted Russians .

“
It is folly to keep up the delusi on that more democ
racy and more education will make over thes e ill born -

into good citizens Democracy was never int ende d for

.

degenerates and a nation breeding freely of the sort that

,

mus t continually be repressed is not headed toward an

extens ion of democratic libert ies Rather it is inevi t able.
,

that clas s lines shall harden as a protection agains t the

gron numbers of the underbred just as in all previous ,

c ultures H owever remote a cataclysm may be our

.
,

present raci al trend is toward social chaos or a dictator

Meanwhile we invite social turmoil by advancing

,

muddled noti ons of equality Democracy as we loosely.

,

ideali ze it nowadays is an overdrawn p i ctur e of earthly

,

bliss ; it stirs the little brained to hope for an impossible

-

levelling of human beings The most we can hones tly

.

exp ect t o achieve is a fair levellin g o f Opportu ni ty; but

every step t oward that end b ri ngs o ut more distin ctly
those b as i c inequalities of inherit an ce whi ch no envir on
ment al effort can improve So di scont ent i s loudest in
.

those least capable of grasping O pportuni ty when it is

” 1
offered .

In this connection we mus t never forge t that it is the

”
high grade defectives who are most dangerous to
-

1
p
H um h rey, pp . 7 7—
80 .
 THE N E M E SIS OF THE I NFE RIOR 1 03

th e social order I t is the near-geni us the man with

.
,

the fat al t aint which perverts hi s t al ents who oftenes t ,

rouses and leads the mob The levell ing social revolu .

tion ary doc t rin es of our own day like Syn di cali sm An , ,

archi sm and Bolshevism superficially all u ring yet bas ic

, ,

ally fals e and destructive are essentially the product of ,

—
unsound thin king by u ns ou nd brains The sociologist .

Nordau ably analyzes the enormous harm done by such

persons and doctrines not only by rousing the d egenerate
,

el ements but also by leading astray vas t numbers of

,

average people biologically normal enough yet with in

,

telligen ce n ot high enough to protect them agains t clever

fallacies clothed in fervid emotional appeals .

Says Nordau : Besides the extreme forms of d e

ge n era cy there are milder forms more o r less in c on s i
p c ,

u ous ,
not to be di agnosed at a first glan ce These .
,

however are the most dangerous for the community

, ,

because their destru ctive influence only gradually makes

itse lf felt ; we are not on our guard agains t it ; indeed ,

in many cas es we do not recognize it as the real cause

,

o f the evils it conjures u p

— e vils whose serious importance

no one can doubt .

“
A mattoid o r half fool who is full of organic feelings
-
,

o f dislike generalizes his subj e ctive state into a system

,

o f pessimism o f ,
—
W elts ch mertz we ari ness of life An
‘ ’
.

other in whom a loveless egoism dominates all thought

,

an d feeling so that the whole exterior worl d seems to

,

him hostile organizes his antisoci al instincts into the

,

theory o f anarchi sm A t hi r d who suff ers from moral

.
,

ins ensibility so that no bond of sympathy links him

,
1 04 T HE RE VOLT A GAINST C IVILIZATION
with h is fellow man or with any living thing and wh o ,

is obsessed by vanity amoun t ing to megalomani a ,

preaches a do ct rine of the Superman who is to know ,

no considerati on and no comp as si on be bound by no ,

moral princ iple but live his own life without regard
,
‘ ’

for others Wh en these half fools as oft en happens

.
-
, ,
—
speak an excited language when their imagination un ,

bri dled by logic or understandin g supplies them with ,

odd startling fanc i es and surpri sing associ ati ons and
,

—
images their wri tings make a strong impressi on on u n
wary readers and readily gain a deci sive influence on
,

thought in the cultivat ed circles o f the ir ti me .

“
Of course well balanced persons are not thereby
,
-

changed in to practis ing di sciples of these morb i d cults .

But the preachings o f these matt oids are favorable to

the development of similar dispositi ons in others ; serve
t o polarize in their own sense t endenci es of hi therto un
, ,

cert ain dri ft and give thousands the courage O penly

, ,

impudently boastfully to confess and act in accordance

, ,

with convict i ons whi ch but f or these theo ri sts with their
,

noise and the flash of their tinsel language they would ,

have felt to be absurd or infamous which they would ,

have concealed wi th shame ; whi ch in any case would

have remained monsters known only t o themselves an d
imprisoned in the lowest depths o f their consci ousness .

“
So thr ough the influence of the teachings of degen
,

erate half fools

-
conditi ons ari se whi ch do not like the
, ,

c ases o f insani ty and crime admi t of expressi on in figures

, ,

but can nevertheless in the end be defined through their

pol iti cal and soci al effect s We gradually observe a.
1 06 THE REVOLT A GAI NST CIVILIZATION
lik e a cancerous blight and threatening to corrode society
to the very marrow of it s being Again st these as saults
.

o f in feriori ty ; agai nst the cleverly led legions o f t he de

generate and the backward ; where can c ivilizat ion look

for it s champions ? W here but in the slender rank s o f
— “ “ ”
the racially superi or those A an d B stocks whi ch ,

in iAmerica for example we know to day const it ut e barely

,
-

“
1 3 56 per cent of the population ? It is this thin red line
o f ri ch ,
untainted blood which stands between us and
barbaris m or chaos There al one lies our hope Let us
. .

“ ”
not deceive ours elves by prating about government ,
“
education ” “
,
democracy our laws our const itutions, ,

our very sacred books are in the las t analysis mere paper
,

barriers whi ch will hold only so long as there st and b e

,

hind them men and women wi th the intelligence to under

stand and the character to maint ain them .

Yet this life lin e of c ivilization is not only thi n but is

-

wearing thinner with a rapidity whi ch appalls those fully

aware of the facts We have already stated that prob
.

ably never before in human his tory have soc i al conditions

been so destructive of racial values as to-day because o f ,

both the eliminat ion of superior stocks and the mult i

pli cati on of inf eriors .

One dangerous fallacy we must get out of our heads :

the fallacy of judging human populations by what we
see among wild vari eties o f plant s and animals Among .

these latter we observe a marked stability of type and ,

we are ap t to conclude that for man as for other life

,
“ ”
forms evolution is a slow process in which a few gen
,

erations coun t for little and therefore that we need not

,
 TH E N E M E S IS O F THE I NFE RI O R 107

worry overmuch about me as ures o f race betterment b e

“ ”
cause we have plenty o f time .

A perilous delusion this ! and a fur ther indication of

,

our unsound thinking and superficial knowledge o f t he

laws o f life A trifle more intelli gent reflection would
.

show us the profound unlikeness of the two cases Ani .

“ ”
mals and plants (where not domesticated by man )
“
live in the state of nature where they are subjected
,

to the practically unvarying action of natu ral selec

”
tion. Their germ plasm varies in quality j ust like h u
-

man germ plas m ( as skilful breeders like Luther Burbank

-

have conclus ively proved) ; but with them natu ral selec
t i on elimin ates all but a narrow range of characteristi cs
whi ch keeps the breed at a fixed level ; whereas civilized
man living largely under self made conditions replaces
,
-
,

natural selection by various social selections which pro

—
duce the most profound a nd rapid modifications .

There is a point wh ich we must keep in min d : the

rapi di ty with which the qualities o f a species can be

altered by a change in the character of biological selec

tion It is li terally amazing to observe how mankind has
.

f o r ages been was ting its best effo rt s in the vain attempt
to change existing individu als instead o f changing the
,

race by determining whi ch existin g individuals sho ul d ,

and should not produce the next generation

,
.

Of course racial changes by means of social sele ction

,

have not waited for man to di scover them ; they have

been going on from time immemorial The trouble is
.

that instead of lifting humanity to the heights as they

, ,

might have done if intelligently di rected they have been

,
1 08 TH E RE VOLT A GAINST C IVILIZATION
workin g haphazard and have usually wrought decadence
and ruin .

The startling rapidity with whi ch a particular stock

may be either bred into or ou t o f a given popul ation
, ,

can be accurately determined by dis covering its rate of

increase compared to that o f the rest of the popul ation .

An d the ul t imate factor in this rate of incre as e is what

is kn own as the differential birth rate ” -
It h as long
.

been known that populations breeding freely tend to in

cre as e extremely fast But what is true of a popul ation
.

as a whole applies equally to any o f its cons t ituent ele

ments Thus in any given popul ation those elements

.
, ,

which reproduce themselves the fastest will dominate

—
the average character of the nati on and wi ll do so at an
ever-increasi ng rate .Let us take a rather moderate ex
ample o f a dif ferential birth rate to show how diff erences
-

barely not i ceable from year to year may in a few genera

tions ent irely trans form the racial scene Take two stocks
.

each consistin g of individuals the one ju st failing

,

to reproduce it self while t he other incre as es at say the , ,

—
rat e o f the general Englis h population by no means an
extreme level of fecun di ty At the end of a year the first
.

stock will have become 996 at the end of a century it

,

will have declined to 687 whil e after two cent uries it

,

will number only 472 On the other hand the second

.
,

stock will after a year number in a century

and in two centuri es about In other words at ,

the end of a hundred years (from three to four genera

t i ons) the more prolific stock would outnumber the less
prolific by 6 to 1 and in t wo centuries by 30 to 1 As
, .
1 10 T HE REVOLT A GAINST C IVIL I ZATION
who m arry Taking the civili zed world as a whole it
.
,

has been found that about fou r children shoul d be born

per marriage if a stock is to reproduce itself In a few .

countri es like Australia and New Z ealand and in certai n ,

hi gh grade groups where the death rates are very low

-
,
-
,

an average o f th ree children per marriage may be enough

to reproduce the stock but that seems to be about the
,

absolut e mi nimum of fecundity which will ever sufli ce .

N ow beari ng in mi nd these reproductive minima what ,

do we actually find ? We find that in E urope ( excludi ng

the more backward countries) the superior elements o f
the population average from two to four children per
marri age ; that the me di ocre elements average from four
to six children per marriage ; that the inferior elements ,

cons i dered as a whole average from six to seven and one

,

half chil dren per marriage ; while the most inferior ele
ments like casual laborers paupers and feeble minded
, ,
-

defectives considered separat ely average about seven to

, ,

eight ch ildren (illegitimMe birt hs of course included) .

The different i al b irth rates in the diff erent quart ers of

-

the great E ur opean cit ies are typ i cal Some years before
.

the late war the French sociologis t Bertill on found that

,

in Paris and Berlin the bir ths in the slum quarters were
more t han three t imes as numerous as the births in the
best resi denti al secti ons while in London and Vienna
,

t hey were about two and one-half t imes as numerous .

In t he Un it ed States conditions are no better than in

—
E urop e in some respec ts they seem to be rather worse .

Out si de of the Sout h and parts of the West the old native
Ameri can s t ock i s not reproduc ing i tself the b i rth rates
,
-
 THE NE M E SIS O F TH E INFERI O R 111

of immigrant stocks from northern and wes tern E urope

are rap i dly falli ng whi le the birth rates among the im
,
-

migrant stocks from southern and eastern Europe remain

high and show comparatively slight diminution The .

American int ellectual groups are much less fert ile than
similar E uropean groups The average number o f chil
.

dren per married graduate o f the lea din g Am eri can col
leges like Harvard and Yale is about two while among ,
’
the leadin g women s colleges it is about on e and one half ~
.

Furthermore the marriage rates of college men and

,
-

women are so low that considering married and singl e

,

graduates together the statistic al average is about o n e

,

an d on e half children per college man and something less

-

than three-fourths of a child per college woman Pro .

f essor Cattell has investigate d the size of families o f 440

Am erican men o f science choosing o nly those cases in
,

whi ch the ages o f t he parents in dicated that the family

was completed Despite a very low death rate the bir th
.
-
,
“
rate was so much lower that as he himself remarks it , ,

is obvious that the families are not self perpetuating - .

The scientifi c men under fifty of whom there are 261 ,

with completed families have on the average

,
chil
d ren about 1 2 per cent of whom die before the age o f
,

marriage What proportion will man y we do not know ;

.

but only about 75 per cent of Harvard and Yale graduates

marry ; only 50 per cent of the graduates o f colleges f o r
women marry A scientific man h as on the average abou t
.

seven tenths of an adu lt son If three fou rths of hi s

-
.
-

sons and gran dsons marry and their families continue

,

to be of the same size scientific men will leave about

,
1 12 T HE RE VOLT A GAINST C IVILIZAT ION
3 50 grandsons to marry and transmit their names and
their heredi tary trait s The exterminati on will be still
.

more rap i d in female lines ”

.

In sharp contras t to these figures note the high b i rth ,

rates in the tenement districts of America s great c iti es ’

.

In New York for example the birth rate on the E ast

, ,
-

Si de is over four times the b i rth rate in the smart -

resi denti al districts Commenting on similar conditions

.

in Pittsburgh where the birth rate in the poorest ward

,
-

is t hree tim es that of the best resi dential ward Messrs , .

P op en oe and Johnson remark :

“
The si gnificance of such
figures in nat ural selecti on must be evident Pittsburgh .
,

like probably all large citi es in civili zed countries breeds ,

from the bottom The lower a class is in the scale of in

.

telligen ce the greater is its reproductive contri bution

, .

Recalling that intelli gence is inheri ted that like beget s ,

like in thi s respect on e can hardl y feel encouraged over

,

the quality of the pop ulati on of Pittsburgh a few genera

” 1
tions hence .

Furthermore it must not be forgotten that such dif

,

f erential b irth rates imply for Am erica problems more

-

complex even than those in E urope ; because whereas ,

in E urope they involve mainly shifts in group intelligence -

,

in America they mean also changes o f race with all that

that implies in mo difications of fu ndamental nati onal
temperaments ideals and institutions An d that is
, , .

precisely what is taking place in many parts of America

to day New E ngland for example once the prolific
- .
, ,
“ ”
nursery of the ambitious intelligent Yankee stock , ,

1
P Op en oe an d J oh ns on , p . 139 .
1 14 TH E RE VOLT A GAINST C IVILIZATION
S ince the American popul ati on (with the exception o f
its south and eas t E u ropean immigrant s t ocks and its
negroes) probably averages about as high in intelligence
as do the no rth E uropean peoples it is not dif ficult to ,

foresee that if intelligence continues to be bred out o f

the race at i ts present rate civilizati on will either slump
,

o r crash from sheer lack o f brains The fatal eff ects o f

.

a brain famine are well des cri bed by Professor McDou gall
in the following lines
The civili zati on of Ameri ca depends on your con
tin u in g to produce A and B men in fair numbers And .

at present the A men are 4 per cent the B men 9 per ,

cent and you are breeding from the lower part of the
,

cu rve .The A men and B men the college bred do not

,
-
,

maintain their numbers while the populat i on swells

,

enormously If this goes on for a few generat ions will

.
,

not the A men and even the B men become rare as white
, ,

elephant s dropp ing to a mere fraction o f 1 per cent ?

,

It is only too probable .

“
The present tendency seems to be for the whole curve
to shift t oward the wrong end with each successive gen
e ration An d this is probably true o f moral quali ti es
.
,

as well as o f in tellectual stature If the time shoul d come

.

when you r A and B men together are no more than 1

p e r cen t o r a mere fract i on o f 1 per cent of the p Opula
, ,

—
tion what will become of your civilization ?
“
Let me state the c as e more concretely in relation to ,

one o f the great essenti al professi ons of which I have

some inside knowledge ; namely the medi cal profess ion ,
.

l\vo hun dr ed or one hundred years ago th e knowledge

’
,
 TH E N E M E SIS OF THE IN FE RIOR 1 15

to be acquired by the medic al student before entering ,

upon the practice of hi s profession was a comparatively

,

small body of empiri cal rules The advance of civiliz a

.

t i on h as enormously mul tipli ed this knowledge and the ,

very exis tence o f our civili z ed commun it i es depends upo n

the contin ued and effective appli cation o f this vast body
o f me dical art an d science The acquiri ng and the ju
.

dicious application of this mass o f knowledge makes very

much greater deman ds upon the would b e practitioner -

t h an did the m astery of the body of rules of our fore

fathers A ccordin gly the length of the curriculum pre
.
,

scribed for our medi c al students has constantly to be

drawn out till now its duration is some six years of post
,

graduate study .

“
The students who enter upon this long and severe
course o f study are already a selected body ; they have
p as sed thr ough high school and college successfully We .

may fairly assume that the great maj ority of them b e

long to the A or B or at le as t the C group in the army
scale of int elligence .

What proport ion of them do you supp os e prove

, ,

capable of ass imilat ing the vas t body of medical knowl

edge to the po in t that renders them capable o f applying
it in t elligent ly an d effectively ? If I may venture to
generalize from my own experi ence I woul d say that a
,

very cons iderable proportion even of t hose who p as s

,

their examinations fail to achi eve such effective assimi

,

lat ion The bulk of modern medical knowledge is too

.

vast for their cap acity o f ass imilation it s complexi ty too

,

great for their power of un derstan ding Yet me dical .

1 16 THE REVOLT AGAINST CI VILIZATION
science continues to grow in bulk and complexity and ,

the dependence of the communi ty upon it becomes ever

more in timate .

“
In thi s on e professi on then which makes such great
, ,

an d increas ing demands on both the intellectual and the

moral qualiti es of its members the demand for A and ,

B men steadily increases ; and the supply in all prob

abili ty is st eadily diminis hing with each generation .

An d what is t akin g place in this on e professi on is

“
,

it would seem takin g place in all the great professions

,

and h igher callings Our civ ili zation by reason o f it s

.
,

increasing complexity is making constantly increasing

,

demands upon the qualiti es of its bearers ; the qualiti es

o f those bearers are dimin ishi ng or deteriorat ing rather ,
”1
than improving .

The larger aspects of the problem are ably stated by

Whetham who writes : Wh en we come t o consi der the
,

birth— rat e as at present affecting our social structure we ,

find that it is highest in those sec ti ons o f the community

whi ch like the feeble-minded and the insane are devoid
, ,

o f in t ell i gen t personality or lik e m an y of t he unemployed

, ,

and cas ual laborers seem to be either without ideals or

,

wi thout any method of express ing them In all the soci al .

groups whi ch have hi therto been distinguished for co

h eren ce for industry for good mental and physical ca
, ,

p a c ity ,
for power o f organ i zat i on and admi nis t rati on the ,

birth rate has fallen below the figu res necessary to main
-

tain the nat i onal store of these qualiti es G reat men are .

scarce ; the group personality i s becoming indis tinct and

M D g ll pp 1 63—
1
c 1 68
ou a ,
. .
1 18 T HE RE VOLT AGAI NST C IV ILI ZATION

race .The fact is that under pres ent conditions com

, ,

p a rativel y few people of t he ri ght sort can afl ord t o r ai se

large famili es of well born well cared f or an d well edu
-
,
- -
,
-

c ate d chil dren This is the bas i c reason for that sharp
.

drop in the birth rates o f the upper and middl e classes

-

o f all civili zed lands which has occurred duri ng the past

half century Of course the drop h as been h as tened by

.
,

the simult aneo us dis covery of various methods for pre

venting concepti on which are collectively termed birth “

cont rol ”
.H owever it was not so much the new methods
,

as the insistent economic and social pressure to employ

them which accounts for the rapi di ty in the f ecun dal
decline Under the conditions of modern lif e a pro
.

n ou n ced decline in t he birth rate was inevitable -

To .

cit e onl y one o f several reasons the progress of medical ,

science had greatly reduced the death rate and had thus -

made possible an enormous net increase o f popul ation .

T o have maintained an unchecked birth rate would have -

meant for the Western nati ons congested masses o f h u

manity like those of Asia dwelling on a low level of ,

poverty .

T o escape this fate the more intelligent and far sighted

,
-

elements in every c ivili zed land began quickly to avail

thems elves of the new contraceptive methods and to
limit the size of their families in this manner That raised .

a great publi c outcry (largely on religious grounds) and ,

in most countri es the imparting o f contraceptive knowl

1

1
In a f ew enligh t en ed c omm un i t ies , n o t ably Aus trali a, H o lla n d, an d
p
New Ze alan d , co n tra ce t ive m e t h o ds were we lc o med an d b irt h -co n trol
k p
n o wle dge is f reely im arted to all c las ses Th e s o cial an d racial res ul ts
p
.

h a ve b ee n e x cellen t , art icu la rly in minimiz ing dif f eren tial birth -ra tes and
p f
th us avertin g su dden grou shi ts 1D th e o ulatio n pp .
 THE N E M E SIS OF THE I NFE RIOR 1 19

ed ge was legally prohibited Such action was extremely .

—
s tupid and very disastrous To far sighted communi .
-

ties it should have been evident that with the appearance

o f new social factors like lowered death rates higher liv -
,

ing costs and ris ing standards a lower birth rate was
, ,
-

simply inevi t able ; that civili z ed peoples could n ot and ,

woul d n ot go o n breedin g like an imals as they had done

, ,

in the old days of cheap livin g and low standards when ,

a high birth rate was off set by the un check ed ravages of

-

death .

But a reduced birth rate being inevitable the only

,
-
,

questions whi ch remained were : How and by whom , ,

shoul d it be reduce d ? Shoul d it be by the traditional

methods of celibacy (tempere d by illicit sex relation s and -

prostitution) deferred marriage inf anticide and abor

, , ,

tion ; or should it be by the new contraceptive methods ?

1

Again : Should all sections o f the population lower their

birth rates or should only the more intelli gent classes ?
-
,

Unfortunately for the race it was the latter alternative

,

whi ch prevailed Instead of sp re ading contraceptive

.

knowledge among the mass es an d thus mitigating as

far as possible the evils of a racially d estructive differen
tial birth rate society succee d e d in keeping the masses
-
,

in ignorance and high fecundity whereas it emphatically ,

did not succeed in keeping contraceptive knowledge from

the more intelligent who increasingly practised birth
,

1
f f
A bort io n must be c are ully dis t in guis h ed ro m reven t io n o f c on ce p p
p p
tio n M eth ods o f reven ting con ce tio n are rece n t dis coveries ; abo r
p p
.

tio n h as bee n ractised s in ce very an cien t times So me o f th e mos t rimi

p p k k f
.

tive surviving eo les , li e th e Aus tralian bla c s an d th e Sou th A rican

b ush men , are highly skilled m rocuring ab ort ions
p .
1 20 T HE RE VOLT A GAINST C IVILIZATION
—
control and diminished their contributions to the popu
lati on .

Here , then was a great potential instrument of race

,

bett erment perverted into an agent of race decadence .

With blind insistence upon mere numbers and an utter

disregard of quality soci ety deli berat ely fostered the in
,

f erior elements at the expense of the superi ors The re .

su lts are such as we have already examined in our study

o f t he dif ferential birth rates of to -day -

.

So ends our survey o f the general factors of race im

poverishment Before closing however we must note
.
, ,

o n e special factor of the most melancholy significan ce

the Great War The Great War was unquestionably the

.

most appalling cat astrophe that ever befell mank ind .

The raci al losses were certam ly as grave as the materi al

losses Not only did the war itself destroy immeasurable
.

rac ial values but it s aftermath is proving only slightly

,

less unf avorable to the race Bad social conditions and.

the frightfu lly high cost of living continue to depress the

b irth rates of all save the most reckless and improviden t
-

elements whose increase is a curse rather than a blessing

,
.

To consi der only one of the many causes that to-day

keep down the birth rate of the superior elements o f the
-

population take the crushi ng burden of taxation through

,

ou t E urope which hi ts especially the increase of the upper

,

and mi ddle clas ses The London S atu rday Revi ew ex

.

plained this very clearly when it wrote editori ally : From

“

a man with a year the tax gatherer takes £600 -

.

The remainin g owing to the decreased value of

money has a purch as in g power about equal to £700 a
,
1 22 THE REVOLT A GAINST CIVIL IZATI ON
work frugal li ving a minimum of pleasure an d a maxi
, , ,

mum of anxiety ”
.

Although t he war did not hit Ameri ca as hard as it

did Eur ope it s racially evil effects are evident here also
, .

A recent e di t ori al of t he New York Times well descri bes

not merely some of the effects o f war but likewise some ,

o f the resu l t s of t hat short-sighted p hilanthr opy which

pe naliz es the thrifty and the self resp ecting elements to -

coddle t he charity seeking and the improvident Says

-
.

thi s edit ori al : Health Commi ssi oner Copeland s state

“ ’

ment t hat the birth rat e of nat ive Ameri cans is declining
-

in compari son with that of the forei gn element in our

popul ati on contains nothing new except it be his remark ,

that the decline h as been accelerated by the war That .

such a resu lt was inevit able h as long b een evident A .

vas t preponderan ce of the fo reign element are wage

earners whose incom es rose doggedly st ep by step wi th
, , ,

the cost o f living Natives of native parentage are pre

.

p on dera n tly brain workers who s e salaries remained much

,

what they h ad b een The result was a sharp loweri n g of

.

their s tand ard o f livin g which coul d only have checked

,

their already low birth rate D uring the war the Com -
.

mi ssioner of Chari ti es Bird S Coler report ed that f or

,
.
, ,

the first tim e in the history of his commi ssi on educat ed ,

people who had hi therto been self sus t aini ng and self -

respectin g members of the mi d dl e class brought hi m their

children sayin g that they could no longer provide food
,

an d clo thin g .

Doctor Copeland s statistics of inf an t mortality tell

’

a similar story Among infan ts o f native born mothers

.
-
 THE N E M E SIS OF TH E INFE RIO R 1 23

th e rate is 90 per —as against 79 for French mothers ,

7 5 for Bohemi an 69 for Aust ro Hu ngari an 64 for Rus

,
-
,

si an 58 for Swedish and 43 for Scotch Thi s difference

, ,
.

Doctor Copeland attri butes to the fact that American

m others are less inclined to make us e of the Baby Health
Stati ons whi ch are conducted by his department F or .

‘
eign born mothers are
-
accustomed to depend on thes e
an d other governm ental agencies
’
It is only under the
.

b itterest compulsion such as led mi ddle-class parents to

,

brin g their chil dren to the C ommissioner of Chari t ies ,

that Americans apply for public aid in their family life .

Meantime thes e people of native birth pay largely in

,
’
t axes for the many governmental agencies that aid the
immigrant laborer and his family D uring the war Henry
.

F airfield Osborn protested against this inequ ity on the

g round that it was ma king life impossible for the edu
c ated Americ an ,
whose home is the stronghold o f our
n ational tra ditions .

“
How serious the situation has become is evi d ent in
the statistics of our pop ulation In 1 9 1 0 there were in
.
,

New York native Ameri can s o f native parentage .

O f natives o f foreign or mixed parentage there were

and of the foreign born - — a total o f

as against the natives of native parent

a ge
. Complete figu res for 1 920 are not yet available but ,

Doctor Copeland is authority for the statement that the

proportion o f those whose traditions are o f foreign origin
is rapi dly increasing His statement ends with an exh or
.

tation against b i rth —control the spiri t o f which is ad

,

m irable though its logic is not clear What he has in .

124 T HE REVOLT A GAINST C IV ILI ZATION
mind evidently is not b irt h control but birth releas e
, ,
- -

among Ameri cans of the older immigrati ons That as .

,

he apparently beli eves is a merely moral matter but hi s

, ,

o wn statement shows that it has a deeper basis in modern

economic conditi ons These were doub tless emphasi zed

.

by the war but they had been operat ing for many dec
,

ades before it and continue to exercise their infl uence

”
with increasing force .

That is p reci sely it The war terri ble as it was merely

.
, ,

hastened a racial impoverishment which had been long

at work ; wore somewhat thinn er the lif e-line of civiliza
tion which was already weari ng thin and spurred to
,

fiercer energy those waxin g powers of barbari sm an d

chaos which we shall now directly consider .
1 26 THE REVOLT AGAINST C IVILIZATION
must remember however that revolutions do not sprin g
, ,

casually ou t o f nothing Behi nd th e revoluti on itself

.

there usually lies a long formative period during whi ch

the forces of chaos gather while the forces of order de
cline Revolutions thus give plenty o f warni ng of their
.

—
approach for those who have ears to hear I t is onl y .

because hitherto men have not understood revolutionary

phenomena that the danger si gnals have been disregarded
-

and society has been caught un awares .

The symptoms of incipient revolution can be di vide d

into three stages : ( 1) Destructive criti cism of the exist
ing order ; (2) revolutionary theorizing and agit ation ;
(3) revolutionary action The second and third stages
.

will be di scussed in subsequent chapters In the pres .

ent chapter let us consider the first stage : D estructive

Criticism .

S t rong well poised societi es are not overthrown by

,
-

revoluti on Before the revolutionary onslaught can

.

have any chance of success the soci al order must fir st

,

have been undermin ed and morally discre di ted This is .

accomplished p ri marily by the process o f destructive crit

icism Destructive c ri ticism must clearly be dist ingui shed
.

from constructive c ri ti c i sm Between the t wo there is

.

all the difference between a toxin and a tonic C on stru c .

tive cri ti ci sm aims at remedying defects an d perfecting

the existing order by evolutionary metho ds Dest ructive .

critici sm on the contrary inveighs against current de

, ,

f ects in a bitt er carp in g pessimisti c sp iri t ; tends to

, ,

despair o f the exi sting social order and either asserts o r

,

implies that reform can come only through sweeping

 THE L URE O F THE PR IMITIVE 1 27

changes of a revolutionary character Precisely what the

.

destined goal is to be is at the start seldom clearly de

, ,

scribed That task belongs to the second stage—the

.

stage of revolutionary theo ri zing and agitation Destru c .

tive critic i sm in its initial as pect is lit tle more t han a

, ,

—
voicing o f hitherto inarticulate emoti on s a preliminary
crystalli zation o f waxing di ssatisfactions and discontents .

Its range is much wider than is commonly supposed for ,

it usually assails not merely political and social matters

but also subj ects like art and literature even science ,

an d learning Always there crops ou t the same spiri t

.

o f morose pessimis m and incipient revolt against th ings

—
as th ey exis t wha tever these may be .

A fundamental quality of destructive criticism is its

glorification of the primitive Long before it elaborates
.

specifi c revolutionary doctrines and methods it blends ,

with its condemnation of the present an idealization of

what it conceives to have be en the p as t C ivilization is
.

assumed either to have begun wrong or to have taken a

wrong turning at some comparatively early stage of its
development B efore that unf ortunate event (the source
.

of present ills) the world was much better Hence the .

,

di scontented mind turns back with lon ging to those pris

t ine halcyon days when society was sound and simple ,

an d man happy and free The fact that such a G olden

.

Age never really existe d is o f small moment becau se ,

this glorification of the p rimitive is an emotional reaction

of dissatisfied natures yearnin g for a return to more ele

mental con di tl ons m whi ch they feel they would be more

at home .
1 28 T HE REVOLT AGAI NST CIVILI ZATION
Such is th e Lure of the Primitive An d its emo .

tional appeal is unquestionably strong This i s well .

illustrat ed by the popularity of writers like Rousseau

and Tolstoy who have condemned civilization and
,
“ ”
pre ac hed a return to nature Rousseau is in fact
.
, ,

the leading exponent of that wave of destructive cri ti

cis m whi ch swept over E urope in the lat t er half of the
—
eighteenth century the forerunner of the French R evolu
tion ; while Tolstoy is on e of the leading figu res in the
similar nineteenth century movement that heralded the
-

revolutionary cataclysms o f to— day In di scuss ing .

Rousseau and Tolstoy we will consi der not merely their

teachi ngs but also their personalities and ancest ry b e ,

cause these latter vividly illustrate what we have already

observed that character and action are mainly deter
-

mined by heredity .

Take first the c as e of Rousseau Jean Jacques Rous .

-

seau is a striking example of the tainted geni us

“
He .

was born o f unsound stock h is father being dissipated

, ,

violent tempered
- fli h
g y
, t and ,
foolish Jean —J a c u
q se .

“
proved a chip of the old block for he was neurotic , ,

mentally unst able morally weak sexually perverted

, , ,

and during the latter part of hi s life was undoubtedly

ins an e Together wi th all this however he possessed
.
, ,

great literary talents his style persuasiveness an d

, , ,

charm cap tivatin g and convincin g multitudes He ao .

—
cordingly exerted upon the world a profound and in the
—
main a baneful influ ence which is working indirectly
,

l
but powerf ly even to day
u —
m
.

Such was the ch am on of noble savagery against

1 30 T HE RE VOLT A GAINST CIVILI ZATION
ciety the eighteenth centur y hi s words undoubtedly
of ,

produced a refreshing effect ; just as a j aded c ity man to

“ ” ’
day returns invigorated from a month s roughing it
in the wilds The trouble was that Rousseau s grain
.
’

of truth was hidden in a bushel of noxious chaff so that ,

people were apt to rise from a reading of Rousseau not ,

insp ired by a sane love for simple living fresh air an d , ,

exerci se but inocul ated with a hatred for civilization

,

and consumed with a thirst for violent social exp eri

ments The eff ect was about the same as though our
.

hyp othetical city man shoul d return from his month in

the wilds imbued with the resolve to burn down his
house and spend the rest of his lif e naked in a cave In .

short : Although Rous seau s injunction G o back into

“ ’
,
‘

the woods and become men may be excellent advice

if interpreted as a temporary measure G o back into the ,
‘

woods and remain there is a coun sel for anthropoi d ’

” 1
apes .

’
The effect of Rousseau s teaching upon revolutionary
thought and action will be discussed later Let us now .

turn to the more recent champ i on o f the p ri mitive ,

Tolstoy Count Leo Tolstoy came of a distinguished

.

but eccentric stock His mature philosophy of life

.
,

particularly his dislike o f civilization and fondness for

the pri mitive is clearly accounted for by hi s heredity
, .

The Tolstoys seem to have been noted for a certain wild

ness o f temperament and one of the family Feodor
, ,
“ ”
Ivanovich Tolstoy was the famous Ameri can the
, ,
“ ”
Al eu te o f Grib oyedoff who was so obsessed by Rou s
,

1 N H W bs ter W orld Rev lution p 2 (London and Bo t on

. . e , o ,
. s ,
 THE L UR E OF THE PR IMITIV E 1 31

’
s eau s teachings that he endeavored to put Rousseauism
in to practice had himself tattooed like a savage and
, ,
“ ”
tried to live absolutely in the state o f nature Leo .

’
Tolstoy s life was characterized by violent extremes ,

ranging from furious dissipation to ascetic frugali ty and

from complete scepticism to boun dless religious devo
tion Athwart all these shi fts however we may dis cern
.
, ,

a growing distas te for civilized life as a morbid and nu

natural comp lication a will to simplif y a metaphysical
, ,

urge backward towar d the condi tion o f primitive man

m
.

He repudiates culture and approves all that is sim e ,

natural elemental wild In his writings Tolstoy de

, ,
.

n oun ces culture as the enemy o f happ iness and o n e of ,

“ ”
his works The C ossacks was written specifically to
, ,
“ ”
prove the superiority of the life of a beast of the field .

Like hi s ancestor the tattooe d Al eu te Leo Tolstoy

“ ”
,

early fell under the spell of Rousseau and was later ,

deeply influenced by Schopenh auer the ph ilosopher of ,

pessimism In his .
“
C onf essions ”
Tolstoy exclaims
How often have I not envied the unl ettered peasant
his lack of learnin g I say let your affairs be as
.
,

two or three and not a hundred or a thousand Instea d

,
.

of a million coun t half a do z en and keep your accounts ,

on your thumb nail Simplify simplify simplif y !

.
, ,

I nstead o f thr ee meals a day if it be necessary eat but

,

o n e ins tead of a hundre d dishes five ; an d reduce other

, ,
”
thi ngs in proportion .

The celebrated Russian novelist and critic D mitri

Merezhkovski thus analyz es Tolstoy s instinctive aver ’

sion to civilization and lov e of the primitive : If a stone

“
1 32 T HE REVOLT A GAI NST CIVILIZATION
lies on top of another in a desert that is excellent If , .

the stone has been placed upon the other by t he hand o f

man that is not so good But if stones have been
,
.

placed upon each other and fixed there with mortar o r

iron that is evil ; t hat means construction whether it
, ,

be a castle a barracks a prison a cust oms house a

, , ,
-
,

hospit al a slaughter house a church a public build

,
-
, ,

ing or a school All that i s built is bad o r at least

,
.
,

suspect The first wil d impulse whi ch Tolstoy felt

.

when he saw a buildin g or any complex whole created , ,

by the hand o f man was to simpli fy to level to crush , , , ,

to destroy so that no stone might be left upon the other

,

and the place might again become wild and simple and
purified from the work of man s hand Nature i s to ’

m
.

him the pure and sim e ; civ ili zation and cultu re repre
sent complicati on and impurity T o return to nature .

means to exp el impurity to simplify what is complex , ,

to destroy cul ture ” 1

.

In analyzing Tolstoy we become aware of a biological

problem t ranscending mere family considerations ; the
question o f Russian folk nature comes into V iew The .

Russi an people is made up chi efly of primitive racial

strains some o f which (especially the Tartars and other
,

Asiatic nomad elements) are dis t inctly

“ ”
wild stocks
wh i ch have always shown an instinctive hostility to
civili zation Russian history reveals a series of volcanic
.

eruptions of congenital barbarism whi ch have blown to

D mitri Merez hkovski t Deu ts che

”
1
T o ls oy an d B o ls h evism, A llge
mei ne Z eitu n g 1 5—
,

1 6 M arch
, , 19
21 . t d
Q u o e f ro m th e trans la tion in The
L ivi ng A ge 7 M ay 192 1
, , .
134 THE REVO LT A GAINST CIVILI ZATION

Scythian hordes sweep down upon it and level it to the

ear th They burn and ravage until they leave the wilder
.

ness to resume its sway The craving for un broken dis

.

tances for a dead level for n aked nature for ph yn cal

'

, , ,

—
evenness an d metaphysical uniformity the most an cient
—
ancestral impuls e o f the Scythian mind manifests itself
equally in Arakcheyev Bakunin Pugachev Raz in Lenin
, , , , ,

and Tolstoy They have converted Russi a into a V 3

. !

can t level plain They would make all E urope the same
.
,

an d the whole world t he same

” 1
.

E conomists have expressed surp ris e that Bolshevis m

should have establis hed itself in Russi a To the student .

o f ra ce his t ory it was a perfectly natural event

, Further .

more while the late war may have h as tened the catas
,

trOph e some such catas trophe was apparently in evitable

, ,

because for years previous to the war it was clear that

the Rus si an social order was weakening while the forces ,

o f chaos were gathering strength The decade before .

the war saw Russi a suff erin g from a chroni c crime “

”
wave known collectively to Russian sociologists as
,
“
Hooliganis m ”
which seriously al armed compet ent ob
,

servers In the year 1912 the Russ ian mini st er of the

.
,

interior Maklakov stat ed : Crime increases here The

, ,
.

number of cas es h as grown A part i al explanati on is the .

fact that the younger generati on grew up in the years of

,
—
revolt 1 905 1 906 The fear of G od and of laws dis ap
.

pears even in the villages The c ity and ru ral populati on

.

is equallymenaced by the Hooligans In the followin g

‘
.
’

year ( 1 91 3) a leading S t Petersb u rg newspaper wrote .

1 From th e art icle in th e Deu ts che A llgemei ne Z eitu ng previously qu o ted .

 TH E LURE O F THE PRIMIT IV E 1 35

e ditorially : Hooliganism , as a mass phenomeno n, is

-
un

known to western E urope The Apaches who terroriz e .

‘ ’

the population of P ari s or London are people with a dif

”
f eren t psycholo gy from that of the Russian Hooligan .

An other St P etersb u rg paper remarke d about the same

.

“
time : N oth ing human or divine restrains the destru c
tive fren zy of the untrammelled will of the H ooligan .

There are no moral laws for him He v alues nothing .

and recogni zes nothi ng In the bloody ma dness of his .

acts there is always somethin g deeply bl asp hemous dis ,

”
gusting purely bestial
,
An d the well known Russian
.
-

writer Menshikov drew this really strikin g picture of

, ,

soc ial conditions in the p ages of his organ Novoye ,

All over Russia we see the same growth of

“
V remya :
‘
Hoo ligani sm an d the terror in which the Hooligans
,
’

hol d the population I t is no secret that the army o f

.

c riminals increases constantly The C ourts are literally .

near exhausti on crushed under the weight of a moun tain

,

o f cases Th e police are agonizin g in the struggle with

.

—
crime a struggle which is beyond their strength The .

p ri sons are congested to the breaking point Is it pos -

.

sible that thi s terri ble thing will n ot meet with some heroic
resistance ? A real civil war is going on in the d epths of
the masses which threatens a greate r destruction than
,

an enemy s invas ion Not Hooliganism but Anarchy :

’
.
‘
,
’

this is the real name for that plague which has invad ed
the villages and is invading the cities It is not only .

degenerates who enter upon a lif e of debauch an d crime ;

already the average normal masses j oin them and only
, ,

exceptionally d e cent village youths still maintain as much

1 36 T HE REVOLT A GAINST CIVILI ZATI O N

as possible a lif e of decent endeavor The younger people .

,

o f course make a greater show than the elderly peasants

,

an d the old men But the fact is that both the former
.

an d the latter are degenerating into a state of savagery

and bestiali ty
”
.

Could there be a better description of that breakdown

o f the social controls and u p surge of savage ins tin cts
-

whi ch as we have alre ady seen characteri zes the out

, ,

break of social revolutions ? This was precisely what the

Russ i an Nihilists and An arch ist s had been preaching for
generati ons This was what Bakun in had meant in h is
.

“
favorite toas t : To the des truction o f all law and order ,

an d the un chain in g of evil pass i ons !

”
For Bakunin ,
“
The P eople were the soci al outcasts brigan ds
” —
,

th ieves drunkards and vagabonds

, ,
Criminals were .

frankly his favorites Sai d he : Only the prolet ari at

“
.

in rags is ins pired by the spiri t and force of the coming

soc ial revoluti on .

Referring once more to the matter o f Rus sian Hooli

an is m p ri or to 19 1 4 there i s good ground for believing
g ,

that the crime waves whi ch have affli cted western

“ ”

Eu rope and America since the war are of a similar na

ture Recently a leading American detective expressed
.

his conviction that the gu nmen who to day terrori ze

“ ”
-
,

American c it ies are imbued with social revolut i onary

,

feelings and have a more or less instinctive noti on that

they are fighting the soci al order Mr James M Beck . . .
,

solic itor general of the Unit ed States has lat ely uttered
-
,

a similar warn ing against what he t erms the excep tion al

“

revolt against the authori ty of law whi ch is taking

”
,
138 THE RE VOLT AGAI N ST CIVILI ZATIO N

ble (if they resemble an ything) the idols of West Af ri can

”
negroes As for expressioni st painting it seems to
.
,

bear no normal relation to anything at all Those .

crushed mutilated forms vaguely dis cerned ami d a riot

, ,

o f shri eking colors ; surely this is not rea “ — unless

bedlam be reality ! Most extraordin ary of all is that
“ ”
ul tra modern school of
- painting which h as largely ,

discarded pain t in favor o f materials lik e newspaper clip

pings buttons an d fish bones p as ted sewn or tacked
, ,
-
, , ,

o n its can vases .

Al most as extravagent is the new poetry Stru e

—
.

tu re grammer metre rhyme all are defied Ration al

, , ,
.

meanings are carefully avoided a senseless conglomera ,

tion of words being apparently sought after as an end in

itself Here obvious ly the revolt agains t form is well
.
, ,

nigh complete The only step whi ch seemingly now re

.

mains to be taken is to abolish language and have ,

“
poems without words .

Now wha t does all thi s mean ? I t means simply one

more ph as e o f the world wide revolt against ci vi lization
-

by the un adaptable inf erior and degenerate elements

, , ,

seeking to smash the irksome framework of modern so

ciety and revert to the congeni al levels of chaotic bar
,

b ari sm or savagery N ormal persons may be inclined to

.

laugh at the vagaries of our artistic and literary rebels ,

but the popular vogue they enj oy proves them to be really

no laughing matter Not long ago the Englis h poet Al
.

fre d Noyes warned earnestly again st the wide-sp read

“ “
harm done by Literary Bolsheviki We are con .

fronte d to day he said by the extraordinary spectacle

-
”
, ,
 TH E LURE O F THE PRIMITIVE 1 39

of literary rebels each chaine d to his own solitary ,

height an d each chanting the same perennial song of

,

hate against everything that h as been achi eved by pas t

generations The worst of it is that the world applau ds
.

them The real rebel to day is the man who stands by

.
-

unpopular truth ; but that man has a new name h e is —

‘ ’
called commonplace The literary Bolshevism of the
.

p as t thi rty years is more responsible for the present peril

o f civilization th an is realized O ne cann ot treat all the .

laws as if they were mere scraps of paper without a ter

ri ble reckoning and we are beginn in g to see it to day
,
-
.

“
It has led to an all round lowerin g o f standards - .

Some of the modern wri ters who take upon themselves

to wipe o u t the best o f ancient writers cannot wri te
grammatical English Their art an d literature are in .

c reasingly B olshevist I f we look at the columns of .

the newspapers we see the un usual spectacle of the p o

litical editor desperately fighting that whi ch the art and
literary portions o f the paper uphold In the n ame o f .

‘
reality many writers are indulging in shabby forms of
’

” 1
make believe and are reducing all reality to ashes
-
.

In similar vein the we ll known G erman art critic

,
-
,

Johannes V olkelt recently deplored the destructive ef

,
” “
fe ets o f expressioni st art and literature The de .

moralization o f our attitude and sentiment toward lif e

” “
itself he writes is even more portentous than our de
, ,

clin in g recognition o f artistic form It is a mutilated .

,

d eformed moron humanity which glowers or drivels at

,

1 From Mr N o yes s .
’
f
le ct ure be o re th e R o yal Ins t itu t io n of Lo n d o n on

So me As pects o f M o de rn Poe try,

”
F
eb ruary, 1 920 .
1 40 T H E R EVOLT A GAINST CIVILI ZATION

us through expressi on i st p i ctures All they suggest is .

profound morb idi ty Their j aded unh ealthy mood is

.
,

reli eved only by absurdities and where these cast a ray ,

o f light in t o their rudi men t ary compos iti on it is only a ,

broken and j oyless one Likewise that whi ch repels us

.
,

most in the poetry o f our younger school is it s scornful

stigmati zing of the pas t without giving us anyth ing ,

positive in it s place ; it s patheti c grop ing in it s own self

wreckage ; its conf us ed helpless seeking aft er some ,

steadfas t ideal Th e soul is exhaust ed by it s ce aseless

.

chasing aft er not hing Is lif e a shallow j oke ? A crazy

.

dream ? A terrifyin g chaos ? Is there no longer sense

in talking of an i deal ? Is every ideal self— illusi on ?
These are the questions wh i ch drive the soul of to— day
aiml essly hither and t hi ther Calm cons c i ousness o f .

power an d mast ery the unaffect ed glow o f health

, ,

threaten to become lost sensat ions Overalert self .

consc i ousness as sociated with a myst eri ous revival of

atavisti c bestiality and extreme overrefin ement hand
,

in hand wi th slo thful love of indolence charac t eri ze the ,

discord whi ch clouds the artisti c mind of the peri od ” 1

.

As mi gh t be expected the sp irit of revol t whi ch at

,

t acks simult aneously inst itutions cust oms i deals art , , , ,

lit erature and all the o ther phases o f c ivili zati on does
,

no t spare what s t ands beh ind namely : ind ividuality ,

and intelli gence To the levelling go spel of soc i al revolu

.

tion such t hings are anathema In it s eyes it i s the .

m as s no t the ind ivi dual whi ch i s precious ; it is quantity

, , ,

not qual ity whi ch coun t s Superi or int elligence is by

,
.

F m th V i
1 ro Nw F i P
e enn a 1 9 A p il 1 92 1 e re e res s e, r , .
 CHAP TE R V

THE GR OUND- SW E LL OF R E V O LT

RE V OLUTIO NAR Y unres t is not new Every age has had.

1

its discontented dreamers preaching utopia its fervid ,

agitators urging the overthrow of the existing social

order and its restless rabble stirred by false hopes to
,

ugly moods and violent action Utopian literature is

.

very extensive going back to Plato ; revol utionary agi

,

tato rs have run true to type since Spartacus ; whi le

“
proletarian ri sings have vari ed little in basi c character
”

from the servile revolt s of antiquity and the jacqueries ”

of the Middle Ages down to the mob upheavals of Pari s

and Petrograd .

In all these social revolutionary phenomena there is

nothi ng essenti ally novel There is always the same
.

violent revolt of the unadaptable inf erior and degen , ,

e rate elements again st civilized society in atavistic ,

reaction to lower planes ; the same hatred of superiors

and fierce desire for absolute equali ty ; finally the same ,

tendency o f revolut i onary leaders to become tyrants and

t o transform anarchy in to barbarous despot ism .

As H arold Cox justly remarks : Jack C ade as desc ri bed

“
,

by Shakespeare is the perfect typ e of revoluti onary

, ,

and hi s ideas coincide closely with those of the modern

school o f Soci alism He tells his followers that all the
.
‘

realm shall be in common that there shall be no money ;

,
’ ‘

1 42
 THE —
G R OUN D SWE LL O F REV O LT 1 43

all shall eat and dri nk on my score ; and I will apparel

them all in one livery that they may agree lik e brothers .
’

A little later a member o f the bourgeoisie is brought

—
before him a clerk who conf esses that he can rea d
and wri te Jack Cade orders him at once to be hanged
.

‘
with his pen an d inkhorn about his neck P ossibly .
’

the intellectual Sociali sts o f G reat Britain might hesi

tate at this point ; the danger would be getting u n com
f ortably near to thems elves B ut the Rus sian B olshe
.

viks have followe d J ack C a d e s example on a colossal

’

scale I n another direction Jack C a d e was a prototype

.

o f present-day revolutionist s for while preachin g equ al

’
ity he practised autocracy Away he cries to the mob
.
, .

‘
Bu rn all the records of the realm My mouth shall be .

the P arliament of England 1

.
’

Nevertheless d espite its lack of basic originality the

, ,

revolutionary u nrest o f modern times is very diff erent

from an d infini tely more formi d able than the kindred
, ,

movements of the past There is to day a close alliance

.
-

between the theoretical and the practical elements a ,

clever fitting of means to en d s a consistent elaboration ,

of plausible doctrines and persuasive propag an da an d ,

a syn di cation o f power such as was never known before

, .

In former times revolutionary theorists and men o f ao

tion were unable or unwilling to get together The early .

utopian ph ilosophers did not write for the proletariat ,

wh ich in turn quite ignored their existence Further .

more most o f the utopians however revolutionary in

, ,

theory were n ot revoluti onary in practi ce They sel

,
.

H C ox Econ mic L ib ty pp 1 91 1 92 (L d
1
.
, o er , .
-
on on ,
144 TH E RE VOLT AGAINST CIV I LI ZATIO N

dom believed in violent methods It is rather difficult

.

t o imagine Plato or S i r Thomas More pl anning the mas

sacre of the bourgeois ie or heading a dictatorshi p of the
proletari at In fact so convince d were these ut opian
.
,

idealists o f the t ruth of their theories that they believed

that if their theori es were actually put in practice on
even a small sc al e t hey would be a prodigious success
an d wo ul d thus lead to the rapid transformation of so

c iety wi thout any necess i ty of violent coercion .Such

was the temper o f the i dealist ic Socialists and Com
“ ”

munists o f the ei ghteenth and early ninet eenth centuries ,

like Robert Owen who foun ded vari ous

“
,
model com
muni ties believing implic it ly that these wo uld soon
”

convert the whole world by the mere force of their ex

ample .

Thus down to comparatively recent times the cause

, ,

o f violent soc i al revolut i on lacked the support of leaders

combining in thems elves the quali ti es of moral earnest

—
ness intelligence and forceful ness in other words per
, ,

sons most o f whom belong to the type whi ch I have

previously described as t he misguided su perior
“
. De
p riv e d o f such leadersh i p revolu
,
t ionary unr es t was
mainl y gu ided by unbalanced fanatics or desi gni ng
scoundrels ; and i t i s obvious that such leaders whatever,

their zeal or cleverness were so lacking in intellect ual

,

poise o r moral soundness that they invariably led their

foll owers to speedy dis ast er .

The modern social revolutionary movement dates

from about the mi ddle of the eigh t eenth cent ury E ver .

s ince that time there has been flowing a cont inuous stream
1 46 T HE REVOLT A GAINST CIVILI ZATION

the Terror all the symptoms of social revolution appeared

in their most horrid form : up-surge of besti ality sens e ,

less destruction hatred of superiors ruthl ess enf orce

, ,
“ ”
ment of levelling equality etc The most extrava
,
.

gant politi cal and social doctrines were proclaime d .

“
Bri ss ot urged communism and announ ced that prop ,

erty is theft Robespierre showed his hatred o f geniu s

.

and learni ng by sendin g the great chemis t Lavoisier to

the guill otine with the remark : Science is aris tocratic :
“

the Republi c has no need of savants ”

As for Ana .

ch ars is C lo otz Hebert and other demagogues they

, , ,

preached doctrin es whi ch would have reduced society to

a cross between chaos and bedlam .

Af ter a few years the Terror was broken The French .

race was too fundamentally sound to tolerate for long

such a hideous dictatorshi p o f its worst elements The .

destruction wrought by the Revolution was however , ,

appallin g Not merely was France dealt wounds from

.

which she has never wholly recovere d but als o spiri ts ,

o f unrest were liberated whi ch have never since been

laid The apostoli c succession of revolt has remaine d

.
“

un broken Marat and Robespierre are to-d ay reincarnate

.

in Trotzky and Lenin .

The final eruption o f the waning Terror was the well

known conspiracy of Babeuf in the year 1 796 Thi s con .

spiracy together with the personality of its leader and

,

namesake is o f more than pass ing interest Babeuf lik e

,
.
,

so many other revolutionary le aders o f all periods was a ,

man whose un d oubte d talents of in tellect and energy

were perverte d by a taint of ins anity His intermittent .
 THE —
GROUN D SWELL OF REV O LT 1 47

fits of fren zy were so ac ute that at times he was little

be tter than a raving homicid al mani ac Nevertheless .
,

his revolutionary activi t ies were so striking and his

“ ”
doctrines so ad vanced that subsequent revolutionis ts
“ ”
have hailed him as a man ahead o f his times The .

”
Bolshevik Thi rd International for example in its firs t
, ,

manifesto paid t ri bute to B abeuf as on e of its spiri tual

,

fathers .

That this B olshevik compliment was not un d eserved

is proved by a study of his famous conspiracy Therein .

B abeuf planned nothing less than the entire destruction

o f the existing social order a general mas sacre of the
,
“ ”
possessing cl as ses and the erection of a radically new
,

proletarian order foun d ed on the most rigid and level

”

ling equali ty Not merely were d iff erences of wealth

.

and social station to be prohi bited but even intellectu al ,

diff erenc es were to be dis couraged becaus e it was feared

,

that men might d evote themselves to sciences an d

“
,

thereby grow vain an d averse to m anual labor ”

.

Bab eu f s incendiary sp iri t is well revealed in the fol

’

lowin g lines taken from his organ L e Tribu n du P eup le

, ,
“
Why does o n e sp eak o f laws an d property ? P roperty
is the share o f usur pers an d laws are the work of the
strongest The sun shines for every o n e and the earth
.
,

belongs to no one G o then my fri en ds an d disturb

.
, , , ,

overthrow and up set this society which does not suit

,

you Take everywhere all that you like Sup erfluity

. .

belongs by right to him who h as nothing This is n ot .

all fri en ds an d brothers

,
If constitutional barriers are
.

O ppose d to your generous efforts overthrow without ,

1 48 TH E REVOLT A GAINST CIVILI ZATION

scruple barri ers and const itutions Butcher without .

mercy tyran t s patri ci ans the gilded milli on all those

, , ,

immoral beings who would oppose your common happ i

ness You are the people the true people the only people
.
, ,

worthy t o enjoy the good thi n gs o f thi s world ! The j us

ti ce o f the people is great and majest i c as the people it
self ; all that it does is legitim ate all that it orders is ,
”
sacred .

’
B ab euf s plans can be judged by the followin g extra cts
from his Manifest o of the E quals whi ch he drew up
“
,

on the eve of his projected insurrection :

“
People of France f or fift een centuries you have lived
,

in slavery and consequent unhapp iness For six years 1

.

you have hardly drawn breath wait ing for independence , ,

happ iness and equality E quality ! the first desire o f

,
.

nature the first need of man the principal bond of all

, ,

legal associat ion !

“
Well ! We in tend hencefort h to live and die equal
as we were born ; we wish for real equali ty or death ; that
is what we must have An d we will have this real equal
.

ity no matter at what price W oe to those who inter

,
.

pose themselves between it and us !

“
The French Revolution is only the forerunner of
another revoluti on very much greater very much more
, ,

s olenm whi ch will be the l as t

,
E quali ty ! We will .

consent to anything for that to make a clean sweep so ,

as to hold to that only Peri sh if necess ary all the arts

.
, , ,

provided that real equality is left to us ! C om

munity of G oods ! No more p ri vate property in land ,

1
I . e .
, during th e years of th e Fren ch R evolu tion sin ce 1 789 .
150 TH E REVOLT AGAINST CIV ILI ZATIO N

—
like Robert Owen Saint Simon Fourier and others were
, , ,

elaborating their utopian philosophi es and were foun di ng

“
model comm unities which were expecte d to convert
”

the world peaceably by the mere contagion of their suc

cessf ul example The speedy fai lure of all these Social
.

istic experi ments discouraged the idealists and led the ,

discontented to turn to men of action who promised

“ ”

speedier results by th e use o f force At the same time .

,

the numbers of the discontented were rapidly increasing .

The opening decades of the nineteenth century witnessed

”
the triumph of machine industry and capitalism
“
As .

in all times of transition these changes bore hard on

,

multitudes of people E conomic abuses were rife and

.
,

precipitated into the social depths many persons who

“
did not really belong there thus swelli ng the prole ,
”
tariat to unprecedented proportions while also giving
it new leaders o f genuine ability .

The culmination of all this was the revolutionary wave

o f 1 8 48 To be sure 1 848 like the French Revolution
.
, , ,

was not wholly a social revolutionary upheaval ; it was

largely due to political (especially nationalistic) causes
with which this book is not concerned But as in 1 78 9 .
, ,

so in 1848 the political malcontents welcomed the aid

,

o f the social malcontents and gave the latter their oppor

,

tunity .Furthermore in 1 848 as in 1 789 Paris was the

, , ,

storm centre A galaxy of forceful demagogues like

- .

Blan qui Lo uis B lanc and P roudhon roused the P aris

, ,

mob attempted to establis h a Commun isti c Republi c

, ,

and were foiled only after a bloody struggle with the

more conservative social elements .
 THE —
GRO UN D S WELL O F REV OLT 1 51

Unlike 1 789 however the social revolutionary move

, ,

ment of 18 48 was by no means confined to France In .

1 8 48 organize d social revolutionary forces existed in

most European countri es an d all over E urope these ,

forces promptly d rew together an d attempte d to eff ect

a general social revolution At thi s moment appears .

the notable figure of Karl Marx chief author of the ,

“ ”
famous C omm unist Manifesto wi th its ri nging pero ,

ration : Let the ruling classes tremble at a communi stic

revolution The proletarians have nothing to lose but
.

their chain s They have a worl d to win Working men

. .

”
o f all countries unite ! ,

The ris e of Karl Marx typifies a new infl uence whi ch

—
ha d appeare d in the revolutionary movement the in
flu ence o f the J ews B efore the nineteenth century the
.

Jews had been so segregate d from the general pOpul a

tion that they had exerte d almost no influence upon
popular thought or action B y the year 1 848 however .
, ,

the Jews of western E urope had been emancipated

from most of their civil di sabilities had emerged from ,

their ghettos an d were beginni ng to take an active part

,

in comm unity lif e Many Jews promptly adopted rev

.

olu tio n ary ideas and soon acquired great infl uence in

the revolutionary movement For this there were sev .

eral reasons In the first place the Jewish min d in

.
, ,

stin ctively analytical an d sharpene d by the di alectic

,

subtleties of the Talmud takes naturally to di ssective

,

criticism Again the Jews feeling themselves more or

.
, ,

less apart from the nations in whi ch they live ten de d ,

to welcome the distinctly international spirit of social

1 52 THE REVOLT A GAINST CIVILI ZATION

revolutionary doctrines Lastly the Jewish intellec

.
,

tu als wi t h their quick clever in t elli gence made excell ent

, , ,

revolutionary leaders and could look forward to attain

“ ”
ing high posts in the ofli cers corps of the armi es o f
'
’

revolt For all these re as ons then Jews have played

.
, ,

an importan t part in all social revolutionary movements ,

from t he t ime of Marx and E ngels down t o the largely

Jewish Bolshevist regime in Soviet Russia to day -
.

The revoluti onary wave of 1 848 soon broke in com

plete defeat There followed a period durin g which
.

radical ide as were generally dis credi ted Both idealisti c .

and violent methods had been tried and had signally

fail ed Out of this peri od o f eclipse there gradually
.

emerged two schools of social revolutionary thought :

o n e kn own as
“
S t ate Socialism under the leadership of
”
Marx and Engels ; the other Anarchi sm dominated , ,

by Proudhon and M i chael Baku ni n These two schools .

were animated by qui te different ideas drew increasingly ,

ap art and became increasingly hostile to one another

,
.

Of course both schools were opposed to the exist ing

,

social order and proposed its overthrow but they di ffered ,

radically as to the new type o f society which was to take

i ts place Marx and his followers believed in an organ
.

iz ed Commu nism where land wealth and property

, , ,

should be t aken ou t o f privat e han ds and placed under

the control of the state The An archists on the other
.
,

hand urged the complete aboli tion of the state the

, ,

spontaneous sei zure of wealth by the masses and the ,

free dom o f every one to do as he lik ed unh ampered by ,

any organi zed soc i al control .

1 54 THE REVOLT AGAINST CIV ILI ZATIO N

trialism by its very bein g was bound rapidly to con een

, ,

trate all wealth in a very few hands wiping ou t the ,

middle classes and reducing both bourgeois and working

man to a poverty stricken proletari at In other words
- .
,

he predicted a society of billionaires and beggars This .

was to happen within a couple o f generations When .

“ ”
it did happen the wage slaves were to revolt dis
-
,

possess the capitalists an d establi sh the Socialist com

,

monwealth Thus would come to pass the social revolu

.

tion . But note : th is revolution accordin g to Marx , ,

was ( 1) sure (2) soon (3) easy In Marx s last s tage of

, ,
.
’

ca pitalis m the billi onaires would be so few and the beg

gars so many that the revolution might be a mere

“ ”

holiday perhaps effected without sheddin g a drop o f

,

blood Indeed it might conceivably be eff ected accord

.
,

ing to existin g political procedure ; for on ce have uni ,

versal suffrage and the overwhelming maj ority of pro

,

letarian wage-earners could simply vote the whole new

order in .

From all thi s it is quite obvious that Marxian Socialism ,

however revolutionary in theory was largely evolutionary ,

in practice And thi s evolutionary trend already visi

.
,
’
ble in Marx became even stronger with Marx s suc
,

cessors Marx h ims elf despite the sobering effect of

.
,

his intellectual development remaine d emotionally a ,

—
revolutionist as shown by hi s temporary relapse into
youthf ul fervors at the time of the Pari s Commu ne of
1 87 1 This was less true of hi s c olleague Engels and
.
,

—
still less true of later Socialist leaders men like Lasall e
and Kautsky of G ermany Hyndman of England and , ,
 THE —
G RO UN D SWELL O F REV OLT 1 55

Spargo o f Am eri ca Such men were reformist rather

.

“
than revolutionary Sociali sts ; they were willing to
bide their time and were apt to pin their faith on ballots
,

rather than on barricades Furthermore Reformis t .

,

Soc i alism di d not assail the whole idealistic and insti

tu tion al fabric of o ur civilization F or example it .
,
“ ”
might preach the class war but accordin g to the -
, ,
“ ”
Marxian hypothesis the working class was or soon
, ,

woul d be virtually the entire community Onl y a few

,
.

great capitalists and their hirelings were left without the

“
pale Again the revolution as seen by the Reform
.
, ,

is ts was more a taking-over than a teari n g down since

,
-
,

e xisting in stitutions both state and private were largely

, ,

to be preserved As a matter of fact Reformist Social

.
,
“ ”
ism as embodi ed in the Social Democratic political
,
-

parties of C ontinental E urope showed itself everywhere ,

a predo minantly evolutionary movement ready to ,

achi eve its obj ective s by instalm ents an d becoming

steadily more conservative Thi s was so not merely .

because o f the infl uence o f the leaders but also because

of the changing complexion of their following As .

Marxian Sociali sm became less revolutionary and more

reformist it attracted to its membership multitudes of
“
liberals — persons who d esire d to reform rather than
to destroy the existing social ord er and who saw in the ,

Soci al Democratic parties the best political ins truments

-

for bringing reforms about .

In fact Reformi st Socialism might have entirely lost

,

its revolutionary character and have become an evolu

tion ary liberal movement had it not been for two han di
,
1 56 THE REVOLT AGAINST CIVILI ZATION

caps : the spiritual blight of its revolutionary origin and

the numbing weight of Marx s in t ellectual authori ty ’
.

Socialis m had started out to smash modern society by a

violent revolution Its ethi cs were those of the class
.

war ; its goal was the di ctat orshi p o f the proletariat ;

” ”

and its phi losophy was the narrow materialistic concept

”—
of economic determinism the noti on that men are
moved solely by economic self interest All this had -
.

been lai d down as fundamental truth by Marx in his

Capi tal which became the infallible bible o f Social
,

1sm .

Now this was most un fortunate because Marx had ,

taken the special con ditions o f his day and had pictured
them as the whole of world hi story We now know th at .

the middle decades o f th e nineteenth century were a

very exceptional transition period in which society was
, ,

only beginnin g to adjust itself to the sweep ing economi c

and soci al changes which the Industrial Revolution
“ ”

had brought about To day most of the abuses again st

.
-
,

whi ch Marx inveighed have been dist inctly ameliorated ,

wh ile the short sighted philosophy o f immediate self

-

interest regardles s o f ultimate social or raci al con

sequences which then prevailed has been profoundly
modified by experience and deeper knowledge We must .

not forget that when Marx sat down to write Capi tal 1
,

modern sociology and biology were virtually unknown so ,

that Marx beli eved implicitly in fallaci es lik e the omnip

o ten ce o f environmen t and
—
natural equality whi ch ,

1
t
Th e firs volume of Capita l was p bli h d i
u s e n 1867 , ft
a er many years
p iti
o f re search an d co m os on .
158 THE REV OLT A GAI NST C IVILI ZATION

mg mcreasingly restive an d straining their eyes for the

Red dawn .

Before discussing Syndicalism however let us turn , ,

back to examine that other revolutionary movement ,

An archi sm which as we have already seen arose simul

, , ,

tan eou sly with Marxian Socialism in the middl e of the

ni neteenth century Of course the Anarchist idea was
.
,

not new Anarchist notions had appeared prominently

.

in the French Revolution the wilder Jacobin dem a

,

gogu es lik e H ebert and Clootz preaching doc t rines whi ch

were Anarchist in everything but name The launching .

o f Anarchi sm as a self consc i ous movement

- however , ,

dates from the mi ddl e of the nineteenth century its ,

founder bein g the Frenchman Proudhon Proudhon t ook .

“ ”
up the name Anarchy (whi ch had previously been a
term of opprobri um even in revolutionary circles) and
adopted it as a profession of faith to mark hi mself off
from the believers in State Communi sm whom he de ,

tested an d despised Proudhon was frankly an apostle

.

o f chaos .
“
I shall arm myself to the teeth again st c ivi
“
liz ation he cried I shall begin a war that will end
.

only wit h my li fe ! Instituti ons and ideals were alik e

”

assailed with M placable fury Reviving Brissot s dic

.
’

tum Property is theft Proudhon went on t o assail

,
“
,

religion in t he following terms : G od that is folly and

“ -

cowardice ; G od is tyranny and misery ; G od is evil To .

me then Luc ifer Satan ! whoever you may be the demon

, , , ,

that the faith of my fathers opposed to G od and the

”
Church !
While Prou dhon foun ded Anarchism h e had neither ,
 THE —
G RO UN D S WE LL O F REVOLT 1 59

the organi zin g skill nor the proselyting ability to accom

p lish important tangible results H is dis ciples were few
.
,

but among them was one who possessed the talents to

succeed where his master had failed This was the cele .

b rated Michael B akuni n B akunin is another ex ample

.

o f the
“
tain te d genius ”
Sprung from a Russian noble
.

family B aku ni n early displaye d great intellect u al bril

,

lian cy but his talents were perverted by his idle and tur
,

bulent disposition so that he was soon at hopeless out s

,

with society an d plunged into the stream of revolution ,

which presently bore him to the congenial comrades hip

o f P roudhon As state d in the previous chapter Ba
.
,

kuni n was truly at home o nly in the company o f social

rebels especially criminals an d vagabonds his favorite
, ,

toast being : To the d estruction of all law an d order

“

”
and the unchaining o f evil passions !
In the pe ri od after the storm o f 1 848 B akunin was ,

busy forming his party His programme o f action can

.

be judged by the following excerpts from his R evolu tio n

ary Catech i sm drawn up for the guidance o f his foll owers
,
.

“ ” “
Th e revolutionary states Bakunin must let nothin g
, ,

st an d between him and the work of d estruction F or .

him exists only one single pleasure one single co nsolation , ,

o n e reward o n e sat i sfaction

,
— the success of the revolu
tion N ight and day he must have but on e thought but
.
,

o n e aim
— implacable dest ruction If he continues
.

to live in this world it is only to annihilate it all the more

,
”
surely . F or this reason no reforms are to be advocated ;
“
o n the contra ry every eff ort is to be made to heighten
,

and in crease the evil and sorrows whi ch will at len gth
1 60 T HE RE VOLT AGAINST CIVILI ZATION

wear out the patience of the people and encourage an ih

surrecti on en masse ”
.

It is easy to see how Anarchism wi th i ts measure ,

less violence and hatred of any organi zed soci al cont rol ,

shoul d have clashed fiercely with Marxian Socialism ,

becomin g steadily more reformist and evolutionist in

character As a matter of fact the entire second half of
.
,

the nineteenth century is filled with the struggle between

the two ri val movements In this struggle Sociali sm was
.

t he more successful The Anarchi sts made a frantic bid

.

for vict ory in the Pari s Commune of 1 8 7 1 but the bloody ,

failure of the Commune discre di t ed Anarchi sm and tight

ened the Soci alist gri p over most of Europe Only in .

Italy Spain and Russi a (where Anarchy flouri shed as

, ,
“
Nih ilism did Anarchism gain anything like prep on
’

derance in revolutionary circles .

Nevertheless Anarchi sm lived on as a forceful minor

,

i ty movement di splaying its activi ty chi efly by bomb

,

throwings an d by assassinations of crowned heads or

other eminent personages These outrages were termed
.

by Anarchi st s the Propaganda of the Deed and were

“ ”
,

intended t o t errori ze organi zed soci ety and arouse the

proletari at t o emulati on at on e and the same time The .

ultimat e aim o f the An archists was o f course a general , ,

“ ”
massacre of the possessin g classes As the Anarchi st.

Johann Most declared in his organ F reihei t in 1 8 8 0 : , ,

It i s no longer ari st ocracy and royalty that the people

int end t o dest roy Here perhaps but a cou p de grdce o r
.
, ,

two are yet needed No ; in the coming onslaught the

.

object is to smi t e the entire middle class with annihila

1 62 THE RE VOLT A GAINST CIV ILI ZATION

r eady intolerable world worse than before and thus has ,

t eni ng the social revolut i on But in the bus iness of as

.
,

s as sin ation it is often better to murder good persons and

,

to spare wicked ones ; because as Bakun in expressed it ,

in hi s R evolu tionary Catechism wicked oppressors are ,

“
people to whom we concede lif e provisi onally in order , ,

that by a series o f monstrous acts they may drive the

, ,

p eople into in evitable revolt ”

The k illing of wicked
.

p eople imp l ies no really valuable criticism o f the exist

ing soc i al order
“
If you kill an unjust judge you may
.
,

be un derstood to mean merely that you thin k judges

o ugh t t o b e just ; but if you go ou t of your way to kill

a just judge it is clear that you obj ect to judges al

,

together If a son kills a bad father the act though

.
, ,

m erito ri ous in its humble way does not take us much ,

f urther But if he kills a good father it cuts at the root

.
,

o f all that pestilent system o f family affection and loving

kin dness and gratitude on which the pres ent system is

” 1
largely based .

Such is the sp irit of Anarchism Now Anarchi sm is .

n oteworthy not o nl y in itself but also as one of the p ri me

,

mot ive forces in that much more important Syndi cal “

is t movement whi ch we will n ow consider The signif

”
.

ican ce of Syndicalism an d its outgrowth Bolshevism can

h ardly be overestimated It is no exaggerati on to say
.

that it is the most terrible social phenomenon that the

world has ever seen In Syndicalis m we have for the
.

fi rst time in human histo ry a full fledged phi losophy o f -

1 P f
ro esso r Gilb ert M urray,
“
Sat anism an d th e W orld -Or er ”
, d The
C entu ry, Ju ly , 1 920 .
 THE GR OUNDfl SWE LL O F REV O LT 1 63

—
the Under Man the prologue of that vast revolt against
-

civilization whi ch with Russian B olshevism has ao

, ,

tu ally begun .

If we examin e Syndicalism in its mere technical eco

nomi c as pect its full significance is not apparent Syn
, .

dicalism takes its name from the French wor d S yndicat

or
“
Trades Union and in its restri cte d sense mean s
-
”
, , ,

the transfer of the instruments of production from p ri vate

or state ownership into the full control o f the organized

workers in the respective trades E conomically speak .

in g Syn di calism is thus a cross between State Socialism

,

and Anarchism The state is to be abolished yet a fed

.
,

c ration o f trades uni ons an d not anarchy is to take its

-
, ,

place .

V iewed in thi s abstract technical sense Syn dicali sm

, ,

does not seem to present any specially startling inn ova

’
tions It is when we examine the Syndi calists animating
.

Spirit their general phil osophy o f li fe an d the manner

, ,

in which they propose to attain their ends that we realize ,

—
that we are in the presence o f an ominous novelty the
mature philosophy of the Under Man Thi s philosophy -
.

o f the Under Man is to day called Bolshevism

- -
Before .

the Russian Revolution it was kn own as Syn dicalism .

But B olshevism and Syn dicalism are basically o n e and

the same thing Soviet Russia h as really invented noth
.

ing It is merely practisin g what others had been preach

.

—
ing for years with such adaptations as normally attend
the putting o f a theory into practice .

Syn dicalism as an organize d movement is primarily

, ,

the work of two Frenchmen Fernan d Pelloutier and ,

1 64 T HE REVOLT A GAINST CIVILI ZATION

G eorges Sorel Of course just as there were Soci alis ts

.
,

before Marx so there were Syndicali sts before Sorel

, .

Syndi calism s intellectual progenitor was Proudhon who

’
, ,

in hi s writings had clearly sketched out the Syndicalist

t heory As for Syndi calism s savage violent un com
1
.
’
, ,

promising spirit it is clearly Anarchi st i n origin drawing

, ,

i ts insp iration not merely from Proudhon but also from

Bakun in Most and all the rest of that furious company
, ,

o f revolt .

“ ”
Revolt ! There is the essence of Syn dicali sm : a
revolt not merely agai nst modern society but against
,

Marxian Soci alism as well And the revolt was well .

timed When at the very end of the nineteenth century

.
, ,

G eorges Sorel lifted the rebel bann er of Syndicali sm the ,

hour awaited the man The proletarian world was full.

o f discontent and disillusionment at the long dominant -

Marxi an philosophy Half a century had passed since

.

Marx first preached his gospel and the revolutionary ,

millennium was nowhere in sight Society had not b e .

come a world of billionaires and beggars The great .

capit alists had not swallowed all The middle classes .

s till survived and prospered Worst of all from the revo .

,

lu tion ary view point the upper grades of the working

-
,

classes had prospered too The skilled workers were

,
.
,

in fact becoming an aristocracy o f labor They were

,
.

1
Ab ou t th e year 1 8 60 , rou dh o n wro te :
P A ccordin g to my idea, rail “

p
ways , a mine , a m an u f ac t o ry, a sh i , e tc , are to th e wor ers wh om th e y k
p
.

o c cu y wh a t th e h ive is to th e b ee s ; t h at is , at th e s ame t ime th eir in s tru

men t an d th eir dwellin g, th eir co u n try, t h eir territory, th eir ro erty ”
p p
pp p
.

F o r t h is reas o n Pro u dh o n O th e e x lo itat io n o f th e railways ,

“
os e d

p p
wh e th er b y co m an ies o f c a it alis t s o r b y th e s tate ”
Th e mo dern Syn
p p
.

dicalis t idea is h ere erf e c tly e it o miz e d .

1 66 TH E REVOLT A GAIN ST C IV I LI ZATION

shoul d have seen revolutionary Socialists Anarchis ts all , ,

t he antisocial forces of the whole world grouped un der ,

the banner of G eorges Sorel ? For a time they went under

di fferent names : Syndicalis ts in France Bolshevists in ,
”
Rus si a I W W s in America ; but in reality they
“
,
. . .
’

formed on e army enlisted for a single war

, .

Now what was this war ? It was first o f all a war for , ,

the conquest o f Socialism as a preliminary to the con

quest of society Everywhere the o rt hodox Socialis t
.

parties were fiercely assailed An d these Syndi calist.

assaults were very formidable because the orthodox ,

Socialists possessed no moral lines of defense Their .

arms were palsi ed by the virus of their revolutionary

tradition For however evolutionary and non militant
.
,
-

the Socialists might have become in practice in theory ,

they had remained revolutionary their ethics continuing ,

to be those o f the class war the destruction of the

“ ”
,
“ “
possessing classes and the dictatorship of the prole
,
”
tariat .

The Americ an economist Carver well describes the

, ,
“
ethics o f Socialis m in the following lines : Marxian So
ciali sm h as nothing in common with idealistic Soci alism .

It rests not on persuas ion but on force It does not

, ,
.

profess to believe as did the old idealis ts that if Social

, ,

ism be lifted up it will draw all men unto it In fact .

,

it has no ideals ; it is materiali stic and milit ant Being .

materiali stic and atheisti c it makes no use o f such terms

,

as right an d jus t i ce unl ess i t be to quiet the consc i ences

,

o f those who still harbor such superst it ions It ins ists .

that these terms are mere conventionalities the con

 THE —
GROUN D SWELL OF REV O LT 1 67

c ep tsmere bugaboos invented by the ruling cas te to k eep

the ma sses under control E xcept in a conventional .

sen se from this cru d e materi alistic poin t of view there is

,

neither ri ght n or wrong justice nor in justice good n o r

, ,

b ad Until people who still believe in such silly notions

.

divest their minds of them they will never un d erstand ,

the first principles of Marxian Socialism .

‘ ’
Who creates ou r ideas of right and wrong ? asks the
‘
Socialis t The ruling class Why ? To in sure their
. .

d omination over the mass es by depriving them o f the

power to think for themselves We the proletarians .
, ,

when we get into power will d omin ate the situati on ; we

,

shall be the ruling caste an d naturally shall do what , , ,

the ruling castes have always done ; that is we shall ,

determin e what is right an d wrong D o you ask us if .

what we propose is j ust ? What d o you mean by jus

tice ? Do you ask if it is right ? W hat d o you mean
by ri ght ? It will be goo d for us That is all that right .

and justice ever did or ever can mean 1

.
’

“
As H arold Cox remarks : The Socialist is ou t to de
stroy Capitalism and for that en d he encourages o r con
,

dones conduct which the worl d has hi therto condemn ed

as crimin al The real ethics o f Sociali sm are the
.

ethics o f war What the Socialists want is not progress

.
,

in the world as we know it but destruction of that world ,

as a prelu d e to the creation o f a new world of their own

imagining In order to win that end they have to seek
.

the su pport of every force that makes for disorder an d ,

1
Pr f o esso r T C arver, in his In trod u ct ion to Boris Braso l s S ocia lis m
N ’

Y k
. .

vs . Civili zation ( New or ,

1 68 THE REVOLT AGAINST C IVI LI ZATION

to appeal to every motive that stimulates class hatred .

Their e thical outlook is the direct reverse of that which

h as inspired all the great religions of the world Ins tead .

of seekin g to attain peace upon earth and good will -

among men they have chosen for their goal uni versal
,

warfare and they deliberately make their appeal to the

,
” 1
p as sions of envy hatred and malice
, , .

Such are the moral bases o f Socialism To be sure .

,

Marxian Socialis m had tended to soft pedal all this -

,

and had become by the close of the nineteenth centu ry

a predominantly pacific “
refo rmist ”
,
—
movement ih
practice But thi s peaceful pose had been assumed not
.
,

from any ethi cal change but because o f t wo practi cal

,

reasons In the first place Marx had t aught that so

.
,

ciety would soon break down through its o wn defects ;

“ ”
that the possessing classes would rapidly destroy each
other ; and that Socialists mi ght thus wait for society s ’

decrepitude before giving it the death stroke instead of -

,

risking a doub t ful battle while it was still strong In .

the second plac e Soci alis m as a proselyting faith wel

, , ,

comed liberal converts yet realized that these would

“ ”
,
“ ”
not come over in any great numbers unless it could
present a reformist face t o them
“
.

Reformi st Socialis m as it stood at the close of the

,

nineteenth century t hus rested upon equivocal moral

,

foundations I t s policy was based not upon principle

.
, ,

but upon mere expediency Th e Syndicalis ts saw this

.
,

and used it with deadly effect When the reformis t .

leaders reprobat ed the Syndicalists savage violence the ’

,

1 C ox, Econ omic Li berty, pp . 27 an d 42 .

1 70 THE REVOLT A GA INST CIVILI ZATION

Accordin g to G eorges Sorel : Vi olence class struggles ,

without quarter the state o f war en p ermanen ce

”
,
were ,

to be the birt hmarks of the social revoluti on As .

“
another French Syndicalis t Pouget exp ressed it : Revo
, ,

lu tion is a work of all moments of to -day as well as of ,

to morrow : it is a continuous action an every day fight

-
,
-

without truce or delay against the powers of extorti on ”

.

The methods of the class war were summed up un der

“ ”
the term direct action These methods were numer
.

“ ”
ou s the most important being the strike and
, sabotage .

Strikes were to be continually called f or an y or no reason ; ,

if they failed so much the better sin ce the defeated

, ,

workers would be left in a sullen an d vengeful mood .

Agreements with employers were to be made only to

be broken because all lies deceit and trickery were j us
—
, , ,
—
tifiable nay imperative against the
,
“
enemy ”
Even
while on the job the Syndicalist was never to do good
,
“
work was always to do as little work as possible ( ca
,
’

“ —
and was to practise sabotage i e spoil . .
,

goods and damage machinery if possible without detec ,

ti on The obj ects of all this were to ruin employers

.
,

demoralize industry decrease production and thus make

, ,

living condi ti ons so hard that the masses would be roused

“
to hotter dis content and become riper for mass action .

Meanwhile everythi ng must be done to envenom the

,

class struggle Hatred must be deliberately fanned

.
,

not onl y among the masses but among the possessing

“

classes as well Every attempt at conciliati on or un der

”
.

standing between combatants weary o f mut ual inj u ry

“
must be nipped in the bud Says Sorel : To repay with.
 TH E —
GROUND SWE LL O F REV O LT 1 71

black ingratitude the benevolence of those who woul d

protect the worker to meet with in sults the speeches o f
,

those who a dvocate human fraternity to reply by blows ,

at the advocates of those who would propagate social

—
peace all this is assure dly not in conformity with the
rules of fashionable Socialism but it is a very practical
,

method of showin g the bourgeois that they must mind

their own business Proletari an violence appears
.

on the stage at the very time when attempts are being

made to mitigate confli cts by social peace Violence .

gives back to the proletariat their nat u ral weapon of

the class struggle by means of frightening the bourgeoisie
,

and profiting by the bourgeois dastar dliness in order to

”
impose on them the will of the proletari at .

The uncompromising fighting spiri t of Syndicalism

,

comes o u t vivi dly in the following lines by the Americ an

Syndicalist Jack L ondon
,

There has never been anything like this revolution

in the his tory of the worl d There is nothing analogous
.

between it an d the Americ an Revolution o r the French

Revolution It is unique colossal O ther revolutions
.
,
.

compare with it as asteroids compare wi th the sun It .

is alone of its kin d ; the first world revolution in a world

whose hi story is replete with revolutions An d not .

o nl y this for it is the first organized movement of men

,

to become a world movement limi ted only by the limits

,

o f the planet .

Thi s revolution is unlike all other revolutions in

many respects It is not sporadic It is not a flame o f
. .

pop ul ar dis content arising in a day an d dying d own in

,
1 72 T HE RE VOLT A GAINST CIVILI ZATION

a day Here are . comrades in an organi zed ,

internati onal world wide revoluti onary army

,
-
, .

‘ ’
The cry of this army is No quarter ! We want all ,

that you possess We will be content with nothin g less

.

than all you possess We want in our hands the reins .

of power and the destiny of mankind Here are our .

hands They are strong hands We are going to take

. .

your governments your palaces and all your p urpled , ,

ease away from you The revolution is here now .

, .

” 1
Stop it who can .

’
Syndicali sm s defiant repudi ation of traditional moral
ity is well stated in the following quotations from two
“ “
leaders of the I W W ( Industrial Workers o f the . . .

the chief Syndicalist group in Am erica The .

first of these quotations is from the pen o f Vincent St .

John an d is taken from his booklet Th e I W W

, ,
. . .
,

I ts His tory S tru ctu re and M eth ods

,
As Mr St John is ,
. . .

regarded by Syndicalis ts everywhere as on e of their

ablest think ers hi s words may be taken as an au th ori
,

tative expressi on o f Syndicali st philosophy Says Mr . .

“
St John : As a revolutionary organi zation the Indus
.
,

trial Workers of the World aim to us e any an d all tacti cs

that will get the result s sought with the leas t exp en di
ture of time and energy The t actics used are determin ed .

solely by the power o f the organi zati on t o make good

in their us e The quest i on of ri ght or wrong does not
.
‘ ’ ‘ ’

concern us .

In simil ar vein another I W W leader Art uro ,

. . .
,

Gio vann itti writ es : I t is the avowed inten ti on of bot h

“
,

1
J k Lo d R v l ti n d Oth E y pp 4—
ac n on , e o u8 (N w Y k o an er ss a s , . e or ,
1 74 THE RE VOLT A GAI NST C IV ILI ZATIO N

result will be chaos which will give the Syndic al ists their
,

opportunity In that hour the organi zed Syndicalis t

.

minority leading the frenzied starvin g mass es an d

, , ,

ai ded by criminals and other antisoci al elements will ,

overthrow the soci al order seiz e all property cru sh the

, ,

bourgeois ie and establish the social revolution

,
.

This social revolution is to be for the benefit of the

P roletari at in its most literal sens e Syn di calis m hates
.
,
“
not merely capitalists and bour geois but als o the in ,

tellectu als
”
and even the skilled workers — “
the aris
to cracy of labor
”
Syndi c alis m is ins t in ctively hostile
.

—
to in telligence It pins its faith to ins tin ct that deeper
.
“

”
knowledge of the un diff erentiated hum an mass ; that
proletari an qua n tity so much more preciou s th an indi
vidu alis tic qu a li ty Both the intellectual élite and their
.

“ ”
works must make room for the proletari an culture of
“
the morrow Intell ectuals are a us eless p ri vileged
.
,
”
cl as s ; art is a mere r esiduum bequeathed to us by an
” 1
aris tocratic society Science is lik ewis e condemned
. .

C ri es the French Syndicalis t Edouard Berth in his , ,

pamphlet significantly entitled The Misdeeds of tbs ,

I n tellectu a ls :
“ —
Oh the little science la p etite science
,

whi ch fei gns to attain the truth by attaining luci di ty

o f expos iti on and shirks t he obscuri t ies
, Let us go back .

to the subconscious the psychologic al source of every

,
”
ins piration !
Here we see the full fri ghtfulness of Syndicalis m
Bolshevism ! Thi s new social revolt prepared a genera ,

tion ago and launched in Sovi et Russia is n ot merely a ,

1
So rel .
 TH E —
G ROUN D SWE LL OF REVO LT 1 75

war against a social system n ot merely a war against ,

our civili zation ; i t is a war of the ha nd agains t th e brain .

F or the firs t time since man was man there has been a
defini te schi sm between the hand and the head E very .

progressive principle which mankind h as thus far evolved :

the solidarity o f civilization and culture ; community o f
interes t ; the harmonious synthesis of muscle in tellect , ,

an d sp iri t—all these the new heresy o f the Under M an -

howls down and tramples in the mud Up from the .

dark purlieus of the underworld strange battle shouts -

come W in ging The un derworld is to become th e world

.
,

the on ly worl d As for ou r world it is to be d estroyed ;

.
,

as for us we are to be killed

,
A clean sweep ! N ot.

even the most beautiful products of our intellects an d

souls interest these Under Men Why sho u ld they care
-
.

when they are fashioning a world o f their own ? A

ha nd world n ot a h ead world
-
,
The Under Men despis e
- .
-

thought itself save as an instrument of in vention and

,
“
production Their guide is not r eason but the prole
.
, ,
”
tari an truth o f instinct and passion the deeper self -

,
im —
below the re ason whose subl ation is the mob Spak e .

G eorges Sorel : Man has genius only in the m easure that

“

”
he does n o t think .

The citiz ens of the upper world are to be extirpated

along with their institutions and ide als The doomed .

cl as ses are numerous They comp ri se not merely the

.

billionaires o f Marx but also the whole o f the upper

,

and middle cl asses the landownin g countryfolk even

, ,

the skill ed working men ; in short all except those who ,

work with their un tutored hands p lu s the elect few wh o ,

1 76 TH E REVOLT AGAINST CIVILI ZATION

phi losoph i f or those who work with their untutored

ze

hands The elimination of so many classes is perhaps

.
, ,

unfortunate H owever it is necessary because these

.
, ,

classes are so hopelessly capitali st and bourgeois that ,

unless elimi nated they would surely infect at its very

,

birth the gestating underworld civili zati on .

Now no t e o ne important point All that I have jus t

.

said applies to Syndi calism as it stood prior to the

Russian Revolution of 1 91 7 Every point that I have
.

treated has been drawn from Syn di cal i st pronounce

“ ”
ments made before the appearance of Bolshevism .

We must recogni ze once and for all that Bolshevism is

not a peculiar Russian phenomenon but that it is merely,

the Muscovite manifestation o f a movement whi ch had

formulat ed its philosophy and infected the whole civi
liz ed world before the beginni ng o f the late war Thus .
,

when in the next chapter we come to contemplate R us

si an Bolshevism in ac tion we shall view it not as a
, ,

purely Russi an problem but as a local phase o f some

,

thi ng which must be faced fought and mas tered in

, ,

every quart er of the earth .

1 78 T HE REVOLT A GAINST CIVILI ZATION

their blood inf lamin g their wi ll to power and nerving

, ,

their heart s to victory .

The Bolshevik t riumph in Russi a had it is true been , ,

won by numeri cally slender forces the numbers o f con ,

vin c ed Bolsheviks who formed the ruling

“
Communist
”
Party numberi ng only about or out of
a population of But th is was really a
powerful stimul an t to the world revoluti on be cause
“
,

it proved the ability of a det ermined ruthless minority ,

t o impose its will upon a di sorgani zed society devoid o f

capable leaders and thus encouraged revoluti onary
,

minorities everywhere to hope that they might do the

same thin g—especially wi th the Russi an backing upon
which they could henceforth rely As a matt er of fac t .
,

Bolshevik revolut i ons have been tried in many lands

since 1 91 7 were actually successful for short peri ods in
,

Hungary and Bavaria and are certain to be att emp t ed

,

in the future since in every part of the world Bols hevik

,

agit ati on is persistently and insi diously go ing on .

The Russi an Bolshevik Revoluti on took most o f the

—
world by surprise part i cularly the orthodox Socialist s ,

heedful o f Marx s prophecy that the revolut i on woul d

’

begin in ultra capitalist coun t ri es and no t in economi

r
,

cally backward lands l ike Russi a barely ou t of the agri

,

cult ural st age To those who realize the t rue nature

.

o f soc i al revolut i on an d the spec i al charac t eri sti cs of

Russi an lif e however the outbreak o f soci al revolution

, ,

in Russi a rather th an in Wes t ern countri es i s precisely

what mi ght have been expect ed Soc ial revoluti on as.
,

we have already seen is not progress but regress ; not a

,
 —
THE RE BE LLION OF THE UND E R MAN 1 79

step forward to a higher order but a lurch backward to

,

a lower plane Therefore countries like Russia with

.
, ,

veneers of civilization laid thinly over instinctive wild

ness and refractory barbaris m are peculiarly liable to
,

revoluti onary atavism .

Furthermore we have seen that the Russian Bolshevik

,

Revoluti on was not a chance happenin g but the logical

outcome o f a process of social dis integration and savage
resurgence that had long been going on F o r more than
.

half a century the Nihilists had been busily farming

“

the smouldering fires of chaos their methods and aims

,

bein g alike frankly desc ri bed by on e o f their number ,

“
D ostoievsky who wrote fully fifty years ago : To re
,

duce the villages to confusion to spread cyni cism and

,

scandals together with complete disbelief in everything

,

and eagerness f or somethin g better and finally by means

,

o f fires to reduce the country to desperation ! Man

kind has to be divided into two un equal parts : nine
tenths have to give up all indi viduality and become ,

so to speak a herd
,
. We will destroy the desire
f or property ; we will make use o f drunkenness slander, ,

spying ; we will make use o f incre dible corruption ; we

will stifle every geni us in his infancy We will proclaim
.

destruction There is going to be such an upset as the

.

world has never seen before .

The growin g power of the violent subversive elements

showed clearly in the course o f the Russian Revolution
o f 1 905
. That movement was not primarily a soc i al
revolution ; it was at first a political revolution directed
,
“ ”
by the Intelligentsia an d the liberal bourgeoisie ,
180 T HE RE VOLT A GAINST CIVILI ZATION

against the corrup t and despoti c Czari st autocracy .

No sooner was the Czarist regime shaken however than , ,

the social revoluti oni sts tri ed to take over the move
ment and t urn i t to their own en ds It is instructive .

to remember that in the Soc i al Revolutionary Party

,

Congress of 1 903 the extremi sts had gained control of

,

the party machinery an d were thenceforth known as ,

“ ”1 “ ”
Bolsheviki dominating the less vi olent Menshevik
,

win g The leader o f thi s successful coup was none other

.

than Nikolai Lenin Therefore when the revolution o f.

,

1 905 broke ou t the social revolut ioni sts under the

, ,

leadershi p of Lenin were pledged to the most V iolent

,

action .

It was in the autumn of 1905 about six months after ,

the beginnin g of the political revoluti on that the B0 1 ,

sh eviki attempted to seize control by proclaiming a

“
di c
“ ”
tatorshi p o f the proletari a organized into Soviets .

The attempt however failed ; but this abortive cou p o f

, ,

the social revolutioni sts involved the failure of the whole

revolutionary movement Frightened by the spectre o f .

class warfare and social chaos the political revoluti onists ,

cooled Czaris m rallied and re est abli shed its authority

,
-
.

Russi a s hope o f a liberal constituti on al governm ent

’
,

faded away and Czari sm continued in the saddle until

,

the Revoluti on of March 1 91 7 ,

.

Thi s second revoluti on was almost an exact replica

o f the first At the start it was dominated by poli t ical
.

Bols heviki ,
1
transla ted li t erally means th ose in th e majority “
Th eir
pp o nen ts o u tvo ted at th e C ongress of 1 903 b ecame k
.
,

les s vio len t O , , n o wn

as M ens h evi ki o r th o se in th e mi n ori ty
,
“
.
”
1 82 T HE REVOLT AGAINST CIVILI ZATION

so frightful that in order to avert utter chaos the Bol

, ,

shevik leaders have been force d to revive some of th e

despised cap italist methods such as private trading
“
, ,

the employment of hi gh salari ed experts and certain

-
,

forms of private property They have also attempted

.

to stimulate production by establishi ng an iron despotism

over the workers forc ing the latter to labor virtually
,

as slaves so that the Bolshevist regime has come to be

,
“
known sardonically as a dictatorshi p over the pro
”
letari at Perhaps these measures may save Russia
.

from absolute ruin ; perhaps not Time alone will tell. .

But even if things now take a turn for the better thi s ,

will be due not to Bolshevism but to a practical repudia

,

tion of Bolshevism by its own leaders It is by its doc .

tri n es and by its acts done in accordance wi th thos e

,

doctri nes that Bolshevism must be judged Let us see

,
.
,

then what Russi an Bolshevism means in theory and in

, ,

applied practi ce .

The fun damental characteristic of B olshevism is its

violen ce Of course this was also a basic element in
.
,

Syndi calism but the Bolshevists seem to stress violence

,

even more than their Syndicali st predecessors Bol .

sh evism c ahnly assumes wholesale clas s warfare of the

most ferocious character on a world wide scale for an -

indefinite peri od as a normal phase o f its development

,

and as necessary for its success F or example : the .

American j ournalist Arthur Ransome in hi s convers a

, ,

t i ons with the Russian Bolshevik leaders found them ,

“ ”
contemplating a period of torment for the world at
large lasting at least fifty years The class wars which
.
 THE RE BE LLI O N O F THE —
UN DE R MAN 1 83

woul d rage in western E urope and Ameri ca would be

’
infini tely worse than Russia s would ann ihilate whole ,

populations and woul d probably imply the d estruction

,

o f all culture
1
.

The appalli ng implications of thi s Bolshevi k principle

“ ”
of permanent violence have repelled not merely b e
lievers in the existing social order but also many persons ,

not wholly hostile to Bolshevism an d even re ady to wel

come a social revolution of a less d estructive character .

The Menshevik G regory Zilb oorg thus criticises B ol

“ ”

“
sh evism s mob psychology (and incidentally expounds
’
-

the Menshevik theory of revolution) in the following

lines
“
The B olshevists have an almost reli gious almost ,

frantic faith in the masses as such D ynami c mas ses .

are their ideal B ut they overlooked and still overlook

.
, ,

the fact that the masses even the self-c ons cious masses
, ,

are often transformed into mobs and the d ynamic power ,

o f a mob may scarcely be reasoned wi th .

“
The fallacy in the Bolshevist reasoning li es in in
cluding people as well as mob in the term masses ‘
.
’

‘ ’
The blind faith in the m as ses is a silent but potent
indication that they accept the crow d and the crowd
psychology as the most j ustifiable factors in social lif e .

Such an acceptance implies the further acceptance o f

two very dangerous factors The first is that revolu.

tion is a blow a moment o f spontaneous destruction

, .

Imm e di ately followin g this blow there arises the necess ity
for stabilizing the social forces for a constructive life .

1
Rans ome R sia i 1 9 19 pp 83—
, us 8 7 ( New Y k
n , . or ,
1 84 T HE REVOLT A G AINST C IV ILI ZATION

I take it that the work of construct i on must begin not ,

when we have reached a po int beyond whi ch we can

not go but when we have completely changed the soci al
,

element As soon as the old codes as a system are

.
, ,

done wi th we must give up destroying and turn to con

,

stru ctin g F o r thi s purp ose we must gat her all our
.

in t ellectual forces relyin g on the m asses t o help us

, ,

but not being gu ided by them So that when a revolu .

tion puts power into the hands of a group or a class ,

even di ctat orial power we must imme di at ely begin to

,

solidari ze the social forces The Communist theory .

omi t s the necessity for this soli dariz ation and there , ,

fore admits o f no compromise or co—

,
O peration It cre .

ates fu ndam ental principles of a rule by a mi nority .

G overnm ent by a minori ty is dangerous not because it ,

is opposed to the traditi onal i dea of democracy and the

t radi t i onal worship of the maj ority but because such ,

government necessitates the employment of continuous

violent methods and maint ain ing continuously in the ,

minds of the masses a consci ou sness of danger and the

,

necessity f or des t ru ction An d that i s the second dan

.

g er ou s factor Under such

. a condi t ion the m as ses are

permanent mobs able only to hate to fight and to de

, , ,
”
stroy .
1

In simil ar vein President M as aryk o f Czechoslovakia

,

(hims elf a moderat e Soci alis t) assert s that The Bolshe

“

vi ki want revolu ti on at any cost and contin ues : Leni n

”
,

consi ders armed revoluti on the prin cipal constructive

1 Z ilb o org, The P as si ng of the Old Order i n Eu rop e, pp . 1 84- 1 8 6 (New
Y rk
o ,
186 THE REV OLT A GAI NST CIVILI ZATION

B ols hevik methods is too terri ble ; and secondly , be

cause even after paying the p ri ce I do not believe
, ,

the result would be what the Bols heviks profess to

d esire ” 1
.

In this connection it is instructive to note that the

Russian Bolshevik leaders have never repudiated or ,

even modi fied their fundamental reliance upon violent

,
“ ”
methods Lenin s famous Twenty One Points M ani
.
’
-

festo laying d own the terms upon which Socialist groups

,
“
throughout the world wou ld be admi tted to the Thi rd
International comman d s implacable war open or se
”
, ,

cret both against existing society and against all So

,

cialists outside the Communist fold An d Trotzky in .

,
“
hi s recent pronouncement significantly entitled The ,

D efens e of Terrori sm ”2
fiercely justifies all Bolshevi k
,

acts and poli cies as alike necessary an d ri ght .

’
Another o f Bolshevism s fundamental characteristics
—
is its desp otism a despotism not only of the Bolshe
vist min ority over the general popul ation but also o f ,

the Bolshevik leaders over their own followers Here .

,

again Bolshevism is merely developing ideas already

,

formulated by Syndicalism The Syndi calists abandon .

,
“ ’’
ing the Marxian deference for the masses in general ,

deni ed the necessity o r desirability for hee ding their

wishes and consi dered only the class— conscious mi ‘‘

n ori ty o f the proletari at — in plain lan guage their own ,

crowd As the French Syn di calist Lagardelle put it :

.
,

Bertrand Ru ssell Repu blic Novem

”
1
,
“
Bols h evik Th eory, The New , 3
b er, 1 920
p bli h d i
.

1
En glis h trans lation u s e n Lo n don, 1 922 .
 T HE RE BE LLI ON O F THE —
UN D ER MAN 1 87

The mass unwieldy an d clums y as it is must not here

, ,
”
s peak ou t its mind Furthermore in carrying ou t
.
,

their programme the Syndicalist leaders might rely

,

w holly on force without even con d escendin g to explana

,
“
tion . In the words of the Syndi calist Brou ilh et : The
m asses expect to be treate d with vi olence and not to ,

be persuaded . They always obediently follow when a

s ingle man or a clique shows the way Such is the law .

”
o f collective psychology .

The Russian B olshevik lea d ers evidently had these

i deas in mind when they ma d e their successful cou p
’
d etat in November 1 91 7 Bolshevik theory as preached
,
.
,

to the mas ses had hitherto been that the di ctatorship

,
“

o f the proletari at
”
woul d be a short transition peri o d
e nding with the rapi d annihilation o f the capitalist and

bourgeois clas ses after which there would be no more

,
”
government but a fraternal liberty
,
That the Bol .

“ ”
s hevik dictatorshi p might last longer than most p ro
letarian s expecte d was however hi nted at by Lenin , ,

himself in a circular issued shortly before the November

“
c ou p,
and entitled Shall the Bolsheviks remain in
,
”
P ower ? Here Lenin blu ntly states hi s attitude Of .

c ourse he says we preached the destruction o f the State

, ,

as long as the State was in possession o f o ur enemies .

But why should we destroy the State after havin g our

s elves taken the helm ? The State is to be sur e an or , ,

g a niz ed rul e by a pri vilege d mino ri ty We ll let us in .

,

o ur t u rn substitute ou r mino ri ty f or theirs and let us ,

ru n the mac hi nery !

An d this is precisely what t he Bols heviks have done .

188 THE REVOLT A GAINST CIVILI ZATION

Instead of destroying the State they have built up one

,

o f the most i ron despo ti sms that the world h as ever seen ,

with an autocrat i c governing clique functioning through

“ ”
a centralized Red b u reaucracy and relying upon a
“
Red army powerful enough to crush all di saffecti on
”
.

No parliamentary opposition no criti c i sm is permitted

, ,
.

No book pamphlet or newspaper may be printed which

, ,

disagrees with the Bolshevik G overnment Further .

more there are no signs o f any relaxati on of thi s despotic

,
“ ”
attitude The recent concessions like private trad
.

ing are purely economic in character ; the Bolshevik

G overnment itself has frankly ann ounced that no politi
cal concess i ons will be made and that absolute power
,

will remain in it s hands The economic concessions are

.

“ ”
termed merely temporary to be revoked as soon as
,

the Russian people has become suf fici ently educated

“ ”

al ong Bolshevik l ines to make possi ble the establishment

o f pure Commun ism .

Of course thi s means that the dic t atorship is to

,

be indefinitely prolonged As Lenin hi mself candidly

.

remarked recently to a visiting delegat i on o f Spanish

Sociali sts : We never spoke about liberty We practi se
“
.

the proletari at s di ct atorship in the name o f the minor

’

ity because the peasant class have not ye t become pro

,

letarian and are not with us It will continue until

.

”
they subj ect themselves .

But would the d i c t at orsh ip end even i f t he whole

Russi an people should subject themselves t o Com
“

mu nism ? It is hi ghly improbable On th i s po int

.

Ber tran d Russell makes some very acute remarks the ,

1 90 T HE RE VOLT A GAINST CIVILI ZATION

by bayonets without popular support Is it not alm ost .

inevit able that men placed as the Bolsheviks are placed

in Russi a (and as they maintain that the Communi sts
mu st place thems elves wherever the soci al revolution
succeeds) will be loath to relin qui sh their monopoly of
power and will find re as ons for remainin g until some
,

new revolution ousts them ? Woul d it n ot be fat ally

easy f or them without altering the economi c st ructure
, ,

to decree large salaries for high government officials ,

and so reintroduce the old inequaliti es of wealth ? What

motive would they have for not doin g so ? Wh at mo
tive is possible except idealis m love of mankind non —
,

economi c motives of the sort that Bolsheviks decry ?

The system created by violence and the forc ible ru le of
a minority must necessarily allow o f tyrann y an d ex
p lo it ation ; and if h um an nature is what Marxists assert
it to be why should the rulers neglect such opportuni ties
,

o f se lfish advantage ?
“
It is sheer nons ense to pretend that the rulers of a
‘

great empire such as Soviet Russi a when they have ,

become accustomed to power retain the proletari an

,

psychology and feel that their class interest is the same

,

as that of the ordinary working man This is not the .

cas e in fact in Rus sia now however the truth may be

,

concealed by fine phras es The governm ent has a clas s

.

consciousness and a class interest quite di stinct from

those o f the genuine proletari an who is not to be con,

founded with the paper proletari an of the Mar xian

”1
schema .

1
Russell , op . cit .
 T HE RE BE LLION OF THE —
UN D E R MAN 1 91

Thus in Rus sia as in soci al revolutions throughout

,

history we see emerging the vicious cir cle of chaos suc

,

ceeded by despotism There is the tragedy of social

.

—
upheavals the upshot being that the new rul ing class
is us ually inferi or to the old while society has mean ,

time suff ered irreparable cultural and racial losses .

How indeed can it be otherwise ? Let us look once

, ,

more at Russia Consider first of all the B ols hevik

.
, ,

leaders Some o f them like Lenin are really able men

.
, , ,

but most o f them appear to belong to those sinister

types ( tainted geni us es paranoi acs unbalance d f a
“ ”
, ,

nati es unscrupulous adventurers clever criminals etc )

, , ,
.

who always come to the front in tim es o f social dis solu

—
tion which indeed give them their sole opportun ity
, ,

o f success In fact this has been admitte d by no less

.
,

a person than Lenin himself In on e of hi s extraor .

dinary bursts of frankness he remarked in hi s speech ,

before the Third Soviet Conf erence Am ong on e h un

“
,

dred so— calle d B olsheviki there is one re al Bols hevik ,

”
with thirt y nine criminals and sixty fools
-
.

It wo u ld be extremely instructive if the B olshevik

leaders could all be psycho an alyze d C ert ai nly many .
,

o f their acts suggest peculiar ment al states The atroci .

ties perpetrated by some of the Bolshevik C ommissars ,

for example are so revoltin g that they seem explicable

,

only by mental aberrations like homici d al mania or the

sexual perversion known as sadism .

O ne such scientifi c examination of a group of BO1

shevik leaders has been made At the time of the Red .

terror in the city of Kiev in the summer of 1 91 9 the, ,

1 92 THE REVOLT A GAINST CIVILI ZATION

medical professors of Kiev Universi ty were spared o n

account of their usefulness to their terrorist mast ers .

Three of these medical men were competent alienist s ,

who were able t o di agnose the Bolshevik leaders ment ally

in the course o f thei r professional duties N ow their .

di agnosis was that nearly all the Bolshevik leaders were

degenerates of more o r less unsound mind Further
,
.

more most of them were alcoholi cs a maj ori ty were

, ,

syphili t ic while many were drug fiends

,
Such were the .

“
dictators who for months terrori zed a great c ity of
”

more than inhabit ants commi tt ed the most,

fien dish at roc ities and butchered many leading citizens

, ,

includin g scholars o f internat ional reputati on 1

.

Of course what is true of the leaders is even truer of

,

the followers In Russia as in every o ther social u p

.
,

h eaval the b ulk o f the fight ing revolut ionists consists

,

of the most turbulent and worthl ess elements of the

populati on far outnumbering the small nucleus of gen
,

u in e zealots for whom the revolut i on is a pure ideal .

The original Red G uard of Petrograd formed at the ,

time o f the November coup was a most unsavory lot

, ,

made up chiefly o f army deserters gunmen and foreign , ,

adventurers especially Letts from the Baltic Provinces

, .

The Bolshevik leaders from the start deli berately in

flamed the worst passions o f the city rabble while the ,

1
Th e m os t fl agran t in s t an ce was th e mu rder o f P ro f ess or F lorins ky o f
Kiev Un ivers ity, an in t ern a tion al au th o rity o n Slavic hi s tory an d juris
pru den c e H aled b e f o re th e R e vo lu t io n ary Trib u n al f or e xamin at io n , h e
was sh o t in o en c o u rt b y o n e o f hi s ju dges—a woman memb er, na me d
p
.

R o sa S ch wart z p
T hi s wo m an , a f orm er ros t it u t e , was a pp
are n t ly u n der

p
.

Irrit at ed b y o n e o f th e ro f ess o r s answers to a

’
th e in fl u en ce o f li q u o r
k
.

q u es tio n , sh e drew h er revo lver an d fi red at him, illi n g hi m ins t an t ly .

194 T HE REVOLT A GAINST CIV ILI ZATION

Anarchists and Syndicalis ts In Rus sia it is felt by all

.

the revoluti onary part i es Here for example is how

.
, ,

the Mens hevik G regory Z ilb o org describes the bou r

, ,
“
geoisie : The great enemy of a genuine revolution is ,

not capitalis m its elf but its by product its b as tard

,
-
,

off spring the middle class ; and as long as the middle

,

class remains intact in E urope a revolution is not poss i ,

ble . Materialis m demonstrated a certain diabolic

genius in creating its faithf ul servant the middle clas s ,
.

The rule of the middle class is nothing less than a

‘
di c t at orshi p of the propertari at While that dictature .
’

lasts the new order of society will remain unborn

,
” 1
.

Such being the attitude of revolutionists of all shades ,

the fate o f the Russian middle cl as s es after the Bolshevik

triumph was a foregone conclus ion As a matter of fact .
,
“
the Bolsheviks proce eded to shatter thi s stumbling
block of the revolution wi th a ruthles s efli ciency un
”

paralleled in hi story The middle clas ses were pro

.

scribed en masse “ ”
Boorjo oy becomin g as fatal an
,

ep ithet in Soviet Ru ss i a as Aristocrat was in Jacobin

“ ”

France All over Russ ia the bourgeois were degraded

.

in t o persecuted pari ahs systemati cally fenced off like

,

lepers from the rest of the population and condemned

to ultimate extinction as unfit to live in the new C om
munistic society .

The t ragedy that followe d b af fles d escription M ulti .

tudes of bourgeois fled beyond the frontiers Oth er .

mul tit udes scattered across Russia as homeless refugees .

“ ”
The bravest j oined the White armi es and fell fighting
Z ilb oo g p cit p p 240—
1 r , 2 42
o . .
, . .
 T H E RE B E LLI ON O F T HE —
UN DE R MAN 1 95

in the civil wars Th e re st huddled in their desolate

.

homes like condemned c ri mina ls waitin g f or death ex

, ,

posed to every hardship and ignomin y that their perse

cu tors could heap upon them The most eff ective mean s.

devised by the Bolsheviks for elimin ating the bour

“ ”

“ ”
g e oisi e was the dif ferential fo od ration The p Opu .

lation was g aded by classes and ratione d accordingly

r
,

members of the Comm un ist P arty fari ng best while ,

“
B oorjooy
” —
received least of all in Lenin s j ocose ’

“
phras eology bread enough to prevent them from for
,
”
gettin g its smell Their ofli cial ration bein g quite in
.

s ufficien t to sustain lif e the bourgeois eked ou t a ,

wretched existence by barterin g to food smugglers such -

o f their goods as had n ot been seiz ed o r stolen and when ,

—
these were gon e s tarved .

The result o f all this h as been the utter ruin (and in

large part the physical annihil ation) of the old Rus sian
middle classes M an y hun dr e ds of thousan ds at the
.
,

very leas t must have peri shed while those still alive
, ,

are physically wrecked and spirit u ally broken To be .

“
sure there is the so called new bourgeois ie sprung
,
-
,

from the ranks of sly food— smugglers and peasant profi

teers But thi s new bou rgeoisie is far inf erior to the old
.

in everything except low cunning and crass materialis m .

In fact the Bol sheviks themselves almost deplore the

,

disappearance of the old bourgeoisie when they con

template its sinister successor Says I z ves tia the Bol .
,
“
shevik ofli cial organ : Our old bourgeoisie has been
c rushed and we imagin e that there will be no return o f
,

o ld conditions The power o f the Soviets h as succeeded

.
1 96 TH E RE VOLT A GAINST CIVILI ZATION

the old regime and the Sov i et advocat es equality and

,

un iversal servi ce ; but the fruit s o f thi s era are not yet
ready t o harvest and there are already un b idden guest s
,

and new forms o f profiteers They are even now so .

numerous t hat we must t ake measures against them .

But the task will be a difficult one because the new ,

bourgeoi si e is more numerous and dangerous than the

old. The old bourgeoisie commit t ed many s ins but ,

it did not conceal them A bourgeo i s was a bourgeois

. .

Y o u could recogni ze hi m by h i s appearance The .

o ld bourgeo i si e robbed t he people b u t it spen t part o f ,

it s money for exp ensive fixtures and works of art I t s .

money went by indi rect chann els t o the support o f

schools hosp it als and museums Apparently the o ld
, ,
.

bourgeo isi e was ashamed t o keep eve ryth in g for it self ,

and so gave back part The new bourgeoi si e thinks o f

.

nothing but its stomach Comrades beware of the new

.
,

bourgeoi si e .

The fate o f the middle classes was shared by other

elements of Russi an soci ety ; by the nob ility gent ry , ,

capit ali st s and intellectuals

,
“
The t ragedy o f the
.

i nt ellec tuals i s a peculi arly poignant on e The Russian .

int ellect uals or In telligentsia as they called themselves

, , ,

had for generati ons been Russi a s brain and conscience ’

.

In t he Int elligentsia were concent rated Russi a s best ’

hopes o f progress and civilizati on The Int elligent si a .

stood bravely between despot i c Czardom and benighted

masses st riving to liberali ze the one and t o enlight en
,

the other accepting persecuti on and misunderst an ding

,

as part of it s noble t ask Furthermore besi de the al

.
,
198 T HE REVOLT AGAINST C IVILI ZATION

famine) compelled the Bolshe vik G overnment to abate

its persecu ti on and to off er some o f the int ellec t uals
posts in it s service However the offer was coupled
.
,

with such humi liating slavish condi ti ons that the nobler
,

spiri t s preferred starvation while those who accepted

,

di d so only in desp
The martyrdom of the Russian Intelligentsia is vividly
described by on e of their number in the following poi gn
“
ant lines Says Le o Pasvolsky : I have seen educated
.

men coming ou t of Russi a ; their general appearan ce and ,

particularly the crushed hopelessness of their mental

proces ses is a nightmare that haunts me every once in
,

a while They are a li vin g testimonial to the proc esses

.

that are taking place in Russia Such an exodus .

o f the educated and intelligent as there has been o u t o f

Russia no country h as ever seen and certainly no coun ,

try can ever aff ord The Intelli gentsia h as lost every
.

thing it h ad It h as lived to see every ideal it revered

.

shattered every aim it sought pushed away almost out

,

o f sight Embittered and hardened in exile or c rus hed

.
,

spiri tually and physically under the present government ,

the tragedy of the Rus sian Intelli gent sia is the most
pathetic and poignant in hum an history ” 1
.

The blows whi ch Bolshevism has dealt Rus sia s intel ’

lectual lif e have been t rul y terrible Indeed it i s not .

,

too much to say that Bolshevism h as beh eaded Russia .

The old Intelligent si a is destroyed blight ed or in exil e , ,

.

An d so long as Bolshevism rules it is difficult to see how

, ,

In te lligen ts ia Sovie ts ,
“
1
Leo P as vo lsky, Th e un der th e A tla ntic
M o nthly, N o vembe r, 1 920 .
 THE RE BE LLI O N OF T HE —
UN DER MAN 1 99

a new In telligentsia can arise The Bolshevik G overn

.

ment h as undertaken the hercul ean tas k of converting

the whole Russian people to Comm uni sm seeing therein ,

the sole guarantee of its continue d exist ence To this .

supreme end everything else must be subordinated But .

this means that education learning scien ce art and

, , , ,

every other field o f in tellectual activity is perverte d in to

propagan da ; th at all doubtful or hostile ideas mus t be
excluded ; that no c ritical or indepen d ent thinking can
be tolerated An d history has conclusively demon
.

strated that where thought is not free there is no true

intellectual lif e but only intellectu al mummies o r abor

,

tions .

Fu rthermore the still more fundamental query arises

, ,

whether even if Bolshevik rule should soon end Russia

, ,

may not have suf fered such racial losses that the level
o f her intelli gence has been permanently lowered R us .

’
sia s biologic al losses have been appalling F or five .

long ye ars a systematic extirp ation of the Upper and

middle clas ses h as been goin g on and the results o f this
,
“ ”
inverse selection are literally staggerin g The number .

o f Russian exil es alone to day scattered to the four

,
-

corners o f the eart h is estimated at from o n e to two

,

millions Add to t hese the hu ndreds of thou sands who

.

have perished by execution in prison in the civil wars

, , ,

and by disease cold an d famin e ; add to these again

, , , ,

the millions who survive ruin ed persecuted and t hus

, ,

unl ikely to rear their normal quot a o f children ; and we

begin to realize h ow the Russian stock h as bee n im

paired how well the Under—
— Man has done his work !
200 T HE REVOLT AGAINST CIVILI ZATION

To be sure again st all this may be set the fact that

,
’
Russia s racial losses are probably not so terrible as
those whi ch B olshevism would inflict upon the more
’
advanced Western nations Russia s very backwardn ess
.
,

together with the c as te e rigidity of old Russian s o

-

”
ciety minimized the action of the
,
social ladder and
“ ”
hi ndered that drainin g of talent from the lower into
the higher s ocial classes whi ch h as proceeded so rapidly
in western Europe and Ameri ca N evertheless even if .
,
’
Russia s racial losses are not so fatal as those which
the West would suffer under similar circu ms tances they ,

must be very grave an d largely irreparable .

O f course these considerations can have no influence

whatever upon the conduct of the Bolsheviks themselves ,

because the philosophy of the Under Man denies h e -

“ ”
redity believes passionately in
,
natural equ ality and
the omnipotence of environment and pin s its faith on ,

mass quantity instead o f in dividual quali ty .

Indeed the Bolsheviks believe that the whole world

,

order both as it now exis ts and as it has in the past

,

existed is hopelessly aristocratic or bourgeois ; that to

,

the proletari at it is meaningless and useless ; that it

shoul d therefore be utterly destroyed ; and that in its
“
place mus t ari se a new proletarian world order cre ,

ated exclusively by and for the proletari at This theory .

i s absolute It makes no exceptions ; all fields of human

.

activity even science art and literature being included

, , , ,
.

The climax of this theory is the Bolshevi k doctrine o f

“ ”
Proletarian C ulture or as it is termed in Bolshevik
, ,

circles P rolet ku lt
,
- .
202 TH E REVOLT AGAINST C I V ILI ZATION

se t s forth authori tatively the Bolshevik cultural view .

Let us see precisely what it is .

Lunachars ky cat egori cally condemns exis ting bour

geois
”
culture from top to bott om and assert s that it ,

mus t be destroyed and replaced by a wholly new pro

“
letarian culture Says Lunacharsky : Our enemies dur
.
,
~

ing the whole course of the revolutionary period have ,

not ceased crying about the ruin of culture As if they .

did not know t hat in Russia as well as everywhere there , ,

is no united common human culture but that there is ,

only a bou rgeois culture an indivi dual c ul ture debasing

, ,

—
its elf into a culture of Imperiali sm covetous blood ,

thirsty ferocious The revolutionary proletariat aspires

,
.

to free i t self from the path of a dying c u lt ure It is .

workin g out its own clas s proletarian cultu re , .

During its dictatorshi p the proletariat has realized that

,

the strength of its revoluti on consists not alone in a

political and military dictatorshi p but als o in a cultural ,
’
dictatorship .

Lu nach arsky s e di torial dictum is enthusi as tically in

’

do rsed by multit udes of Comrades who in prose an d

“ ”
,

verse enliven P roletarskaia Ku ltu ra s edifying pages

,
’
.

The old bourgeois culture is of cours e the obj ect of , ,

fierce hatred S ings one poetic soul :

.

In th e name o f o ur —
T o morro w we will bu rn Raf ael ,

De stro y mu seu ms , cru s h th e fl o wers o f art .

M aid en s in th e ra d ian t kin g d o m of th eFu ture

W ill b e more beau tif u l th an V e nu s de M ilo
”
.

Science (as it now exists) is likewi se under the ban .

F or example on e
“
Comrade Bogdan off desiring to
,
”
,
 T HE REB E LLION OF T HE —
UN DER MAN 203

show wh at transformations the material sciences an d

philosophy will have to undergo in order to make them
suitable for proletari an unders t anding enunc i ates a series ,

of propositions Of these the ninth is t hat ast ronomy

.

“
must be transformed from its present state into a teach
ing of the orientation in space and t ime of the eff orts
”
o f labor .

To the non Bolshevik mind thes e ide as sou nd insane

-
.

But they are not insane They are merely a logical .

recognition o f the fact that in a society organized ex

,

clusively on proletarian princ iples every thread in the ,

fabri c whe ther it be political social economic or ar

, , , ,

tis tic must harmonize with the whole design and must
, ,

—
be inspired by o e and the same idea c las s conscious
n

ness and collectivism Th i s is clearly perceived by some

.

“
contributors Says one : In order to be a proletarian
.

creator it is not enough to be an artist ; it is also n eces

sary to know economics the laws of their development
, ,

and to have a complete knowledge of the Marxist method ,

which makes it possible to expose all the strata and

”
mo ul diness of the bourgeois fab ri c An d another ob .

“
se rves : Marx has estab lished that society is above ,

all an organization of production and that in this lies

, ,

the basis of all the laws of its life all development of ,

its forms Thi s is the point o f V iew o f the social pro

.
-

du ctive class the po int of view of the working c ollec

,
”
tive .

Indeed on e wri ter goes so far as to question the need

,

f or any art at all in the future proletari an c u lture Ao .

cordi ng to this Co mrade art arose o u t of i ndividu a l

,
204 THE REV O LT AGAIN ST CIV ILI ZATION

s triving passion sorrow disillusion the conflict o f the

, , , ,

individual with the Fates (whatever shapes they mi ght

take whether those of gods G od or Capitalists) In
, , ,
.

the Communistic society of the future where everybody ,

will be satisfied and happy these artistic stimuli will

,

no longer exist and art will thus become both unn eces
,

sary and impossible .

This annihilating suggestion is however exceptional ; , ,

the other Comrades assume that proletarian culture

will have its artistic side Prolet arian art must how
.
,

ever be mass art ; the concepts of genius and individual

,

creation are severely reprobated This is of course in .

, ,

ac cordance with the general theory of Bolshevism : that

the individual mus t be merged in the collectivity ; that
talented in di viduals merely express the will of the mass
in carnated in them This B olshevik war against indi
.

viduality explains why the overwhelming maj ority of

the Russian Intelligentsia is so irreconcilably O pposed
to B olshevism It also explains why those who have
.

bowed to B olshevism have ceased to produce good work .

They have been intellectually emasculated .

The C omrades of P roletarskaia Ku ltu ra set forth logi

cally why proletarian culture must be exclus ively the

work of proletarians Th is is because only a proletari an

.
,

s trong in his class consciousnes s can thi nk or feel as a

,

proletarian Th erefore only to true proletarians is

.
,

g iven the possibility o f creating proletari an culture .

C onverts of bourgeois origin may think thems elves pro

letarian s but they can never really belong to the creat ive
,

elect To this stern rule there are no exceptions Even

. .
206 THE REVOLT A GA INST CIVILI ZATION

The literary work of the studios may be divided into

various branches Firs t the selection of the subj ect
.
,
.

M an y authors have special ability in finding favorable

subj ects while utt erly unable to develop them respecta
,

bly Let them give their subjec t s to others Let thes e

. .

s ubjects and perhaps separate parts of them scenes

,
— ,

—
p i ctures epis odes vari ous types and situati ons b e col
, ,

lected From thi s tre as ure of thought mate ri al will be

.
,

extra cte d by others It is preci sely in such studios

.

that a collective composition may be writ t en Perhaps .

various chap t ers will be wri tt en by vari ous people .

P erhaps various types and situations will be worked out

and embodied by various authors The whole composi .

tion may be finally wri tten by a single person but with ,

the constant and systematic collaborati on of the other

members of the studio in the particular work .

This appalling nonsense is vvittily puncture d by an

English crit ic in the following pungent lines :
“
What
self respecting author will submit to the bondage o f this
-

hum an mach ine this factory of literature ? Th is

,
‘ ’

scheme to my mind is too preposterous to require an

, ,

answer ; yet if on e must be given it can be contained in

, ,

a single word : S hakesp eare !

“
Here was an indi vidual who could wri te a better
lyri c bet ter prose could defin e the passi ons better could
, , ,

draw clearer types had a bet ter knowledge of human

,

psychology could construct better was superi or in every

, ,

department o f the literary art to all his cont emporaries .

A whole studi o of E lizabethans great as each was

‘ ’
,

in di vidually could have hardly put together a work of

,
 —
THE RE B E LLION OF THE UND E R MAN 2 07

art as collective (if you will) and as perfect as this on e

‘ ’

man by hims elf Imagine the harmony of Homer bet

.

‘ ’
te red by a collection of gas bags meeting to discus s his -

work ! Imagine the colossal comedy of an Aris t ophanes

‘
improved by the assistance o f a lot o f solemn faced
’
-

s ans cu lottes dominated by an idé e fir e whom the comic

-
, ,

author might even wis h to satiri ze !

“
Woul d even lesser men cons ent to it ? Imagine
Wells an d B ennett an d C onr ad an d C hesterton wi th ,

their in dividual mi nds produce d in the O pulent diversity ,

o f nature collaborating in on e room Pictur e to yo u r

,
.

self if you can a literary workshop shared by C annan

, , , ,

Lawrence B eresford Mackenzie assisted say by Mrs

, , , , , .

Humphry Ward Marie Corelli and Elinor G lyn , ,

.

“
To this the Bolsheviks will of course give their
,

stereotype d reply that this diverse condition has been

brought about by a bourgeois civilization ; for laws o f
nature the stumbling block of good and bad Utopi as
,
-
,

do not exis t for them But it is a long way from theory .

to practice an d they are a long way from having bound

,

the Prometheus of creation to the Marxian rock ” 1

.

The Russian Bolsheviks have however tried to d o so , ,

in at le as t on e notable instance We have all heard o f .

“
the famous (or notorious) House of Science where ,

Russia s survivin g savants have been barracke d under

’

o n e roof and told to get together and produce Thus .

far the House of Science has produce d nothing but a

,

h i gh death rate - .

1
John Co urnos , A Fac to ry o f Li teratu re ,
”
The New Eu rope, 20 No vem
ber, 1 9 19 .
20 8 THE RE VOLT A GAI NST CI VIL I ZATIO N

So much for Prolet kul t in Russia Perhaps it may -

.

be thought that thi s is a special Russian aberration .

This however is not the case Prolet kul t is indorsed

, ,
.
-

by Bolsheviks everywhere For example : those stanch .

”
Comrades E den an d C edar Paul twin pill ars o f
, ,

B ritish Bolshevism and acknowledged as heral ds of the

C ommunis t caus e by Bolshevik circles in both Engl an d
and America have devoted their latest book to this very
,
”
subject 1
In this book all bour geois c ultu re is scath
.

“ ”
ingly condemn ed Our s o called general culture is
- .

“ ” “
a purely clas s heri tage There is no cul ture for the
.

‘
common people for the hewers of woo d and the drawers
,
’

“ ”
o f water There is no such thing as scientific eco
.

n omi cs or sociology For these reasons say the authors

.
, ,

there should be organized and sp read abroad a new kind

of education
“
Proletcul t,
”
Thi s we are informed is “
.
, ,

a fightin g culture aiming at the overthrow of capitalism

,

and at the replacement of d emocratic culture and bour

g e ois ideology by e rga toc r at ic cultur e an d proletarian
”
ideology Th e authors warmly indorse the Soviet
.

G overnment s prostitution of education and all other

’

forms of in tellectual activity to Communi st propaganda ,

“ ”
for we are told that the new education is inspired by
“ ” “
the new psychology whi ch provides the ph ilos0 ph i ,

cal justificat ion of Bolshevism and supplies a theoretical

guide f or our efforts in the field of prolet ari an culture .

E ducation is suggestion The recogni tion that su gges.

tion is autosuggestion and that autosuggestion is the ,

1 Eden an d C edar P aul , P roletcult ( Lo n d on an d New Yo rk , See

also th eir b ook Creative Revolution ( Lo n don an d New York ,
2 10 T HE REVOLT A GAINST CIVILI ZATION

t heir gospel of hatred and revenge Every nat ionalist .

asp irati on eve ry politi cal grievance every social in jus

, ,

ti ce every raci al di scriminati on is fuel f or Bolshevis m s

, ,
’

incitement t o violence and war .

1

’
To desc ri be Bolshevis m s subversive eff orts throughout
the world woul d fill a book in it self Let us confin e our .

at tention t o the t wo most striking fields of Bols hevis t

—
ac tivity out si de o f Rus sia Hungary an d Asia .

The Bolshevik regime in Hungary repres ents the crest

o f the revoluti onary wave which swept over Central

E urope du ring t he year It was short li ved l as t -

,

ing less than s ix months but during that bri ef period it

,

almos t ruined Hungary As in Russi a the Bolshevik .

,

cou p in H ungary was e ffected by a small group of revolu

tio n ary agit ators taki ng advant age o f a moment o f

,

acute politi cal disorganizat i on and backed by the most ,

violent element s o f the ci ty proletariat The leaders .

“ ”
were mainly youn g intellectuals ambitious but not ,

previously successful in li fe and were mostly Jews The , .

gui di ng spirit was o n e Bela Kun a man of fiery energy 3

,

but o f rather une difying antecedents Kun had evi .

1
p
F o r t h ese larger as e c ts o f Bo ls h evi kp p
ro agan da , s ee Pa u l M iliu k o v,

B ols hevi s m : A n I nterna tiona l Da nger ( Lo n d on , F or B o ls h evi k

a c tivit ies in th e N e ar a n d M iddle E as t , se e my b o o Th e N ew W orld of k
I s la m, ch a p k
IX ( N ew Yo r an d L o n d o n ,
. F or B o ls h evi a c tivi ties k
in th e F ar E as t , s ee A Le gen dre , Tou r d H ori zon M ond i al ( Paris ,
F ’

p p k
. .

1
G erman y, in art icu lar, was affl rc ted with a wh ole cro o f Bo lsh evi
p
u ris in gs p
In Bavaria , es ecially M u n ich , a Bo ls h evi régime was act u ally k
k
.

es t ab lis h e d f o r a s h o rt t ime , its o verth row b e in g mar e d b y a massacre

h o s t ages In B erlin t h ere were several b loo d y ris in gs of
“ ”
o f b o ur geo is
p
.

th e ro let aria t In inlan d t h ere was a san gu in ary civil war, en ding in
F
p
.

th e triu m h o f th e wh ites Th es e are merely th e o u t

“ ” “ ”
o ver th e re ds .

s t an din g in s t an ces o f a lo n g se ries o f revo lu t ionary dis o rde rs .

1
N é C o h en .
 THE RE BE LLION OF THE —
UN DER MAN 211

den tly come to disapprove o f the ins ti tution of private

property at an early age for he h ad been exp elled from
,

school for theft an d lat er on during a t erm in j ail he

, , ,

was caught stealing from a fell ow prisoner D own to .

191 4 Kun s career was that o f a radical agitator

’
E arly .

in the war he was captured by the Russi ans and after ,

the Russian revolution he j oined the Bolsheviki Picke d .

by Lenin as a valuable agent he was sent home at th e

,

end of the war with in structions to Bolshevize Hun

gary His first efforts led to his arrest by the Hungarian
.

authorities but he soon go t free and engineered th e

,

cou p whi ch placed him and his as sociates in power .

The new revolutionary government started in on ap

proved Bolshevik lines D eclaring a dictatorshi p of
.
“

the proletariat it established an iron d es potism en

”
,

forced by Red G uards prohi bited liberty o f speech or

“ ”
,

the press and confiscated private property Fortunately

, .

there was comparatively little bloodshed Thi s was du e .

to the express orders o f Lenin who realizing how ex

, ,
‘

posed was the position of Bolshevik Hungary told Bela ,

Kun to go slow and consolidate his position before tak ing

more dras tic measures Kun however foun d it hard
.
, ,

to control the z eal o f his associates Many o f these .

were burning with hatred of the bourgeoisie an d were

“ ”
anxious to complete the revolution .

In the l as t days o f the Bolshevik r égime when its fal l ,

appeare d more and more probable the more violent ,

elements got incre as ingly out of hand In cen diary .

sp eech es were made inc itin g the proletariat to plunde r

and slaughter the bou rgeois classes For example .
,
212 THE REVOLT AGAINST CIVILI ZATIO N

P ogany one
,
of the Bolshevik leaders launched the ,

followi ng diatri be at the middle classes : Tremble be

“

fore our revenge ! We shall ext erminate you not only ,

as a cl ass but li terally to the last man among you We .

look upon you as hostages and the coming of Allied

,

troops shall be of ill omen for you Nor need you re .

j oice in the whi te flag of the coming bourgeois armies ,

”
for your own blood shal l dye it red .

As a matter o f fact many atroc i ties took place esp e

, ,

c ially those committed by a bloodt hi rsty Commis sar

named Sz amu ely and a troop of ruffians known as th e

“ ”
Lenin Boys . However there was no general massa
,

cre The Bolsheviks were restrained by the sobering

.

”
k nowledge that they were surrounded by white armi es
“
,

an d that a m as sacre of Budapest bourgeois would mean

their own wholesale extirp ation At the very last most

.
,

o f the leaders escaped to Aus tria and thence ul timately

s ucceeded in making their way to Moscow .

So ended the Hun garian Soviet Republic D espite .

th e relatively small loss of lif e the material damage,

done was enormous The whole economic life of the

.

country was disrupted huge debts were contracted and

, ,

H ungary was left a financial wreck .

As matters turne d ou t Soviet Hun gary was merely an

,

—
episode albeit an instructive episode since it shows ,

how near E urope was to Bolshevism in 191 9 Quite .

o therwise is it with Asia Here the Bols hevik on et is

.
s

very far from h aving failed On the contrary it h as

.
,

gained important successes and mus t be seriously reck

,

c n ed with in the imme di ate future

a .
21 4 T HE REVOLT A GAINST CIVILI ZATION

aided by the political legacy of Russian imperialis m .

From Turkey to Ch ina As i a had long been the scene of

,

Russian imperialis t desi gns and had been carefu lly stud
ied by Russ i an agents who had evolved a techn i c o f
“
pacific penet rati on t hat mi ght be e as ily adjusted to
”

B olshevik ends To intri gue in the Ori ent required no

.

origin al planni n g by Trotzky or Lenin Czari sm had .

already done this for generati ons an d full information

,

lay both in the Petrograd archi ves and in the brains o f

surviving Czaris t agents ready to turn their h an ds as
easily to the new work as the old .

In all the elaborate network of Bolshevik prop aganda

which t od ay enmes hes the E ast we must discriminate
,

between Bolshevis m s two objectives : one imm ediate

’

the destructi on of Western poli tical and economi c power ;

—
the other ultimate the Bolshevizin g of the Oriental
m as ses and the consequent ext i rpation of the native
upper and mi ddle clas ses precisely as has been done in
,

Russia and as is plan ned for the countries of the West .

In the first stage Bolshevism is quite ready to back

,
“ ”
Orienta nationalis t movements and to respect Ori
ental faiths and customs In the second stage all these
.

“ ”
matters are to be branded as bourgeois and relentlessly
des troyed.

Rus si an Bolshevism s Oriental policy was formul ate d

’

soon after its accessi on to power at the close of 191 7 .

The year 1 91 8 was a tme of bus y preparation An .

elaborate prop aganda organization was built up from

various sources : from old Czarist agents ; from the Rus
sian Mohammedan populations such as the Tartars of
 TH E RE B E LLION OF THE UN D ER MAN -
2 15

South Russia an d the Turkomans o f Central As ia ; and

from the nationalis t o r radical exiles who flocked to
Russia from Turkey P ersia India China Korea and
, , , , ,
’
even Japan By the end o f 1918 Bolshevis m s Oriental
.
,

propaganda department was well o rganized divide d into ,

thr ee b u reaus for the Isl amic coun t ries India and th e
, , ,

Far Eas t respectively These bureaus displayed great

.

activity tran slating tons of B olshevik literature into the

,

various O ri ental languages trainin g numerous secret

,

agents and propagandists for field work an d getting

“ ” -
,

in touch with dis aff ecte d o r revolutionary elements .

Th e eff ects o f Bolshevik prop ag anda have been visible

in nearly all the disturban ces which have affli cted the
O ri ent since 1 9 1 8 In Ch ina and Japan few tangible
.

successes h ave as yet been won albeit the symptoms of ,

increasing social unrest in both those countries have

aroused distinct un easiness among well inf ormed ob -

servers 1
. In the Near and Middle E ast however Bol , ,

sh evis m h as achieved much more defini te results In .

dian unrest h as bee n stimulated by Bolshevik propa

ganda ; Af ghanis t an Turkey and P ersia have all bee n
, ,

drawn more o r less into Soviet Russia s poli t ical orbit ; ’

while Central Asia and the Caucas us regions have been

“
definitely Bolshevized and turned into Soviet Repub
lics
”
d ependent upon Moscow Thus Bolshevis m is .

to— day in actual operation in both the Near and Mid dl e

E as t .

1
F or revolu t io n ary u n res t in Chi n a , see Le gen dre s b oo , alrea d y qu o te d
’
k
J p
.

F o r so cial u nres t in a a n , see , Se n Ka ta yam a, The Labor M ovement i n

J a pan ( C h icago , p
K a ta yama is th e mos t ro min en t lead er o f Ja a p
nese S o cialism . k
Sin ce writ in g th e b oo ref erred to h e h as gro wn mu ch
more violen t , and is n ow an e xtre me Bo ls h evik .
216 THE REVOLT A GAINST CIV ILI ZATION

Soviet Rus sia s Oriental aims were frankly announce d

’

at the Congress of E astern P eoples held at Baku

”
,

Transcauc as ia in the autumn of 1 920 The president

,
.

of t he congress the noted Russian Bolshevik leader

, ,

Z inoviev stated in his Opening addres s

,
“
We believe this Congress to be on e of the greatest
events in history for it proves not only that the pro
,

gr es sive workers and wor king peas ants o f E urope and

Ameri ca are awakened but that we have at last see n the
,

day o f the awakening not of a few but of tens of t hou

, ,

sands of hundreds of thousands of millions of the labor

, ,

ing class of the peoples o f the E ast These peoples form .

the maj ori ty of the world s whole popul ati on and they
’
,

alone therefore are able to b ri ng the war between capi

, ,

tal and labor to a conclusive decision .

The Communist International said from the very

‘
first day of its existence : There are four or five times as
m an y people living in As ia as live in Europe We will .

free all peoples all who labor

,
We know that the .
’

labori ng masses of the E ast are in part retrograde Com .

rades our Moscow Internation al di scussed the question

,

whether a socialis t revolution could take place in the

countries of the Eas t before those countries had passed
through the capitalist stage You know that the V iew .

which long prevailed was that every country must fir st

go through the period o f capitalism before socialism could
become a live question We now believe that this is n o
.

longer true Russia has done this and from that mo

.
,

ment we are able to say that Chi na In dia Turkey Per , , ,

sia Armenia also can and must make a direct fight to

, , ,
218 THE REVOLT A GA INST CIVILI ZATION

minorities Finally the E as t is filled with every sort of

.
,

unrest .

The Orient is thus patently menaced with Bolshevis m .

And any extens ive Spread o f Bols hevism in the E as t

would be a hi deous cat as trophe both for the Ori ent and
for the world at large For the E as t Bolshevism would
.
,

spell downright savagery The sudden releas e of the

.

ignorant brut al Oriental masses from their t radi tional

,

res traints of religi on and cus tom and the submergen ce,

of the relatively small upper and middle clas ses by the

floo d o f soc i al revolut ion would mean the destruction of
,

all Ori ent al civilization and a plunge in t o an abyss o f

an archy from whi ch the E ast might not emerge f or cen

F or the world as a whole the prospect woul d be per

haps even more terrible The weldin g of Russia and
.

the Orient into a vast revolutionary block would spell a

giganti c war be tween Eas t and Wes t beside which the
late war woul d seem mere child s play and whi ch might
’

leave the entire planet a mas s of ruins .

Yet this is preci sely what the Soviet leaders are work
— —
ing f or and what they frankly even gleefully prophesy
,
.

The vis i on of a revolut i onary E as t destroying the bour

“

geo is West fills many Bols hevists wi th wild exul tat i on

”
.

“
Says the Bolshevist poet Peter Oryeschin : Holy Mother
E arth is shaken by the tread o f millions of marching feet .

The crescent has left the m os que ; the cru cifix the church .

The end of Paris impends f or the E ast has lifted its

,

sword I saw tawny Chinamen leeri ng through the win

.

dows o f the Urals Indi a was hes its garments as for a

.
 THE R EBE LLION OF THE —
UND E R MAN 21 9

festival From the steppes rises the smoke of sacrifi ce

.

to the new god London shall sink beneath the waves

. .

G ray Berlin shall lie in ruins Sweet will be the pain of

.

the nobles t who fall in battle Down from Mont Blanc

.

hordes will sweep through G od s golden valleys Even

’
.

’
the Kirghi z of the steppes pray f or the new era .

Thus in the Eas t as in the Wes t the worl d wearie d

—
, , ,

and shaken by the late war is face d by a new war the

,

chaos .
 C HAP TER VII
THE W AR AGA IN ST CHA O S

THE world is to-day the battle ground of a titani c st rug

-

gle This struggle has long been gathering It is now

. .

upon us and must be fought out N 0 land is immune . .

B olshevik Rus sia is merely the standard bearer of a re -

volt agains t civilization whi ch girdl es the globe That .

revolt was precipitated by the late war and has been

intensifie d by war s aftermath but it was latent before
’
,

1 914 and would have ultimately burst forth even if Ar

mageddon had been averted .

In the present revolt against civilization there is noth

in g basically new Viewed histori cally it is merely one
.
,

o f a series o f simil ar destructive retrograde movements ,

.

What is new however is the elaboration of a revolution

, ,

ary phil osophy whi ch has fir ed an d welded the rebelli ous

element s as never before As Le Bon jus tly remarks :
.

“
The Bols hevik ment ality is as old as his tory Cain in .
,

the Old Testament h ad the mind of a Bolshevik But

,
.

it is onl y in our days that this ancient ment ality h as

met with a political doctri ne to jus tify it This is the .

reason of its rapid propagation which h as been un der ,

” 1
mining the old social sc aff oldin g .

The modern phfl os0 ph y o f the Under Man is at bot -

”
tom a mere
“
rationali zing of the emotions of the un
1 t
Gus ave Le Bo n , The W orld in Revolt p , . 1 79 (New York , 192 1 —E ng
2 22 THE REVOLT AG AINST CIVILI ZATION

p o th esis should apparently be that intelli gence is not con

fined to the brain but i s diff used over the whole body .

Here is good proletari an bi ology quit e in accord with

,

— “
the Bolshevik doctrine that so called superi or in di ”

viduals are merely express i ons of the mass intelligence .

It i s surp ri sing that so far as can be learned the theory

, ,

o f cell in t elli gence is not yet taught in the Soviet schools .

—
This is a serious omissi on but it can be reme di ed .

Naturally these grotesque perversions of sci ence with

, ,

their res ultant paradoxes worthy o f Mr Chesterton are .

,

eas ily disposed of by genuine b i ologists and the under

lyin g an imus is clearly explained Regarding proletarian
.

“
biology Professor Conklin remarks : Such a conception
,

not only confuses the diff erent lines of evolution and their
causes b u t it really denies all the facts and evidences in
,

the c as e by putting the hi ghest and latest product of the

process into its earliest and most elemental stages It is .

not a theory of evolut ion but rather one of involution or

crea tion ; it is not a new conception of life and its origin
but the oldest known concepti on . Such es says evi
dently owe their o ri gin to emotion rather than to reason ,

to sentiment rather than science ; they are based upon

desire rather than evidence and they appeal especially
,

to those who are able to believe what they desire to be

” 1
li eve .

Proletarian science having shown no signs of abili ty

to m eet real science in intellectual combat we may ex ,

p ect to see the proletarian movement fall back upon its

1
E G C o nklin , Th e Directi on of Hu man E volution , pp —
7 3 74 ( N e w
Yo k
. . .

r ,
 THE W AR A GAINST CHAOS 223

—
natural weapons passion and violence What see ms .

ce rt ai n is that science will become increasin gly anathema

in social revolutionary eyes The lis ts are in fact already .

set for a bat tle roy al between biology and Bolshevism .

We have al read y remarked that the more the Under

Man realiz es the significan ce of the new biological reve
lation the uglier grows his mood
,
Science havin g .

stri ppe d away its sentimental camouflage the social ,

revolution will depend more and more upon brute force ,

relyin g upon the materialism o f numbers and racial im

poverish ment to achieve final victory More and more .

t he revolutionary watchword will be that of the French

Communis t Henri B arbusse : Le Cou teau entre les
D ents With Your Knife in Your Teeth ! ” 1

How shall civiliz ation meet the revolutionary onset ?

B y a combination of two methods : one pal liative and
temporary ; the other constructive and permanent D is .

cuss ion o f the second method will be deferred till the

next chapter Suffice it here to say that it centres about

.

ce rtain deep going refo rms particul arly the improvement

-
,

o f the r ace itself Forward lookin g min ds are coming to

.
-

realize that social revolution s are really social breakdowns ,

caused (in the l as t an alysis) by a dual process o f racial

—
impoveris hment the elimination o f superior s t rains and
the mu ltipli cation of degenerates and inferiors In exo .

rab ly the de cay o f racial values corrodes the proudes t

civilization which engenders within itself those forces o f

,

chaos t hat will one day work its ruin Said shrewd old .

1 Th is is th e t itle of Barb u sse

’
s la tes t b o o k —fi
a ery call to ins t an t an d

relen tless class war f are .

2 24 THE RE V OLT AGAINST CIVILI ZATION

R ivarol , viewing the French Revolution : The most

c ivili zed empires are as close to barbarism as the most
polished steel is to rust ; nations lik e metals shine only
, ,
”
o n the surface .

More and more we are coming to see that hatred of

c ivilization is mainly a matter o f heredity ; that Bolshe

viks are mostly born and not made How can we expect
.

a man to support a social order whi ch he instinctively

d etests or which he is congenitally unable to achi eve ?

An d how can society expect peaceful progress so long
as it spawns social rebels and laggar ds and at the same ,

time steri li zes those creative superiors who are at once

its builders an d its preservers ?
The fact is that cons tr u ction and destruction prog ,

ress and regress evolution and revolution are alike the

, ,

work of dynamic minorities We have already seen how

.

numerically small are the talented élites which create

and advance h i gh civilizations ; while Jacobin France
and Bolshevik Russia prove how a small but ruthless
r evolutionaryfaction can wreck a social order and tyran

nize over a great population Of course these dynamic

.
,

—
groups are composed p ri marily o f leaders they are the
o fficers corps of much larger armies which mobilize in
’

s tinctively when crises arise Take the present world

.

crisis In every coun try the champions o f the exis ting

.

o rder can count upon the resolute support o f all those

who appreciate our civili zati on and wish to preserve it

from disruption On the other hand the revoluti onary
.
,

leaders can coun t with equal confidence upon the un

a daptable inferior and degenerate elements who nat
, , ,
2 26 T HE REVOLT AGA INST CIVILI ZATION

However, the mediocre have the defects o f their quali

ties Their very conservatism is apt to be harmful and
.
,

is frequently disas trous This is becaus e it is unintel

.

—
ligent a mere clingin g to things as they are with no ,

di scrimination between what is sound and what is u n

soun d o r outworn ; a mere blind aversion to change j u st
because it is chan ge This is sheer bou rbon i sm An d
. .

bourbonism is dangerous because it blocks progress ,

prevents reform perpetuates social evils breeds di scon

, ,

tent and thus engenders revolution

,
.

The chief danger of bourboni sm is that i t is so power

f ul
. If society were really guided by it s creative élite ,

mediocrity might be useful as a sort of cons titution al

“

O pposition st abili zing and regulating progres s Unf or

”
.

tu n ately soci e ty is ruled largely by mediocrity

,
The .

most cursory survey of our world is enough to show that

in politi cs fin an ce b us iness and most other fiel ds o f
, , ,

human activity a large proporti on of the most influenti al

,

figures are pers ons o f decidedly mediocre in t elligence and

character The number of st up i d reacti onari es in high
.

places is depressing and their stupi di ty is amazing when

,

we cons ider their opport un ities In fact these Opp or

.
,

tu nities are the best proof of their inherent stupidity ,

becaus e the mere fact that so li ttle has been brought

o ut shows that there was very little there to b ri ng .

At first s ight all this may seem to conflict wi t h what

we have previously discovered : that superiors tend to
ris e in the social scal e and that in advanced modern
,

soci eti es there has been a marked concentration of su

erio rity in t he middle and upper class es But when we
p .
 THE W AR A GAINST C HAOS 22 7

look more closely we see that there is no real dis crepancy

,
.

In the first place the con centration o f abili ty in the upper

,

social strata is n ot absolute but relative Re lat ively

,
.
,

the upper and middle cl asses o f society undoub t edly

contain a higher percentage O f superiority than do the
lower classes But thi s most emphatically does n ot mean
.

that the upper and middle cl asses are made up wholly o f

superi or persons while the lower soc i al strata are com
posed wholly O f inferiors O n the contrary the lower
.
,

social strata unquestionably contain mul titudes O f valu

able strains whi ch have n o t yet dis played themselves by
ris in g in the social sc al e This is particularly true where
.

”
the social ladder and assortative mating have not
drained the lower classes and sharply stratified the p Op u
lation F or example in the American Army Intelli genc e
.
,

Tests some of the best scores were made by illi terate ,

ignorant Southern mountaineers who had never before

been outside their native valleys In other words primi .
,

tive conditions had held back a high grade Angl o Saxon - -

stock ; but the intelligence was there p as sed on from ,

generation to generation and only awaiting a favorable

,

O pportuni ty to dis play itself .

We thus see that superior intelligence is not a monopoly

o f the upper an d middle social cl asses albeit they do ,

poss ess a distinct relative advantage in thi s respe ct .

The next question whi ch naturall y arises is : Wh at are

the proportions of superi ors to mediocres and in feriors
within these classes ? The question of inferiority nee d
not long detain us The demands of modern lif e are suf
.

ficiently great an d the social lad der works s ufficiently

,
228 THE RE VOLT A GAINST CIVILI ZATIO N

well to weed out most of the distinctly inf eri or indi

vidu als who arise in the upper and middle strata of s o

ciety by soc i ally sterilizin g them as economic failures or

by forcing them down to lower social levels .

With mediocrity however it is qui te otherwise A

, , .

glance at social statistics is enough to prove that a large

proporti on o f both the upper and middl e classes mu st
consis t of mediocrities Consider the relative size of
.

social groups In most Western nat i ons from 5 to 10

.

per cent of the popul at i on should certainly be counted

as belonging to the upper social cl as ses while the mid dle
,

classes (urban and rural) probably run between 20 and

40 per cent Now compare these figures with the matter
.

o f in telligence We have already seen that biological

.
,

sociological and psychological researches have alike re

,

ve al ed the fact that high intelligence is rare The Amer

.

ican Army Intelligence Tests indicate that only 4% per

cent of the Am erican population are of very superi or
“

intelligence ( Grade
”
while only 9 per cent are of
“
superior intelli gence (G rade We have also
seen that superior intelligence is by no means exclusively
confined to the upper and middle social strata Yet .
,

even if superi or intelligence were so confin ed we have ,

every reas on to believe that these strata woul d still con

sist largely of mediocrities for the very simple reason
,

that there would not be enough genuine superiors to go

around .

Thi s raises a thir d question : Within the upper social

strata what is the relative status o f superiors an d
,

mediocres measured by recognized standards o f achieve

,
230 THE REVOLT A GAI NST CIVILI ZATION

have little to fear from soc i al revolution A series o f .

constructive reforms would safeguard the future wh ile ,

the present revolutionary onslaught would be summarily

repelled High intelligence is nearly always well poised
.
,

and can be depended upon in a crisis to keep cool and

do the right thing Me di ocri ty on the other hand lacks
.
, ,

poise and vis ion Yet governments are to-day every

.

where mainly in me di ocre hands G overnments should .

govern ; should have faith in themselves and the prin

ciples they stand for ; and shoul d meet the chall enge o f

aggressive minorities with intelligent foresight in stant ,

action and un flinching courage The mere fact that the

,
.

revolutionists are a minori ty is no safeguard because it ,

is determined minorities not p assive maj ori ti es that

, ,

get their way The lesson of past revolutions parti e

.
,

u larly the Rus sian Bolshevik Revolution is that a small ,

but resolute faction possess es the same decisive tac

tical advantage as a small but hi ghly disciplined and
enthusiastic army attackin g a huge but ill organi zed and -

sp iritless foe In such cases the as sailants have the in

.

estimable advantage of knowing what they want and

exactly where they mean to make their attack The de .

fenders on the contrary not only do not know t heir own

, ,

minds but also usually fail to see precisely where when

, , ,

and how the attack is comin g They st and fearful and

.
,

—
irresolute waiting to be hi t beaten before they are
,

struck.

T O avert this danger we need in telligen t act i on For .

o n e thing public Opinion should be carefully inf ormed

,

about the b as ic iss ues involved When people appreciate

.
 THE W AR A G AINST C HAOS 23 1

the true nature of social revolution the irreparable cul ,

tural and racial losses the terri ble setback to progress

, ,

they will realize that all sections of t he popul ation ex

.

cept the inf erior and degenerate elements would be the

losers and they will res olve d eterminedly to pres erve
,

civili z ation from disruption .

“ ”
By inf ormation however I most emphatically do
, ,

not mean propagan d a

“ ”
The truth about social revo
.

l ation is enough to open the eyes o f all who believe in

orderly progress ; while neither argument nor entreaty
can convert those temperam entally pre di sposed to vio
lent subversive action We mus t clearly recognize that
.

there exists an irreconcilable minority of congenital revo

—
lu tionists born rebels agains t civi lization who can be ,

res trained only by superior force Thi s rebel minority .

h as however evolved a philosophy peculiarly enticing

, ,

in these troubled transition times when discontent is

rife O ld beliefs shattered and the new goals not yet
, ,

pl ainly in sight Under these circums tances the phi

.

losoph y o f revolt has attracted multitudes o f persons im

patient oi present ills and grasping at the hope o f violent
short cuts to progress This is particularly true of cer
.

tain types of emotional liberals who play in with th e ,

—
revolutioni sts and are us ed as catspaws Here we .

have the c hi ef reasons for that ide alization o f revolution

which has such a vogue in many quarters H owever .
,

these u nwitting dupes are n o t at heart irre concilable

enemies of society They simply do no t realiz e that they
.

are on a path which leads to chaos If they came to real .

iz e social revolution s in evitable cons equences most of

’
,
23 2 T HE RE VOLT A GAINST CIVILI ZATION

them would stop ai ding the revolutionists in their at

tacks on society and would j oin forces wi th those who
,

are stri ving for constructive progress by evoluti onary

methods The real revolutionists would thus be depri ved
.

o f much o f their present strength and could be more ,

easily de alt with .

N ow thi s may be accomplished by instructive inf orma

“ ”
tion It cannot be accomplished by propaganda
. .

Hysterical denunciations o f Bolshevism speci ali zin g in ,

“
atrocity stories and yarns like the nationalization of
women defeat thei r own object They divert attention
”
,
.

from fundamentals to details generate heat without ,

light spread pani c rather than resolution and invite

, ,

blind reaction instead of di scri minating action Such .

propaganda stirs up a multitude of silly people who run

around looking f or Comm unist s under the bed and callin g
“ ”
everybody a Bolshevik who happens to disagree with
them This modern witch fin din g is not only fatuous ;
.
-

“
it is harmf ul as well Many o f those denounced as Bol
.

”
sheviks are not genuine social rebels at all but people ,

so harassed by social ills or personal misf ortunes that

they blin dly take Bolshevism s false promises at their ’

face value These people need education not persecu

.
,

t i on To dragoon and insult them simply dri ves them

.

’
into the Bolsheviks arms The thing to do is to under
.

stand exactly who the real B olsheviks are attend to them ,

thoroughly and then give sus pects the ben efit of the
,

doubt .

The real social rebels shoul d of course be given short

, ,

shri ft NO misguided sentimentality should shield those

.
2 34 THE RE VOLT A GAI NST CIV ILI ZATION

think what you pleas e Y ou may discuss what you

.

please Y ou may advocate what you please excep t it

.
,

i n volve violence express or imp li ed

,
If you preach o r in
.

sinuate violence you will be punished If you throw

,
.

bombs you will be in di vidually executed If you try

,
.

revolutions you will be collectively wiped out But so

,
.

long as you avoid doing those forbi dden things you may ,

be watched but you will no t be interfered with

,
”
.

At thi s point the timid or stupid reactionary may ex

“
claim : But this is givin g Bolshevism a chance to hi de
behi nd legal techn icalities ! G ran t ed
” “
Thi s will all ow
.

revolutionists to conduct a camouflaged propaganda

Granted “
. The results may be dangerous ! G ran ted ;
”

all gran ted And yet we cannot do otherwis e becaus e

.
,

all the harm the Bolsheviks mi ght do by clever abuse

of their freedom to think and speak would be as nothing
,

to the harm done by denying them that freedom .

This harm would be manifold In the firs t pla ce such

.
,

action would tend to defeat its own object and to en

cou rage rather than suppress revolutionary un rest b e ,

caus e for every camouflaged B olshevik who might be

s moked out and laid by the heels ten free spiri ts wo ul d

be impelled to become revolutionists sin ce in their eyes

,

(singul ar paradox !) B olshevism would be associated

wi th liberty In the second place any seri ous curtail
.
,

ment of free speech woul d render impossible the forma

tion of that intelli gent public Opinion which we have
already seen to be so necessary f or comprehending dif
fi culties and conceiving eff ective remedies Lastly such .
,

a policy woul d paralyze intellectual activity enthrone ,

 THE W AR AGAINST C HA O S 235

reaction and block progress To protect society from

,
.

dis ruption ho wever necessary is merely part o f a larger

, ,

whole Social order must be preserved be cause that is

.
,

i
the vit al prerequ site o f cons tructive progress But .

cons tructive progress must t ake place Thi ngs cannot be .

left as they are becaus e under present condi tions we are

,

headed towar d racial impoveri shment an d cultural de

cline O ur chief hope for the future is the scientific spiri t
. .

But that spirit thri ves only o n unf ettere d kn owledge and
t ruth Lacking this sustenan ce it withers and decays
.
,
.

’
One of Bolshevis m s deadly sins is its brutal crushing o f
intellectu al freedom Shall we be guilty of the very c ri me
.

we so abhor in our enemies ? Wh at a wretched outcome :

to escape the destructive tyranny o f Bolshevism only
to fall un der the petri fying tyranny of bourbonism !
Heaven be praised hum ani ty is n ot restricted to so ,

—
poor a choice Another path lies open the path of race
.

betterment And science points the way We already

. .

know enough to make a sur e start and increas ing knowl ,

edge will gui d e our footsteps as we move on That is .

the hopeful as pect of the situation We do not have to .

guess W e know All we need to d o is to apply what

. .

we have already learned and keep on usin g ou r brains .

The result will be such a combined incre ase o f knowledge

and creative in t elligence that many problems to-day in ,

superable will solve themselves

‘

, .

Furt hermore sci ence whi ch points the path to the

, ,

future gives us hope for the present as well M ateri ally

,
.

the forces of chaos may still be growing especially ,

through racial impoveri shment ; but morally they are

236 TH E RE VOLT AGAI NST C IVILI ZATION

being undermined Science especially biology is cutting

.
, ,

the ground from under their feet Even a de cade ago .

,
“
when errors lik e environmentali sm and natural equal
”
ity were generally accepted the Under-Man was able
,

to make ou t a plausible case TO day the b as ic impor

.
-

tan ce of heredity and the real nature of inferiority are

becoming more an d more widely understood and ap
p reciated .

Indeed it is thi s very spread of scientific truth which

,

accoun ts largely for the growin g violenc e o f social un

rest . Consciously or instinctively the revolutionary
“ ”
leaders feel that the moral imponderables have de
serted them an d that they must therefore rely more
,

and more upon force Does not Bolshevism a dmit that

.

it cannot peacefully convert the world but can triumph ,

only by the di ctatorshi p of a ruthless minority destroy ,

ing whole classes and then forcibly transforming the

,

remaining population by a long process of in tensive p rOpa r

gan da extending perhaps for generations ? Wh at a mon

strous doctrin e ! Bu t a lso what a mo nu mental confessi on
, ,

of moral ban kru p tcy! This is the counsel of desperation ,

not the assurance o f victory .

That which maddens Bolshevism is however our in , ,

spiration To us sci ence speaks An d her words are :

. .

S u rsu m corda ! L ift u p you r h earts ! Have faith in

“

yourselves ; in your c ivili zati on ; in your race Tread .

confidently the path I have revealed to you Ye know .

the truth and the truth shall make you free

,
238 THE REVOLT A GAINST CIVILI ZATION

very old that it is the last of a long series of revolts

,

by the unadaptable inferior and degenerate elements

, ,

against civi lizations whi ch have irked them and which

they have therefore wished to destroy The only new .

thing about Bolshevism is its rationalizing of rebel

“ ”

li ous emotions into an exceedingly insidious and per

suasive philosophy of revolt which has not merely welded
all the real social rebels but has also deluded many mis
,

guided dupes blind to what Bolshevism implies Such

,
.

is the champion of the old primitive past : intrenched

,
“
behind ancient errors like environmentalism and natural
equali ty favored by the unrest of transition times and
,
”
,

rei nforced by ever multiplying swarms of d egenerates

-

an d inferiors .

Agai nst thi s formidable adversary stands biology the ,

champ i on of the new Biology is one of the finest frui t s

.

o f the modern sc i ent ific spirit Ripened by the patient.

labors of earnest seekers after truth biology has now at ,

tained a splendid maturi ty Forth from a thousand

.

quiet laborato ri es and silent library alcoves have emerged

discoveries which may completely alt er hum an destiny .

These discoveries constitute the n ew biological revelation

—
the mightiest transformation of ideas that the world
has ever seen Here in deed is somethi ng new : the u m
.
, ,

veiling o f the mysteri ous life process the discovery of ,

the t rue path of progress the plac ing in man s hands of

,
’

the possib il ity of his own perfecti on by methods at once

safe and sure Such is the young sci ence of appli ed b i
.

“
ology ; or as it is more generally termed Eugeni cs
, ,

the science of race betterment Eugenics is in fact .

, ,
 NEO AR IST OCRACY
~

239

ev olving into a higher synthes is drawing freely from ,

other fields of knowledge l ike psychology and the soci al

sciences an d thus fitting itself ever more completely f or
,

its exalted task .

The fundamental change o f both ideas an d metho ds

involved in the eugeni c programme is at once apparent .

Hitherto all political and social philosophi es however ,

much they might diff er among themselves have been ,

agreed on certain principles : they have all believed that

en vironmen t was o f bas ic importance an d they have all ,

propose d to improve man kind from withou t by changin g ,

exis ting ind i vidua ls through the action of various political

an d social agencies Eugenics on the other han d beli eve s

.
, ,

that h eredity is the basic factor and plans to improve ,

the race from wi thin by determining which existing in

,

dividu als shall an d shall not produce succeeding gen

, ,

eration s . This means the establishment of an improved

social selection based upon biological consi d erations in ,

stead of as hitherto upon envi ronmental considerations

, ,
.

O f course thi s new selection would operate mainly

,

through the ol d social and political agencies ; but these

would no longer be regarded as having specifi c virtu e
in themselves an d would be applied only in so far as they
,

tended to better the race Eugenics does n ot deny the .

eff ect of environment : on the contrary it is precisely ,

’
because of environment s bad effects upon the race that
the science o f eugeni cs has become such a vital necessity .

What eugenics does say however is that environment , , ,

however powerful is an indirect secondary factor ; the

, ,

direct primary factor bein g heredity Therefore all

,
.
,
240 THE REVOLT A GAINST CIVILI ZATION

environmental influences should be considered with ref

erence to heredity which shoul d always be the funda
,

mental consideration Thus a new criterion of policy

.

and action is set up for every fiel d of human activity ,

thereby involving a general revaluation of all values .

Th e eugenic programm e may be thus su ccinctly stated

The problem of eugenics is to make such legal social , ,

and economi c adjus tments that ( 1) a larger proportion

o f s upe ri or p ersons will have chil dren than at present ;

(2) that the average number of off spring o f each superior

person will be greater than at present ; (3) that the most
inf erior persons will have no chi ldren ; an d (4) that other
’’
inferior persons will have fewer children th an now 1
.

Of cours e eugeni cs does not propose to attain its ob

,

je ct iv e in a day o r at a stroke Inspi red as it is by the

.

scientific spiri t it believes in evolution not revolution

, , ,

and is thus committed to stri ctly evolut ionary methods .

E ugeni cs advocat es no sudden leap into an un tri ed Utopia ;

it desires to take no steps which have not been s eien
tifically tested and even then only when these have
,

gained the approval of intelligent publi c opinion Eu .

g en i cs does cla im however

, that the,
momentous s c ien

tific di scoveries o f the past half century enable mankind

to make a sound start in the process of race betterment .

It further claims that such a start is imperative because ,

racial impoveri shment i s to— day going o n so fast and ,

the forces of soc i al disrupti on are growing so ominously ,

that delay threat ens speedy disaster .

The truth i s that our race is facing the most acute crisis
1
P p
o a d J h ns
en oe n A pp li d E g i
o on , p v ( Pr f )
e u en cs , . e ace .
2 42 THE REVOLT A GAINST CIVILI ZATION

and energy he has shown and that the man who has ,

repeatedly fai led to us e his one t al ent shall have no

fu rther chan ce o f was ting the corporate resources on
himself and hi s descendan t s
”1
.

The effect o f eugenic measures in p ermanently lighten

ing social burdens should appeal strongly to a world
staggerin g under difli culties This does not mean that .

establis hed me tho ds o f reform should be neglected .

But it must be remembered that such methods aff ect ,

ing as most o f them do merely the environment require ,

a constant (if not incre asing) expenditure to be kep t up .

“
T o quote Whetham again : We must recogni ze an
essenti al diff erence between the two methods To put .

it b ri efly it seems as though work done by heredi ty was

,

work done once f or all The destruction of a tain t ed

.

s t ock will leave a race eternally the better for its removal ,

the breeding out o f a good st rain caus es an irreparable

-

lo ss ; whereas improvements due to environment alone

require a const ant expendit ure of energy to maintain
them in exi stence The on e may be compared to an ao
.

tual gain o f cap ital as far as the human race is concerned ;

the o ther involves a constant expenditure of i ncome ,

perfec tly justified as long as the increase in capi tal is

main tained but un justifi able when capit al mus t be drawn
,

upon
“
Looki ng at o u r problem in th is light we see that ,

there must be some relati on between the average i nnat e

capac ity o f a nati on and the eff ec t l ikely t o be produced
1
W h e th a m , “
De c aden ce an d C ivili z at io n , H i bbert J ou rna l, O c t o be r,
1 91 1 .
 —
NE O AR ISTO C RA CY 2 43

by the expenditure of a given amou nt of energy on im

proving the environment Ii a race falls back in its in .

born quali ties ; if o wing to the efforts o f philanthropists

,

and the burdens o f unsou nd taxation more of the failures ,

o f civili zation reach maturity and paren t hood and fewer ,

competent persons are brought into existence to sup

port them not only has the nation less energy to use
,

for the maintenance an d improvement o f its social con

di tion s but such energy as is avail able will produce a
,

correspondin gly small er efl ect The old standard can .

be maint ai ned if at all only by a policy of overspendi ng

, ,

leading to bankruptcy We have in fact conditions in

.
, ,

which retrogression will set in an d the environment will

”1
follow the heredity down hill -
.

Another point to be emphas ized is the necessity for

seeing how environmental measures affect racial interes ts .

O ne o f the gravest obj ections to environm entalism is

its tendency to look at social and political reforms as
ends in themselves Scrutini zed from the racial view
.

point many oi these reforms reveal racially harmful

,

consequences which more than o ff set their beneficial as

,

pe cts and so require their modification in order to be

desirable in the long run Take the matter of poor relief .
,

for example Its necessity and desirability are generally

.

acknowledge d Yet however pathetic may be the ob

.
,

jec ts o f public charity the interest s of society and the

,

race alike require that poor relief carry with it on e im

p er ativ e obliga t ion : habi t ual paupers should be pre
vented from having chil dren O therwise charity will .

1
W h e th am, op . c it.
244 TH E REVOLT AGAINST C I VILI ZATION
—
merely mean more paupers a result harmf ul and unf air
both to the thrifty and capable members of society who
pay the taxes and to society itself which ought to expend
its taxes as far as possible for productive purposes .

“ ”
Again take the question o f the social ladder
,
. We
have already observed how the abili ty o f superi or in
di viduals to ri s e easily in the social scale is characteristic
o f a progressive civili zation This is something which
.

no well informed an d right thin kin g man can deny Ac

-
.

“ ”
co rdin gly the fu rtheran ce of the
,
career open to talent
is the constant solicitude o f social reformers And yet .
,

here to o the racial view point is needed Suppose the

,
- .

social ladder were so perfected that virtually all abili ty

”

could be dete cte d and rais ed to its proper social level .

The immediate resul t would be a tremendous display

o f talent an d genius B ut if thi s problem were con sid
.

ered merely by itself if no measures were devised to coun

,

te ract the age-o ld tendency toward the social steri li z ation

and elimi nation of successful superiors that display of

,

tal ent woul d be but the prelude to utter raci al impoverish

ment and irreparable racial and cultu ral d ecline As .

things n ow stand it is the very imperfections of the so

,
”
cial ladder whi ch retard racial impoveri shment and
minimize its disastrous consequences .

Rememberin g the necessity f or viewing all political

and soci al projects in the light of raci al consequences ,

let us now consider the eugeni c programme itself The .

problem of race betterment consists of two distinct

phas es : the multiplication of superi or individuals and
—
the elimination of inf eriors in other words the exact ,
246 T HE RE VOLT AGAI NST CIVILI ZATION

very existence Congeni tally incapable of adjusting

.

themselves to an advanced social order the degenerate ,

—
inevitably become its enemies particu larly those high “

grade defectives who are the natural fomenters o f social

”

unrest Of cours e the environm ent ali st argues that s o

.
,

cial un rest is due to bad soc i al condi ti ons but when we ,

go into the matter more deeply we fin d that bad con

dition s are due largely to bad people The mere presence .

o f hordes o f low grade men and women condemned by

-

their very natures to incompetency an d failure automat

ically engender poverty invi t e explo itation and dr ag
, ,

down others just above them in the social sc al e .

We thus see t hat our soc i al ills are largely the product
o f degeneracy and that the elimination of degeneracy
,

would do more than anything else to solve them But .

degeneracy can be elimin ated only by eliminating th e

degenerate An d thi s is a raci al not a soc ial matter
.
,
.

No merely social measures can ever touch the heart of

the problem In fac t they tend to increase it s gravity ;
.
,

because aimin g as they do to improve exis ting indi

,

viduals they carry al ong multitudes of the unfit and

,

enable them to propagate more largely of their kind .

If then society is ever to rid itself of its worst bur

, ,

dens soci al reform mus t be increasingly supplemented

,

by racial reform Unfit indivi duals as well as unjust

.

social con ditions mus t be eliminated To make a better .

world we must have better men an d women No reform .

o f laws or instituti on s or economic systems will bring

that better world unl ess it produces better men and

women too .
 —
NE O AR ISTOCRA CY 247

Society mus t therefore grapple resolutely with the

, ,

problem of degeneracy The firs t step should be t he pre

.

ven tion o f all obvious degenerates from having children .

This woul d mean in practice segregatin g most of them

, ,

in institu ti ons Of co u rse that in turn would mean a

.
, , ,

great immediate expense But in the long run such o u t

1
.

lays would be the trues t economy We have already seen .

how expensive d egenerates are to society A single de .

generate family like the J ukes may cost the state millions
of dollars An d to these direct costs there mus t be added
.

indirect costs which probably run to far larger figur es .

Think o f the loss to the national wealth me as ured in ,

mere dollars and cents o f a sou nd energetic stock ruined

, ,

by an infusion of Jukes blood Think of the immeas ur .

“ ”
ably greater loss represented by a tainted genius his ,

talents perverted from a potenti al soci al blessing into

an actu al social curse by the destructive action of a de
generate strain in his heredity .

H owever even if we leave all indirect damage ou t of

,

consideration the di rect costs o f degeneracy are so ob

,

vi ous and so computable that as a cold financial proposi ,

tion the flotation o f public bond issues to defray the

,

expenses of immediate wholesal e segregation would be

m
,

am y justified The consequent dimi nution in the

.

1
E ven in th e mo s t civili z ed t
cou n ries o nly a s mall th ose wh o f ti
ra c o n of

sh o uld b e c learly se gre ga ted are to d ay u n der ins t it u t io nal c are a n d t h us

-

d eb arre d fro m all p o ss ib ilit y o f rep rod u ct io n I n th e United S t a tes f or

e wh ich rank s ra th er h igh in t his res pe c t o n ly 1 0 o r 1 5 p er ce n t
.
,

e xa mM
o f th e o b vio us ly f ee b le-min d ed a re in ins t itu t io n s
, ,

T h e read er wi ll re call
t ha t in th e year 1 9 1 5 ou t o f appro xim a te ly 600 livin g f ee b le-min ded and
.

e p ile p tic J u k es o nl y t h ree were in c us to dial c are

, ,

T o h ouse an d c are f o r
th e vas t h o sts o f d ef ec t ives n o w at large would req ui re from fi ve to ten
.
,

times th e p rese n t nu mbe r o f ins t itu t io ns .

248 THE REVOLT AGAINST CIV ILIZATION

numbers o f paupers vagabonds criminals etc would , , , .

unquestionably enable the S t ate to get all its money

back with a handsome profit besi des 1
.

Of cours e even the rigorous segregation of all clearly

,

defective individuals now alive woul d not extinguis h

“ ”
degeneracy The vast outer fringe woul d for genera
.

ti ons produce large quotas of in stitutional recruits B ut .

these quot as woul d get stea dily smaller because the ,

centres of pollution woul d have been removed An d .

,

thi s once done the racial stre am would gradually puri f y

,

itself Remember that race cleansing once done is done

.
, ,

for good and all The whole weight o f scientific evi dence
.

shows that degeneracy is caus ed not by environment , ,

but by heredity ; that the d egeneracy with which we

have to deal is an old degeneracy due to taints which
have been carried along in the germ plasm for generations -
.

If then this mass of degeneracy the accu mulation of

, , ,

centuries could be once got rid o f it would never again

, ,

recur Sporadic degenerates might now and then be

.

born but these isolated cases leaving no off sp ri ng would

, , ,

be o f negli gible importan ce .

We thus see that a general and consistent application

o f those metho ds which even now are approved by public

O pinion and are already practised on a small scale woul d

2
,

1
t tt t d
T h e c os o f su ch ins i u io n s woul n o t be as grea as many erso ns t p
imagin e Th e o ld ide a o f h u ge b arrac s wh ere th e inma es were e k co n t k pt
f pt
.

fin ed is givin g way to th e “
arm co lo ny
- ”
idea H ere th e a ients lea . d
t d
a h eal hf u l, o u t-o f - o o r lif e , wh ere t
h ey are n o t o nly con en ed b u t earn t t
mu ch o f h eir ee t k p t
It mus b e rememb ered h a man y def ectives o ssess t t p
p
.

grea t t
h ysical s rength an d enjo y h ard, mus cular e er io n x t
p pp
.

2
Pu b li c O in io n to-d ay gen erally a roves th e s egre ga ion o f def ec t
tives p p d t t
T h e rin ci al if ficu l y to h orou gh going segrega ion is th e ma er t tt
xpense
.

of e .
2 50 THE REVOLT A GAI NST CIVILI ZATION

ward the indi vidua l it is always kin d When eugeni cs .

says the degenerate must be eliminat ed it refers not

“ ”
, ,

t o exis ting degenerat es but to their potent i al off spring

, .

Those po tenti al children if eugenics h as its way will

, ,

never be Th is supreme object once accomplis hed how

.
,

ever there is every reason why the defective in di vidual

,

should be treated wi th all possible considerati on In .

fac t in a society animMed by eugeni c principles de

, ,

generates and inf eri ors generally would be treated far

, ,

better th an they are to day ; because such a society would

-

not have to fear that more charity would spell more in

f eriors . It would also be more in clined to a kindly at ti
tude because it would realize that defects are due to
heredi ty and that bad germ plasm can be neither -

punished nor reformed .

Fu rthermore the very conversi on of public O pini on

,

to the eugeni c view point would itself tend powerq y to

-

purify the race by voluntary acti on Legal measu res .

like segregation and sterili zati on woul d apply in prac

tice only to the most inferi or elements whose lack of in ,

telli gen ce and self control render t hem incapable o f ap

-

p re cia tin g the in terests o f society and thus make legal

comp ulsion necessary The hi gher grades o f unsoundn ess
.

would not be direc tly aff ec t ed Right here however the

.
, ,

pres sure o f enlightened public Opin i on would come int o

play Later on we shall consider the full implicati ons of
.

the development in the general population of a t rue racial

—
cons c i ousness what may be t ermed a eugeni c con
“

science ”
Suf fice it here to say that the existence of su ch
.

an attitude would eliminat e the higher grades of mental

 —
NE O AR ISTO C RA CY 251

d efect by voluntary action as rapi dly as the acuter grades

w ere bein g eliminated by legal action In a society ani .

mated by a eugeni c conscience the begetting o f unsound

children woul d be regarded with horror and public O pin ,

ion would ins tinctively set u p strong social taboos which

w ou ld eff ectively r estrain all except reckl ess and anti
s ocial in di vidu al w wh o of course would be restrained
, ,

Such social taboos woul d not however mean wholesal e, ,

c elib acy .In the first place a large proportion o f tho se

,

p erson s who carry hereditary taints in their germ plasm

-

”
carry them in latent form These latent or recess ive
.

t aints do their bearers personally no harm and in most ,

c ases will not appear in their chil dr en unl ess the bearers

m arry persons carrying like taints By avoiding unions .

with these particular people not only will sound children

,

be reasonably assured by wis e matings but the taints ,

thems elves will ordinarily be bred o u t o f the stock in a

c ouple o f generations and the germ plasm will thus be
,
-

p uri fied . Fu rthermore even those pe rs on s who carry

,

taints which m ake parenthoo d inadvisable need n ot be

d ebarred from marri age The sole limit ation would be
.

that they should have no children An d this will be per .

f ectly fe as ible because when public opini on acquir es

, ,

the racial view point the present silly and vicious atti
-
,

tude toward birth control will be abandone d and u n ,

d esirable children will not be conceived .

By the combin ation of legal social and individual , ,

a ction above desc ri bed the problems of degeneracy and

,

inf eri ori ty attacked bo t h from above and from below

, ,
252 THE REVO LT AGAI NST CIVILI ZATION

would steadily diminish and the racial stream would be

,

as steadily purified The point to be emphasized is that

.

this can be eff ected almost wholly by a broader and more

intelligent appli cation of processes already operating and
already widely sanctioned by public opini on Segrega .

tion of defectives appreciation of racial prin ciples wis e

, ,

marriage selection birth control : these are the main

,

items in the programme of race purification This pro .

gramme is thus seen to be strictly evolutionary and es

s entially conservative The first steps are so simple and
.

so obvious that they can be taken without any notable

change in our social or legal standards and without any ,

real Off ense to intelligent public opinion Fu rther steps .

can safely be left to the future and there is goo d reason

,

to beli eve that those steps will be taken far sooner than
is generally imagine d because the good resu lts of the
,

first steps will be so apparent an d so convinc ing .

Such briefly is the process of race cleansing known

, ,

as negative eugenics M an y earnest beli evers in race

“ ”
.

betterment are incli ned to minimize eugeni cs “

nega ’

”
tive aspect Such persons declare that the vital prob
.

lem is the incre as e of superiors and that the positive

,
“ ”

phases of the eugeni c programme must therefore be , ,

equally emphasized from the start .

Now in thi s I thin k they are mistaken Of course the .

,

increase of superi or types is an absolute prerequ isite to

the perfecting of the race But race perfecting is a much
.

more dif ficult matter than race cleansing and involves

measures for most o f whi ch publi c opinion is not yet pre
pared Al so besides questi ons of expedi ency th ere is
.
, ,
254 THE RE VOLT AGAI NST CIVILI ZATION

fit any on e who stood to gain by social order and progress .

Of course the mediocre mas ses would be decidedly con

,

servative and would hold back progress ; but their con

s ervatism would be much more leavened by common

sense cc— ,
operation and public spiri t than is now the
,

case and const ructive proposals wou ld thus get a fairer

,

hearing and stand a better chance of ad option .

Now when we contras t thi s picture wi th our present

day world disorganized seethi ng threatened with down
, , ,

ri ght chaos I submit that some such stabili zation as I

,

have desc ri bed must first be attained before we can de

vote ourselves to creating a super race Our part i cular .

j ob is stopping the prodigious spread o f infe ri ori ty whi ch

is now going on We may be losing our best stocks but
.
,

we are losing them much more slowly than we are multi

plying our worst Our study of diff erent i al birth rat es
.
1 -

showed us that if these remain unchanged our most in

telligen t stocks will diminis h from one-thir d to two thir ds -

in the next hundred years ; it also showed that our least

intelli gent st ocks will in crease from six to tenf old in the
same time Obviously it is this prodigious spawnin g o f
.
,

inferiors whi ch must at all costs be prevent ed if soci ety

is to be saved from disruption and dissolution Race .

cleansing is apparently the only thing that can stop it .

Therefore race cleansing must be our firs t con cern

,
.

Of course thi s do es not mean that race building

,

should be neglected On the contrary we sho uld be

.
,

thi nki ng hard along t hose lines Onl y for the immediate .
,

present we should concentrate our energies upon the

,

1
In C h a pt er III .
 —
NE O ARISTOCRA CY 2 55

pres sing problem of degeneracy until we have actually

in operat i on legal measures whi ch will fairly promise to
get it under control Meanwhile the very fact that we
.
,

are thinking eugenically at all will o f itself produce im

portant positive results These may not take the form

.

o f legal enactments but they will be powerft

,
reflected
in changed ideals and stan dards o f social conduct The .

”
development of that eugenic conscience whi ch as we ,

have already seen promises to play so impo rtant a part

,

in the elimination of the hi gher grades of degeneracy ,

will also impel the well e ndowed to raise larger families

-
,

prefer children to luxuries and discriminate between the

,

high cost of living and the cost of high living People .

will think less about rights an d more about d uties

“ ” ”
,

will come to consi der their race much as they do their

country and will m ak e sac ri fices f or posteri ty such as
,

they now make f or patriotism .

In fact such an attitude will soon render public O pinion

,

ripe for considering defin ite eugenic meas ures of a con

structive character One o f these measures which is
.
,

already foresh adowed is a remi ssion o f taxation propor

,

tion ate to the number o f chil dren in families 1

Later on .

society may o ff er rewards f or the production o f d esirable

c h ildren Such action will however have to be very
.
, ,

carefully safeguarded An y in disc ri min ate subsi di zin g of

.

large famili es regardless of their raci al value would b e

extremely disastrous It woul d mean merely another
.

1
p
F o r e xam le : Th e United St ates F e deralIn co me T ax gran ts a larger
p
e xem tio n to married t h a n to s in gle pe rso ns , an d allo ws f ur th er d edu c

tio ns f or
“
p
d e en den ts , in clu din g, of
”
co urse , min or ch ildren .
256 THE REVOLT AGAINST CIVILI ZATION

tax burden upon the thrifty and capable for the stimu
—
lation o f the u nfit who need no stimulatin g ! Only
where the raci al superi ori ty o f the couples in question is
clearly apparent as shown by proven ability psych olog
, ,

ical tests and sound heredity should such subsi dies be

, ,

granted .

These and a few other kin dred matters are probably

the only definitely constructive legal measures for which
public opinion is even partially prepared But there is .

nothing discouraging in that The great thin g as al

.
,

ready stated is to get people thinking racially With

, .

the development of a eugenic consci ence and the curb

“ ”

in g of degeneracy plans for race buildin g will almost

,

formulate themselves There is the inestM able advan

.

tage of a movement b ased on the evolutionary princ iple

and inspired by the scientific spiri t Such a movement .

does not like a scheme for utopi a have to spri ng forth

, ,

in detailed perfection from the imagination of its creator

like Minerva from the brow of Z eus On the contrary .
,

it can evolve steadily but surely moving along many

, ,

lin es testing its own soundness at every step and win

, ,

nin g favor by proofs instead of promi ses .

“
There are several routes on whi ch one can proceed
with the confidence that if no one of them is the main
,

road at least it is likely to lead into the latter at some

,

time Fortunately eugeni cs is paradoxical as it may

.
, ,

seem able to advance on all these paths at once ; for i t

,

proposes no defini te goal it sets up no one standard to

,

which it would make the human race conform Taking .

man as it finds him it proposes to multiply all the typ es

,
258 THE RE VO LT A GAINST CIVILI ZATIO N

p r ogress security and even existence ; when they reali z e

, ,

th at a single genius may be worth more in actual dollars

than a do z en gold min es while conversely racial de
-
, , ,

c adence spells material impoverishment and cul t u ral

decay ; when such things are really believed we shall see ,

eugeni cs actually mo u lding social programmes an d polit

ical policies .

And as already stated there is much evi d ence to show

, ,

that this may happen sooner than is now imagined .

Many believers in race betterment are unduly pessimistic .

Of course thei r pess imism is qu ite natural Realizing as

, .

they do the supreme importance of the eugeni c idea its ,

progress seems to them u nconscionably slow To the .

student of history however its progress seems extraor

, ,

dinari ly rapid Only twenty years ago eugeni cs was

.

virtually unknown outside of a few scientific circles To .

day it h as won a firm footin g with the intell ectual élite

of every civili zed land and h as gained the interested
attenti on of public Opin ion His tory shows that when
.

an idea has reached thi s poin t it tends t o sp read with

ever— acceleratin g rapi dity In my opinion then eu
.
, ,

g en ists whe ther laboring in the abstract field O f research

,

f or the further eluci dat i on o f the idea o r engaged in en

light ening publi c opinion may one and all look forward
,

hopefully to the operati on of a sort of law o f increasing

”
returns that will yield results as surprising as they are
b en eficent as the next few decades roll on .

The one deadly peril to the cause of race betterment

is the poss ibili ty o f soc i al disrup ti on by the ant i soc i al
—
elements in stinctively hostile to eugeni cs as they are
 —
N EO ARISTOCRACY 259

to every other phase of progressive civili z ation If thi s .

peril can be averted the triumph of race betterment is

,
“ ”
practically certain becaus e eu gen ics can deliver th e goods
, .

When publi c O pini on once realizes thi s publi c opinion ,

will be not merely willing but anxious that the goo ds be

delivered When society realizes the incalculable value
.

o f superior stocks it will take precious good care that

,

its racial treasures are preserved and fostere d Superior .

stock will then be cherished not only for its high average
,

value but becaus e it is also the seed be d from which

,
-

alone can arise those rare personalities of genius who

tower like mou ntain p s alm above the human plain an d
to whose creative influence progress is primarily due .

The people whi ch fosters its superior stocks will be

thus twice blessed In the firs t place such stocks will
.
,

produce generation after generation an unfailing supply

, ,

o f men and women o f abili ty o f energy o f civic worth , , ,

who will leaven society and a dvance every field of h u

man endeavor An d in addition to all this those same
.
, ,
“ ”—
stocks will from time to time produce a genius o n e
o f those infinitely rare but infin itely precious minds which

change man s destiny an d whose names reverberate

’

athwart the ages .

“
E very race requ ires leaders These leaders appear .

from time to time and enough is now known about eu

,

geni cs to show that their appearan ce is frequen tly pre

dictab le n ot accidental
, It is possible to have them
.

appear more frequently ; and in ad dition to raise the , ,

level o f the whole race making the entire nation happier

,

and more useful Th ese are the great tasks o f eugeni cs

. .
2 60 THE RE VOLT AGAI NST C IV ILI ZATION

America needs more families like that old Puritan strain

’
which is one o f eugenics familiar examples :
At their head stands Jonathan E dwards and behin d ,

him an array of his descendants numbering in the year ,

1 900 ,
of whom W ere college graduates ; 1 3

presidents of our greatest colleges ; 65 professors in col

leges besides many principals o f other important edu
,

cation al institutions ; 60 physicians many o f whom were ,

eminent ; 1 00 and more clergymen missionaries or theo , ,

logic al professors ; 75 were officers in the army and navy ;

60 prominent authors and writers by whom 1 35 books ,

o f me ri t were wri tten an d published and 1 8 important

periodicals edited ; 33 Ameri can States an d several for

eign countri es have profited by the b en eficent influences

of their eminent activity ; 100 an d more were lawyers ,

o f whom on e was our most eminent professor of law ;

3 0 were judges ; 8 0 held public ofli ce of whom one was ,

vice-president of the United States ; 3 were United States

senators ; several were governors members of Congress , ,

framers of State consitutions mayors of cities and minis

, ,

ters to foreign courts ; one was president o f the Pacific

Mail Steamshi p Company ; 1 5 railr oa ds many banks , ,

insurance companies and large industri al enterp ri ses

,

have been indebted to their management Almost if .

not every department of soci al progress and of the publi c ,

weal h as felt the impulse o f this healthy and long lived -

family It is not known that any one of them was ever

.

” 1
convicted of crime .

Such is the record of the Jonathan E dwar ds strain .

1
P openoe and Johns on , pp . 161- 1 62 .
262 THE REVOLT AGAINST C IV ILI ZATIO N

Eugenics sets up no specifi c superman as a type to ,

whi ch the rest of th e race must be made to conf orm It .

is not looking forward to the cessation of its work in a

eugenic millennium It is a p erpetua l process whi ch seeks
.
,

only to raise the level of the race by the production o f

fewer people with physical and mental defects and more ,

people with physical and mental excellences Such a .

race should be able to perpetuate itself to subdue n a ,

ture to improve its environment progressively ; its mem

,

bers should be happy and productive To establish such .

a goal seems justified by the knowledge of evolution whi ch

is now available ; and to make progress toward it is pos
”1
sible .

The eugenic ideal is thus seen to be an ever-perfecting

su per race . Not the
“ ”
superman of Nietzsche that —
brilliant yet baleful vis ion of a master caste bloomin g ,

like a gorgeous but paras itic orchi d on a rotting trunk o f

servile degradation ; but a super race cleansing itself ,

throu ghou t by the elimination of its defects and raising ,

its elf throughou t by the cultivation of its qualities .

Such a race will imply a new civilization Of course .

,

eve n under the most favorable circumstances neither ,

this race n or this civilization can come to-day or to mor -

—
row perhaps not for many generations ; because like ,

all really enduring creations they will be the products

,

of a progressive evolutionary process not of flaming

, ,

revolution or numbing reaction .

Yet thi s evolutionary process however gradual mus t

, ,

ultimately produce changes almost beyond our dreams .

1
P op enoe an d John s o n , p . 166 .
 —
NEO ARISTO C RA CY 2 63

E ve ry ph as e of human exis tence will be transformed

laws and customs arts and sciences i d eas an d ideals
, , ,

even man s conception of the Infinite

’
.

How shall we characteri z e this society of the future ?

I believe it may be best vis ualize d by one word : N eo
A ristocracy The ide al of race perfection combines and
.

harmonizes in to a hi gher synthesis the hi therto conflict

ing ideas of ari stocracy an d d emocracy I am here re .

ferri ng not to the specific political aspects which those

ideas have at various times as su med but to their broader
,

aspects as philosophies of life and con duct .

Viewed in this fun d amental light we see d emocracy,

based upon the concept of human similari ty and aris ,

tocracy bas ed upon the concept of human difierentiation

'

Of cou rse both concepts are in a sens e vali d C ompared

, , ,
.

to the vast dif f erences between mankind an d other life

forms human diff erences sink into ins ignifican ce and
,

mankind appears a substantial unity C ompare d with .

each other the wi d e diff erences between men thems elves

,

stan d out an d mankin d becomes an almost infin ite di

,

versity .

If these distinctions ha d been clearly recogni ze d d e ,

mocracy an d aristocracy would have been viewe d as

parts of a larger truth and there might have been no
,

deep antagonism between them Unf ortun ately both

.
,

concepts were formulated long ago when science was in

,

its infancy and when the laws of life were vi rtually un

known A ccordingly both were fou n d ed largely on fals e
.
,

notions : democracy upon the fall acy of natural equa lity ,

ari s tocracy upon the fallacy of artificial inequality .

2 64 THE REVOLT AGAINST CIVILI ZATION

Thus b as ed on error both democracy and aristocracy

,

worked badly in practi ce : democracy tendin g to pro

duce a destructive levelling equali ty ; aristocracy tend
,

ing to produce an unjus t oppres sive inequality Thi s

,
.

merely increased the antagoni sm between the two sys

tems ; be cause one was continually invoked to cur e the
harm wrought by the other an d because social ills were
,

ascribed exclusively to the defeated party ins tead of ,

being di agnosed as a joint product .

For the past half centu ry the democratic idea h as

gained an unparalleled as cendancy in the world while ,

the aristocratic idea has been correspondingly discredited .

In deed so complete has been democracy s triumph th at

,
’

it has been accorded a su perstiti o u s veneration an d an y ,

criticism of its fundamental perfection is wi dely regar ded

as a sort o f lése— maj esté or even heresy .

Now this is an unhealthy state of af fairs because the

, ,

democratic idea is not perfec t but is a mixture o f truth

“ ”
with errors lik e natural equality which modern science
has proved to be clearly unsound Such a situati on is
.

unworthy of an age claiming to be inspired by that scien

tifi c spiri t whose basic quality is unflin ching love of truth .

In a sci entific age no idea shoul d be sacrosanct no ,

facts above analysis an d criticism Of course criticism

.
,

and an al ysis should be measured and scientifi c not

mere outbursts of emot ion Traditional ideas shoul d
.

receive just cons ideration with due regard for the fact
,

that they must co ntain much truth to have established

an d maint ai ned thems elves In like mann er new ideas
.
,

shoul d also receive just considerati on so long as their

266 THE REVOLT A GAINST C IV ILI ZATION

cused being undemocratic they should answer

of ,
“
Right you are ! Science especially b i ology has dis
, ,

closed the falsity of certain ideas like natural equality ‘

,
’

and the omnipotence of environment on whi ch the demo ,

cratic concept is largely based We aim to take the sound.

elements in both the traditional democrati c and aristo

cratic philosophies and combine them in a h igher syn
—
thesi s a new ph ilosophy worthy of the race and the
”
civilization that we visualize .

Of course it may be asked why if thi s new philosophy

is such a synthesis it might not be called Arist o—
, ,
“
, demo c
” “
racy or even N eo Democracy
,
-
To wh i ch I would .
’

ans wer that I have no b as ic Objection provided we all ,

agree on the facts Labels matter comparatively little

. .

I t is the things labelled which count .

Yet after all labels do have a certain value If they

, , .

mean precisely what they say this in turn means exact ,

information as to the facts and hence avoids the pos

sib ility of unsoun d reasoning based on faulty premi ses .

Now I believe that f or th e time being at any rate the new

, ,
“ —
ph ilosophy should be called Neo Aristocra cy ; be ”

cause it involves first of all the disestablishrnent of the

democratic cu lt and the rehabilitation of the dis credited
ari stocrati c idea F or despite its many un sound ele
.
,

ments the arist ocratic idea does contain something en

,

nobling which mus t be preserved and incorporated into

,

the philosophy of the morrow To day therefore the .

-
, ,

value o f the aristocratic principle sho u ld be emphasized

as a heal thy in tellectual reaction aga inst the overween ing

preponderance of the democratic idea G enerations .

 NEO ARISTO C RACY
-
267

hence when the elimination o f degeneracy an d even of

, ,

mediocrity shall have produced something like generalized

superiority the approach to rea l equality between men
,

will have become so evi dent that their philosophy o f life

may better be terme d Neo—“
D emocracy O ther times .
,

other fas hions Let us not usurp the future

. .

One last point should be carefully note d Wh en I .

—
speak of N eo Aristocracy as applicable to-d ay I refer ,

to outlook not practice

,
At present no basic political
.

changes are either possible or desirable Certain ly an y .

,
“
thought o f our existin g social upper classes as N eo
Aristocracies woul d be to put it mildly a ba d j oke
”
, , .

We have already seen that while these clas ses do un

,

questionably contain the largest percentage of superi or

strains they are yet lo aded d own with me dioc ri ties and
,

are peppere d with degenerates an d inf eriors We must .

absolutely banish the notion that Neo Aristocracy will -

p e rpetuate that cardinal vice o f traditional ar istocracy

—caste Classes there probably will be ; but these classes
.
,

however define d their functions will be extremely fluid

,

as regard s the indivi d uals who compose them N o true .

Su pe rior wherever born will be d enied ad mission to the

, ,

hi ghest class ; no person wherever bo rn can stay in a

, ,

class unless he measures up to sp ecifications .

The attainment o Neo Aristocracy implies a long

f -

political evolution the exact course of which is probably

,

unpre dictable However a recognition of the goal and

.
,

o f the fundamental principles involve d sho u l d help us

on ou r way .

That way will assure dly be long At best it will prob

.
,
268 TH E REVOLT A GAINST C I V ILI ZATION

ably take many generati ons It may take many cen

.

tu ri es
. Who knows whether our present hopes are not
dreams ; whether the forces o f chaos will not disrupt
civili zation an d plunge us in to a Dark Age
“
.
”

—
Well even so there woul d be left u s faith F o r may
,
.
, ,

we not believe that those maj est i c laws of life whi ch now
stand revealed will no more p ass utterly from human
ken than have other great discoveri es lik e the sowing o f
grain and the control o f fire ? An d therefore may we
, ,

,
—
not hope that if not to day then in some bet ter time
, ,

the race will insu re it s o wn regenerat i on ? To doubt

this would be to deny that mysteri ous p ri mal urge whi ch
, ,

rai sing man from the beast lift s his eyes to the stars
, .
2 70 INDEX

B rouilh et. 1 87 D arb is hi re A D I ntrodu ction to 0 Bi

B k l ,

f
.

u c le , 4 1 o ogy, as r e e re n ce , 221 n
B D wi T h O i gi f S p i by M
.

u d d h a, 1 4 ar n,
B b k
e r n o ec es eans
ur an L u th er , 1 0 7 f N t
o l S l ti 42 1T
a u ra e ec on ,
B k D p t 1 13
, .

ur e 2 8 a ven
l
or
C E D th f th M id d l C l
, ,

xp eri men ta l
“
B ur t. yr i T ests of 1 21 f
l q
ea e
D l ti f I d p d
, o e asse s . .

Gene ra I n te llaaen ce , u o ted b y M c ec ara 38 on o

ll
n e en e n ce ,
D 62 D l ti f th R gh t f M 3 8
ec ara on o
l l
o u ga e i s o an .
E f D f ti I f i ity
,

B u t er S amu e , rewh on , as re eren ce , e ec S ves

l ti B l h i m
ee n er o r
Df
, .

22 1 n g i t
e en se a a ns re v o u ev s
Ci il i ti
. on, o s ,

t e cS v on
C d e Jack pe fect ty pe o f evo l
ee za
Dg i l d g m pl m 44
.

a r r u tio n e en erac
y rac a an er - as
f
, , , , .

a y 1 42 f f l; cause o f in e ri o r it y . 1 00 ; th r eat to
C aesa po t l servi ce n d 7 ; a li l
r , .

e r, gen c i vi z a tio n , j : ead ers hi p

l
s a u s
al 1 4
r,
i n 1 0 2 d es tru c ti ve soc ia i n fl u e n ce o f ,
l
er
C a ve T N I t d u cti n to B
. , ,

raso l s 1 0 2 172 ; e imi n atio n o f 2 4 6

'
n ro in s ti
l q
r r, . o .

S oci a i sm vs C m li zati o n
”
tu tio ns to res tri c t, 24 7 n . 2 4 8 fl
’

u o te d , 1 66 S ee
I f
. , . .

17 a ls o n erio ri ty
C ttell P fess o 1 1 1 D p
.

r, e mocrac y an o verd rawn ic ture 1 0 2

Cen t y T h Gilbe t M ay q t d
a , ro , ,

ur e, r urr uo e an in s u ffi c ie n t th e o ry 2 64 172
from 1 62 D p
, ,

es tru c ti ve cri ti c is m s ym to m o f i a
C h ld c ivilization in 6
,

ci p ien t re vo u ti o n 1 2 6 ; d e n ed , 1 2 6 l ,

fi
C h i me c ivili ti n d bility o f 7 9 l
a ea , s
p
. ,

n ur a j ; g o rifi ca tio n o f th e ri mi tive b y,

Ch i tian d c t in f q li ty 3 8 xp
za o , , ,

1 27 ; R ousseau e o n en t o f 1 28
C ivi li ati n c l ic w t n an d m d
r s o r e o e ua
D
, .

ete rmi n i s m ec o n o mi c 1 5 7
ll
es e r o
l
z o ass
D
. , , ,

ern , 6 ; p rog rem in , 7 172 ; l aw o f ci vi i eu ts ch e A gemei n e Z ei tu n a M ere z h

q f
.

za tio n an d d eca y , 9 , 1 1 : we ig h t o f k o v ski u o ted ro m, 1 3 1 fli . 1 33 f

l l l Dv
.

m od e rn , 1 5 ; rac ia e eme nts o f wo r d e ries , 4 3

l
ci vi iz a tio n , 8 4 : th r ea te n ed b y d e g en D os to ie vsky 1 7 9
f D
,

e rac y , 1 0 1 ; d e ens e ag ains t d eg en yn ami c mi n o ri ties , 2 2 4 17

lb l
.

erac y, 1 0 6 ; in creases ce i ac y. ate

marriag e , f ew c h i dr en 1 1 7 ; th rea t l E d ward Jon s, ath a n , f mi l
y o f , 2 60 fi
a
E go i l
, .

e n ed b y d es tru cti ve cri tic is m , 1 2 7 fli : s m o rigi n of th eo ry o f na tura

l qu lity 3 2
,
'
th r eate n ed b y re vo u ti o n , 1 4 0 fi e a
l E gyp t i vil i ti in d
,

meth ods agains t re vo u tio n , 2 23 fli ; c o ns 6; en urance of

ivi l i ti
za
ll
, ,

i
‘

n eed o f in te i g e n t ac tio n b y, 23 0 fi c 9 za o ns n,
p fi
s eci c atti tu d es an d ac tio ns , 23 3 fl -I E lli H loc k 8 0
s, av e
b l l pp E g l 1 5 2 1 54
,

io ogi ca su o rt o f , 23 8 172 n e s,
Cl E g l nd i l and l
,

as s war , 1 69 fi n 1 8 2 17 n a rac a social se ecti ve

p
. ,

C loo tz , A n ac h arsi s , 1 4 6 , 1 5 8 i
rocess es 80 fl n,
C l B C C E nglis h H P h l l
.

ird S . o mmis s i o n er o f h ari B , Y ale syc o ogi ca

q
o er, . , o race .

ties , 1 22 fi S tu di es , u o te d b y M c D o u g all , 6 1 fi
C ll d b E
. .

o ege gra ua tes , marriag e an d irth n viro nmen t c o n tras te d wi th h eredi ty

k p
, .

rate am o n g , 1 1 1 fi L a ma rc is m s trew es h
'

35 ot
C p
.

o mmu nis m , a ttem te d i n 1 84 8 1 50 t an ce o f , 40 ; la w o f di mi ni s h i n g i n

M x p p f
,

ar ian , 1 5 2 ; i n R uss ia , 1 7 8 , 1 8 1 ; fl u e nces 4 7 fi t ; e ff ect u o n e r o rm

p l
,

th eo ry o f , 1 84 ; rice o f , un d er B o l an ce o f h ered i tary in c i na tio ns , 7 4 fi

ll Ep l p
.

s h e vi s m, 1 8 5 fli ; R uss e s d ese rtio n i e sy , 9 8 fi

’

p Eq l l l q l
.

of arty . 1 8 9 17 ua i ty, n atu ra S ee N atura e u a ity

C kl E G D E f F
. .

in , d win ran t, T he i recti on of u g eni cs , 3 6 ; sc ie n ce o u n d ed b y r an

l
on
H u man E vo u ti on , u o te d 2 2 2 l q ci s a to n G 4 2 ; to i m ro ve so cial p
C pl H
o e an d , e a th o mmi ss io n e r , 1 2 2 fi l C
,

l
se ec tio n , 9 2 , 2 3 9 ; f oe to o s h e vism
,

Bl
C J F p
. ,

o u rn o s oh n , A ac to ry of L i tera tu re, 23 8 fi ; ro gr amme o f , 2 4 0 24 4 fi

q p
, . . ,
“ " “
u o ted , 2 0 7 2 52 ; os iti ve an d n eg a ti ve 245
H l E q d k
,

con omi c L i berty, fi ; trea tme nt o f

“ ”
C o x, aro d , u o te , s to c s an d i n d i
p bl p
.

1 4 2 172, 1 6 7 f vid ual s 2 4 9 172; u ic o ini on an d

C l
. ,

ri me waves , nature o f , 1 3 6 2 50 1T ; s oc ia so u n d ness a n d 2 5 3 fi

C D d x
. , .

riti c ism S ee estru ctive cri ti c ism c o nsc ie n t io us n ess to war 25 5 ; ta a

C b p l
. ,

u ism , 137 ti on an d 2 55 ; rac tica i ty o f . 25 7 fi g

C zarism p f p
,

, 1 80 3 er ec tin g rocess . 2 6 1 j .
 I ND EX 2 71

E uro pe ci vi li za tio ns pp a e r in 6; re H u m p h re y 101 J

B l
a
p bl l H
, , , .

s ul ts of o s si e re vo u tio n in , 2 9 ; un g ary , o s h e vis m in . 1 78 . 2 1 0 J

bi h x
.

rt -ra te i a ve rag es n, 1 1 0 ; ta a ti o n H yn d ma n 1 54
d b
,
'

h i ir t fi -ra te n, 120
E l i i I ndia c ivi l iza tio ns appea r in 6
an
f L w f I li
.

vo u t o n , n s tan ce o o neg ua
I nd us t ial R e vo lu tio n 1 56
a
f ll f p ll l b w
, .

i
ty , 3 0 : ac y o a ra e et ee n r

wi ld li f b
a
I nd us trial Uni o ni s ts same as
,

d h m e an 06 a u an e in g s , 1 ; S yn di
p di d b i li m
,

a te S yn d ca 9 16
l H di I q li I nequa lity d l
re u y s , .

S ee a so e re ty, n e ua ty , etc la w
3 0 : in di vi ua an d of
E xp i p C p II
. , ,
"
m
ress o ni s 3 7 171 ty e difl e ren tia tio n s ha ; b io
l l
, . , .

in ves tig a tio ns o f , 3 0 fl

“
o gica
F bl mi d d h t i i f 3
p sy
e- n c a rac e r z at o n o 9 c h o lo gica l i n ves t i ga ti o ns o f , 5 5 17
i bl p
ee e
l
. , .

j i d h
n c rease u n er c ar ta e ro teo soc i a tre n d to ward ( su mmary) , 7 6 f
J k F mi l l
;
E I f
.

“ "
tio n , 94 ; u es a y, 95 S ee a ls o v o u ti o n a n d n e rio ri ty
K lli k k F mil 9 f
a a a y,
"
6 I f
n a n t mo rta i t y i n A me rica , 1 2 2 fi l
P f I f p l p
. , .

F lo rin sky ro ess o r, 1 92 n n e rio ri ty , h ys ica a n d me n tal as ec ts

F l lf
, .

o u ri e r 1 50 o f 88 fli z c i vi i ze d i e in creas es men
F k G f f
, ,

re d e ric th e re a t 5 2 tal , 8 9 fl : ma n i es ta ti o ns in d e ec ti ve
F f l f bl
,

reema n T he , re e ren ce to L o wi e ar c asses , ee e -mi n d ed ins an e etc ,

p
. , . .

tic les in 2 2 1 n 9 3 fli z h eredi t y an d d es cri tio n o i ,

F C p lfi k b f
, . .

re n c h - a nad ians ro i c sto c in N e w 9 4 17; n u m e r o f d e ec ti ves 9 9 ; d an

E l f
. .

n g a nd 1 1 3 g e rs ro m h i g h -grad e 1 02 i ; de
F re n c h R e vlo u ti o n 1 4 5 fi
'
.

mo cracy no cu re f or, 1 0 2
,

F I f
, .

"
u tu ris m o rms
“
137 nsa ni ty , h e redi ta ry 97 fl :
b
, ,

su p e ri o ri ty a n d 9 8 an d n : n u m ers
G lt F i f n d f E g i l
, .

a on, ran c s , ou er o u en cs , o f as y um cases 9 8

p i p I ll b l ld l p
,

42 t dy f s u 48 fl o su er or e rs o ns . n te ige n ce rec e n t io og ica e ve o

G m pl m 3 4 fi ; po t n y o f 44 ; i
. ,

me n t o f , 8 9 fl
"
er - as e c so
l ti n f 4 5 fl I ll
, . . .

o o nte i ge n ce te s ts , 5 6 fi t: f o r c h il d ren ,
G m n y B l h vi m in 2 1 0 n
a
l b f
, .

er a o s e s 5 7 fi : res u ts o ta in ed ro m 5 9 fli z
ll l p
, , . .
,

Gi o vann tti A t e 1 7 2 17 r uro , i n te ec tua ca ac i ty s h o wn b y 60 fi ;

G l i c i vi li ti in 6 : A th
, . , .

o f ad ul ts 6 6 fl I n th e A rmy; 5 6 6 6
'

reec e , c ass c za on e
ni n i vi li
, , . ,

a ti n 1 0 fi g di
c nm nt za o sce r e p ur p o m an d me th ods 6 7 re
d i t y i earl y 3 6
!

of p i ip l
, ,

r nc f h e o e re n s u i ts an d rating s . 6 8 fi l . 8 9 , 1 1 3 , 2 2 5 .
G u t v A d l ph 5 2
,

s a us o us , 22 7 fi
I ll
.

nte i gen ts ia 1 7 9 1 9 6 J
H ll f F ame in di vi d u l t d ied b y I l
, , .

a o a s s u nte rna tio na A n arc h ist C o ng rew , 1 6 1

I l l D
,

W d
oo 50 fl s, re and , Al e yn e , emoc racy an d th e
re p o d u c ti o n E q d
.

H va d g ad ua tes
ar r r , r H u ma n qu a ti on , uo te . 5 5 . 8 0 172 ;
mo ng 1 1 1 , 1 13 c ited , 5 6
Hb
a
I b ll p
,

e e rt, 1 4 6 , 1 5 8 sa e a o f S ai n , 5 2
H ered ity, 1 2 ; so cia , 1 2 con tras te l d I l
ta i an s , in te l i g e n ce o f c h i d ren in l l
wi th en viro n men t , 3 5 j i z L a marc k A me ri ca , 63 fl ; ro i fi c stoc in N ew p l k
is m o pp
o ses im o rtance o f , 4 0 ; im p E l
ng a n d , 1 1 3
p o rta n ce is co vered , 4 3 : d
o wer o f , p I l
ta y, A n arc h is m in 1 60
l I
,

44 ; mo u d er o f ma n , 4 8 172 : greatn ess W

“
1 66 1 7 2
l I q d
. .
,

an d , 4 8 172; in tel i gen ce an d . 5 6 fi

‘

zves ti a, u o te , 1 9 5
d
.

H es i o . 1 4
H i bbert J ou rn al, N o r au u o e f ro m , d q td Jesus 1 4
q f Jew p o lific s to ck in N ew E ng land
,

1 03 fl i ; W h e th a m u o ted ro m , 2 4 2 fl
‘

s, r
k C
. ,

H itc h c oc , H . N ancy H an ks , as 1 1 3 ; i in g infl n ce in 1 8 4 8 1 5 1 fi

r s ue
f Jo h n o n S P p n oe
. . , .

re eren ce , 5 3 11 s ee o e
l db l k F mil y 9 5 fli 24 7
. .

H o lan , irth -c o n tro in , 1 1 8 n . Ju es a , . , 261

H olmes S J . T h e T ren d of th e R ace
f K llik k F mi ly 9 6 fl
, . .

'

as re e ren ce 4 3 n 9 4 n , 9 7 , 1 09 n a a a
q K t ky 1 5 4 ,
, . .

u o ted 53 fli , 9 6 au s
,

K lvi L d 5 5
,

H o me r 1 4 , 20 7 n, or
K ky 1 8 1
e
H l
, ,
"
oo i g ani s m ,
“
1 34 fi ere ns
H
.
,
"
o use o f Sc ien ce , 20 7 K er z h e n tse v 20 5 fi
K
, .

H u me . 38 iev Uni versi ty, 1 9 2 and n.

2 72 INDEX
K p ki ot n, P in ce 1 53 n M ili uk ov P au l 1 8 1 ; B o s h evi sm, l An
I n tern ati ona l
ro r
B f
, . , .

K un , e la , 2 1 0 17 . D an ger , as re er en ce ,
2 10 n
ll M ill J h S tu t vi m t li t
.

L ag ard e 186 fi o n en ro n en a
q t d 39
e, ar s
k
. , , ,

L a ma rc , 1 3 , 3 5 ; t h eo ry o f inh eri tan ce uo e

qi M S i T h m 1 44
,
"
o f ac u red c h arac te r ist i cs , 3 9 fli ;
1 64 ; F ih i t q
o re . r o as ,
p
i m o rta n ce o f tea c h i n g s , 40 M t Jh
os t d
o ann , re e uo e
ll
, , ,

L as a e , 1 5 4 1 6 0 17
M y Gilb t S t i m d th
.

L a vo is i er 1 4 6 er a an s an
l q
urr a
l l
e
G
, , ,

L e B on , us tave , T h e W or d i n R evo t, W o r d O rder u o te d , 162

qu o te d , 2 2 0
,

L e g en dre , A T ou r d H oriz on M on F ’

l q li l
l f
.

N atu ra ty , a d e us io n , 3 0 : e go as
lb
e ua
d i a , as re e r en ce , 2 1 0 n
k l o ri g in o f th eo ry , 3 2 ; em o ti o na
.

asis
L eni n , N i o ai 1 4 6 . 1 80 , 1 8 1 , 1 84 , 1 8 7 ,
1 8 8 , 1 9 1 , 1 95 , 2 0 1 o f , 3 3 ; as e n vi ro n m e n t a is t t h eo ry , l
L e nin B
212 3 7 ; as C
h r i s tian d o c trin e , 3 8 ; o f o p
b
o ys ,
J l p o rtu ni ty , e r o rman ce , a n d r ec o m p f
L i ch ten e rg er ,
M l l
P T h e S oci a S i gn ifi .

f p
e ns e , 7 5 fi ; R ou ss e au a e i e ver in, bl
ca nce of
q
en ta L eve s , as re e r en ce .
M x bl
.

129 ; e ie v e r i n , 1 5 6
l l
ar a
73 n u o te d , 7 3 f
l b N a tu r a se ec tio n , 1 7 fli ; medi cin e i n te r
.

Lin co n , A rah a m , 5 2 fi
“
L i te rary B l k
o s h e vi i ,
"
138 j
”
.

f
e res wi th 9 1 fi ; s o w mod i ca ti o ns l fi
q
, .
.

u n d er , 1 0 6 fi
L i vi n g A ge, T h e , M ere z h k o vsk i u o te d
fro m , 131 fli , 1 3 3 fi ; as ary M k N eg roes in e ri o rity o f , in A meri ca , 63 f
q
,

f
.

ro m, 1 8 4 fi
in th e arm y, 7 1 ; g en eral , 8 9
u o te d .

N eo -A risto cra cy, 2 63 ; o u t oo to wa rd l k

Lo n d on J k ac R evo u ti on an d O th e r E s l s yn th es is o f o l d a n d n ew tru th , 2 6 5 fi
E l f lb
q
.

, ,

u o t ed 171 fi N ew n g an d , d if ere n ti a irth -rates

q
s ays , , .

in , 1 1 2 fi
L o n d on S atu rda y R evi ew, u o ted 1 20
l ll q
.
,

N ew R ep u b i c T h e , R us se u o ted
fi
q f C q f
,

ro m , 1 8 5 174 ro m ,
.

u o ted
L o n d on T i mes , u o te d 1 2 1 fi o urn os

b ,

F
.

207
L o wi e , R o e rt H arti cl es in T h e
man f
. ,
ree
N ew Y o rk T i mes , u ote d , 1 2 2 fi q ‘

as re ere n ce , 221 n
l l bl b
.

ky
.
,

K u tu ra N e w Z ea a n d , su i ta e irth -rate in .
L u n ach a rs , P ro leta rskai a .

b
1 1 0 ; irth -c o n tro in , 1 1 8 n l
20 1 fi
l
.

P
.

L vo v, rin ce , 181 N ih i i sts , 1 3 6 , 1 7 9

N d M ax Th e D egene rati on of
Cl q
or au

l P
, ,
'

M c D o ug all W i liam 65 I s A meri ca as ses a n d eop le s , u o ted 1 03 fi

n :
q M k q
.
,

D V remya ,
, , .

S af e f o r emocracy ? u o te d 38 61 N ovo ye en s h i o v u o te d

f
, ,

f
ro m 1 3 5 fi
fi , 7 6 , 1 1 4 fl i ; as re eren ce , 1 0 9 n ,

lf M
.

N o yes A red S ome A sp ects of

.
.

odern
M aklak o v, R ussian mi ni s te r o f th e
P q
, ,

oetry u o ted , 1 3 8 f
i n te rio r, 1 3 4 , .

M ara t , 1 4 6
M ar x K l
a r , 1 5 1 , 1 64 , 1 6 5 ; C ommu n i s t
B li "
M p O ld e ve rs in R u s s i a 1 3 3
,
e
an i f es to, 1 5 1 ; s o n s o r o f s ta te so
,

O rr 1 00 n
c i ali s m co mm u n i sm , 1 5 2 fli ;
P
, .

an d
O r yes c h i n ,
Cap i tal, 1 5 3 1 5 6 ; d oct rin e , 1 54 1 5 6
b
e te r , 2 1 8
H
l k O s o rn e nr y F a ir fi e ld 1 23
, , ,

1 6 8 ; i mi tati o ns , 1 5 6 fi ; in v o ed b y
S yn di c al is ts ( o sh e vis ts ) , 1 6 9 2 0 3 Bl
.
,

O wen R o e rt , 1 4 4 1 5 0
, b ,
,

M k l
,

asa ry , T G , R evo u ti on ary T h eory

q P C
. .

mmun e
'

i n E u rop e, u o ted 1 8 4 fi aris 1 60

l
o
p I
, .
,

M e dimval c i vili z atio n , s iri tua i ty o f 7 P as vo lsk y, L eo , T h e n telli gen ts i a u n de r

M b l l q
,

edi ocri t y , n u m e rs , 2 2 5 ; soc ia v a u e , th e S ovi ets , u o ted , 1 9 8

2 2 5 fli ; ro o rt i o n a p p
n u m ers , 2 2 8 ; l b P aul E
d e n , a nd ed ar , ro le tcu t, an d C P l
s t atu s an d in fl u en ce , 2 2 9 C
,

reati ve R evo u ti on , 2 0 8 a n d n l
M F
.

e ns h e viki , 1 8 0 a n d n , 1 83 P ell o u ti er , ern an d , 1 6 3

M k P p l p
.

en s h i o v , 1 3 5 e rsi ans , se ma h o re te eg ra h y o f 7
M e rez h k o vski , mi tri , T o s toy a nd B ol D l P e t e r th e rea t , 1 3 3 G
s hevi sm, q
u o ted , 1 3 1 17" 1 3 3 fi P h oeni ci an g a e ys , 7 ll
M l B l P
.

e th o d s ag ai ns t r e v o u ti o n , o sh e lato , 1 4 , 1 4 2 , 1 44 ; in te reste d ln b i ologi

vis m, etc S ee i vi i z ation. C l cal se ec ti on , 3 6 f l .
2 74 INDEX

S o vi et R ussia , soci a t l re vo l l au n c h e d l d
to socia o r er. 2 4 ; so ci ety s con trol '

in 1 7 4 ; o s h e vi m ire Bl k E p 1 90 fi o f , 2 5 ; ty es o f p
ead ers o f , 2 5 fi g l
l l l x
. , .

S ee a s o R u s s i an re vo u ti o ns a te n t e i s te n ce in all m e n , 2 7 ; re vo l u
p
S ain An arc hi s m in , 1 60 t io n caus ed b y, 2 8 ; th rea ten s res en t p
p J l
,

S arg o , o h n , 1 5 5 d ay c i vi i za tio n 8 6 fi g resen tme nt

l
S teri iz atio n , 2 4 9 n p
to ward s u e rio ri ty , 8 6 ; S yn ica ism
,

d l
p p l p
.

S to d d ard , L o th ro , T h e N ew W orld of h is h i o so h y, 1 6 2 fi , 1 7 5
Il f
.

s a m, as re e re nce 2 1 0 n , 2 1 3 n
p l l
, . .

S u eri o r c asses sta ti s ti ca s tu d y o f

l b V ienn a Nwe F rei e P ress e, V o lk elt
q df m
, ,

4 8 fi , 2 60 ; c h i d ren a. urd e n in 1 1 7
l pl p
,
u o te ro 1 39
q fi
.

V lk l J h d
, .

S urvi va asti ci ty o f s ec ies ai d s . 1 6 ;

q l ,

u a i ties d ete r mi n i n g 1 6 fi g se ec tio n l V l i

o e t, o a nn es , u o te . 139 fi .

l l o ta re . 1 2 9
,

and , 1 7 fi S ee a ls o S oc ia se ec tio n V o rtic ism , 1 3 7

Bb
.

S yn d icalis m, 1 0 3 ; a o u vi s m c o n tri b
u te s to , 1 4 9 ; tre n d to wa rd re vo u tio n , l k J oh n 5 5
p
1 5 7 as h i o so h y o f th e Un d e r-M an , l p W an ama er
W ar reat (G
.

E pean )
.

raci a l an d ma
l
, u ro .
1 6 2 fi g vie ws a n d te ac h i n g s o f , 1 63 ,
1 69 ; h i s to ry o f 1 6 3 fi g re vo t as es l te ri al
b
d ur ing . 1 2 0 1 2 2
os ses ,

l
Bl W e s te r, N B , W or ld R evo u ti on ,
,

1 64 ; i d e n ti ty wi th
q f
. .

se n ce o f o sh e
u o te d , 1 3 0 ; as re e ren ce , 1 4 5 n
I
,

vi s m , 1 63 . an d th e W W
b l l
.

1 66 ;
W eis mann , io ogi ca research es o f 3 4,
f f
. .

u ses re o rmi s t o u n d a ti o n s 1 68 fi ,
.

l p 43
, .

teac h es c as s war , 1 69 fi g s iri t s h o wn

J k p W h e th a m W an d D . ered i tyC D C H
q D
, . . . . .

by L o n d on 1 7 1 fi g re u d iates
l
ac
an d S oci ety u o te d . 4 1 ; eca d en ce
,

tra d i ti o n al mo ra i ty,
C l f
,
1 7 2 fi g p ro
g ramme o f , 1 7 3 fi g c as ses d oo med l an d
qu o ted
i vi i zati o n , as re eren ce , 1 0 9 n :
1 1 6 fi , 24 2 fi
.

l ,

l
. .

u n d e r, 1 7 5
W i liam th e S i en t , 5 2
S za m u ely, 2 1 2 W o od s red eri c F A d am s , L aws of k
D E
,

T b ll Ida M The ar y L if e of E l i mi n i s h i n g
q
n vi ron men tal I nfl u

l q
ar e ,
ences u o te d an d c i te d , 4 7 fi g H credi
ra am L i nco n
H ll F
,
Ab h u o te d 5 2
T x i b tu an d th e of ame c i ted , 5 0 fi g
E p
, .
a
M l lH ,
a at o n and i rth -rate in uro e . 1 20
en ta an d M o ra eredi ty 1 11 R ay

T
fi .

man S M I n te lli gence of S ch oo l l

a ty etc , c i te d 5 1 fi an d u s M S S , . .

Ch i ld q
er ,
s tu d y c i ted 80 a n d n
.

fi g T h e M ea l l l l . .

ren , u o te d 64
In te lli gen ce q W o r d -ci vi iza tio n , raci a e emen ts in ,
,

su re me nt of u o te d , 65
M 84
,

T h eo gni s o f
l
T o s to y,
eg ara 3 6
o u n t L eo C
1 2 8 ; c h am i o n o f
,

p l f'
Pl
W or d s W o rk, re eren ce to att arti cle ,

p p 73 n
,

rimi ti ve 1 3 0 : te m e rame n t i n
.

th e
f l
ami y o f , 1 3 0 fi g d en o un ce s c ul tur e
,

Y er k 66 fi
es , S ee a s o Y o a um l k
1 3 1 ; infl u e n c ed b y R o ussea u 131 ;
l k k
.

um , 6 6 fi g ( wi th Y er es ) , A rmy
,

M e re z h k o vs ki s an a ysi s o f 1 3 1 fi Y oa
l q
’

P Bb fq d M
, .

en ta T es ts , u o ted , 6 6 fi , 7 3
T ri bu n d a eu p le , L e a eu u o te .

f
,

ro m , 1 4 7 fi
G Pa
.

T ro tz k y , Le o n 1 4 6 , 1 8 1 n Z ilb oo rg re g ory Th e ssi n g of th e

E u rop e qu o ted
. , .

O ld Ord e r i n 14 1.
Un d er-M an d e n ed 23 ; fi atti tu d e 1 83 fi
1 94
. .

l pp
, , .
,

to ward ci vi i za tio n 2 3 fi g o , os itio n Z in o viev , 2 1 6 17 .