With the diminution of the chances of international friction, the urgency of domestic uniformity will in great part disappear; and democratic life may be counted upon to express itself in a free and unlimited variation of thought and interest. At the same time it is obvious that the present doctrine of property-rights within the community entails a serious limitation upon the freedom of the mind. Notice has already been taken of the effect of the property-privilege as it operates in the hands of the capitalist employer upon the freedom of the worker; but the hindrance to freedom ranges far beyond this region. In domestic legislation, the rights of property have virtually been “the law and the prophets”; and modern states have shown themselves more jealous for the defence of vested interests than the culture of the national life. It may be indeed that they have not perceived that these two things were different, not to say opposed. But how far these vested interests enter into the counsels of the state is evident from the fact that it has tended to treat any doctrine which assails them as criminal; and crimes against property are almost invariably treated with greater severity than crimes against the person. While these class rights are still recognised as entitled to the corporate protection of the community, there will be a region within which freedom of thought will be still frowned upon and so far as may be denied. The sun is too high in the heavens to permit of persecution save in sporadic cases; and it would seem that this is the last ditch in which privilege is still entrenched in its retreat before the advance of freedom. Lese-majesté has ceased to be a dangerous crime; the heretic in religion enjoys his heresies unmolested; and the accident of noble birth has ceased to confer a privilege. The “divine rights” of property will presently go the way of the divine right of kings; and then democracy will have all its enemies under its feet, unless there may be lurking beyond the frontier some unforeseen and unforeseeable enemy. Yet this enemy too the spirit of democracy may be trusted to subdue.
Entire freedom of thought is contingent upon the ultimate disappearance of all forms of special and exclusive privilege, whether it appertains to monarchy, aristocracy or property; and freedom of thought is still tolerated grudgingly because government is contaminated by a survival of habits of thought derived from the doctrine of special inherent and sacred rights. The type of government pleaded for in these pages is one which assumes that no special interest shall have precedence over the good of the social whole, and which requires that every separate interest shall be subordinated to and co-ordinated into a general scheme of social welfare. The rights of property will be subject to such curtailment as the common good requires. And since therefore the main causes of existing limitations on freedom of thought will have disappeared, there seems to be no reason why this type of government should at any time take it upon itself to repress or to control thought. To this statement one exception may require to be made parenthetically, namely, that the continuance of sources of international trouble that may eventuate in war will probably necessitate occasional interference with freedom of thought and action. This matter we shall consider in more detail presently. Meantime, it is not rash to believe that in a state of the type here indicated, there will not only be any disposition to set bounds upon independent thought but a definite tendency to encourage it. It may conceivably come to conceive of national “prestige” in terms of perfect and untrammelled intellectual freedom.
Three conditions seem to be necessary to such an end. The first has to do with national education the aim of which should be to make every individual capable of thinking for himself and imparting to him a social vision which will discipline and fructify his thought. To this matter also we shall need to return at a later point.
The second condition is the provision of opportunities of free public discussion. To this subject some reference has already been made; and nothing more extended need now be added, save only, perhaps, the thought that the encouragement of free public discussion is the proper safeguard against the vagaries and dangers of a suppressed and inarticulate dissent. Let the new thing be brought into the Agora as it was in old Athens; and the daylight will declare whether it be gold or stubble.
The third condition is the full and unconditional recognition of the right of association,—the only proviso being that no association shall have private or occult or undeclared purposes. A strong tendency to the formation of social groups of various kinds, political, cultural, religious, recreational, should be hailed as a sign of life in the community. And even if the association be formed for the promulgation of the view of a dissenting minority, it should be as frankly encouraged as any other. For no view ever gains a considerable following which does not embody some fact or truth of experience which is necessary to the wholeness of life.
Chapter VIII.
A DEMOCRATIC WORLD.[[44]]
“We believe in association—which is but the reduction to action of our faith in one sole God, and one sole law, and one sole aim—as the only means we possess of realising the truth; as the method of progress; the path leading towards perfection. The highest possible degree of human progress will correspond to the discovery and application of the vastest formula of association.
We believe, therefore, in the Holy Alliance of the Peoples as the vastest formula of association possible in our epoch;—in the liberty and equality of the peoples without which no true association can exist; in nationality, which is the conscience of the peoples, and which, by assigning to them their part in the work of association, their function in humanity, constitutes their mission upon earth, that is to say, their individuality, without which neither liberty nor equality is possible; in the sacred Fatherland, cradle of nationality, altar and worship of the individuals of which each people is composed.