THE TYRANNY OF RESPECTABILITY.
"Men, and still more women, who lift themselves above the ordinary
standard by their philosophical tastes and speculations, may
indeed be accounted fortunate if they escape calumny or obloquy
from general society."
W. CAREW HAZLITT.
"Mankind is an ass, who kicks those who endeavour to take off his
panniers," says a Spanish proverb. When we are very young and
enthusiastic about the great part we mean to play in the reformation
of society, we work ourselves into fearful furies of indignation with
those who have persecuted innovators in all ages. Later in life we
learn that the persecutor is more of an ass than a villain; and the
more we study humanity, not forgetting our own human nature, the more
are we persuaded that this is the right scientific view to take. While
we had the taint of Respectability in us (and very few men and women
are born without it), we were disposed sometimes to do some of this
asinine kicking upon those whom we considered dangers to society. We
did not pause to think whether they wished to help us by removing the
packs from our galled backs; but, as soon as a Samaritan approached
us with kindly intent, we let fly our heels and attacked him. The
fact is, as Thoreau says, there are really very few men, even of
the Non-Respectables, without some trace of Respectable prejudice.
Let us, therefore, be as tolerant as possible towards the misguided
Respectables who brutally maltreat their would-be benefactors. Perhaps
you have never thrown flints at an itinerant evangelist, nor hustled a
Socialist in the parks; nevertheless, you have persecuted in some shape
or form at one time of your life. Too lazy by nature to inquire into
a novel social doctrine, or to dispassionately examine a new theory
of morals, you have misunderstood and denounced the promulgators and
theorists. This is very often the outcome of your Respectability, and
a purely emotional manifestation of prejudice against something that
you have not tried to understand. Thus persecution begins. If you have
a large element of the savage in you, your opposition will take the
form of actual physical violence and scurrilous abuse; if you are
moderately humane and intelligent, you will merely scorn and deride
the heretic. Your blood seethes when you read of the persecution of
martyrs. Take heed of yourself that you do not evince the malevolent
spirit that impels men to denounce others unheard, at the first
suggestion of heterodox opinion.
Priestley, a Unitarian minister, of Birmingham, experimented in
chemistry, and discovered oxygen, alone and entirely unassisted, in a
laboratory fitted up at his own expense. The world owes much to this
industrious man of science. But the human nature that killed Christ and
Bruno, hated Priestley because he tried to convey new truths. A mob of
fanatical Respectables burned down his house, and destroyed all his
books, notes, and apparatus, and drove him from his native land.
Home, the author of the tragedy of "Douglas," was persecuted and
turned out of the ministry by Scotch Respectables for writing a play
to amuse and instruct his fellow men; and Dr. Alexander Carlyle was
threatened with a prosecution for standing by Home, his friend.
Religious Respectability persecuted the devout Hannah More for
instructing the children of the poor. Moneyed Respectability hanged
John Brown, mobbed Theodore Parker, and threatened to shoot Ernestine
Rose for endeavouring to free negro slaves. Shelley, one of the
humanest souls who ever lived, was driven from Eton by respectable
young cads, expelled from Oxford by Respectability, and banished
to another country. Byron, who taught men, by brave precept and
example to love liberty, was reviled, slandered, and forced to live
abroad. Walt Whitman, for showing men the beauty and purity of the
reproductive function, degraded and assailed by Respectability, was
"greeted with howls of execration." Respectability has cursed Ibsen,
Zola, and Björnson, three mighty forces for righteousness in Europe.
Charles Bradlaugh, who devoted his life to the service of man, was
bitterly assailed and vilely aspersed by his contemporary Respectables.
Respectable human nature kicks everyone who sets himself to benefit
humanity. The history of this moral pest and mental blight abounds with
instances of its venomous effect upon men's hearts and minds.
"I can bear it no longer," cries Thackeray, "this diabolical invention
of gentility which kills natural kindliness and honest friendship.
Proper pride, indeed! Rank and precedence, forsooth! The table of ranks
and degrees is a lie, and should be flung into the fire. Organise
rank and precedence! That was well for the masters of ceremonies
of former ages. Come forward, some great marshal, and organise
equality in society, and your rod shall swallow up all the juggling
old court 'goldsticks.'" Carlyle calls England "the wealthiest and
worst instructed of European nations." Respectability piles up money,
accumulates vast stores of material products, and starves men's minds
in the process. It tyrannises in every province of ethics, science,
art, literature, and politics, laying continually on our shoulders
burdens grievous to bear. You can scarcely move without coming into
collision with Respectability; you are expected to eat, drink,
dress, think, marry, and be buried in accordance with its canon. The
Respectables of the Exchange will snub and insult an independent-minded
man who ventures within the shoddy circle without a chimney-pot hat. I
have heard this stupid tyranny of majorities defended as a safeguard
of decency and order. What! These attempts to stamp out individuality
of character promote social progress? This is an odd way of reasoning.
But the Respectable doesn't reason; he follows the crowd mechanically.
You have only to give the Respectables plenty of rope, and they will
strangle every effort of advance. They form societies for suppressing
this thing and harrying that, with their wary scouts prowling in every
direction; they try to "rob the poor man of his beer," while they
gorge themselves with fat meats; they fought tooth and nail against
the Sunday opening of museums and picture-galleries; they prosecuted
Mr. Vizetelly for selling translations of Zola's novels; they oppose
amelioration of our absurd, cruel, and ineffective prison system; they
ban the teaching of physiological morality in sex matters; and they put
hobbles and blinkers on women.
I have no especial veneration for Lord Beaconsfield as a politician,
but I admire him for his unconventionality. How many young men possess
the pluck to appear at a dinner party in green velvet trousers, a
canary-coloured waistcoat, low shoes with silver buckles, lace at
their wrists, and their hair in ringlets? On another occasion, Disraeli
turned up at a diocesan gathering at Oxford clad in a black velveteen
shooting jacket, with a wideawake hat. A Respectable booby, writing
the other day to a Liberal newspaper, referred to these eccentricities
as though they were vices in a man, instead of recognising that such
flaunting of a dull, drab Respectability, betokened courage and
individuality. Immediately you dress in accordance with your own taste,
instead of in the mufti of convention, you are dubbed a mountebank and
a posturer. Of course, after these aberrations of deportment and form,
there is not a good word to be said for Dizzy, only vehement abuse and
denunciation. Yet the same Radical Respectable knew perfectly well,
when he sat down to write that diatribe, that many of his class affect
peculiarities of dress.