THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS
Twelve years ago it would have been quite easy to write this book.
The word “Intolerance,” in the minds of most people, was then almost
exclusively identified with the idea of “religious intolerance” and when
an historian wrote that “so and so had been a champion of tolerance” it
was generally accepted that so and so had spent his life fighting the
abuses of the Church and the tyranny of a professional priesthood.
Then came the war.
And much was changed in this world.
Instead of one system of intolerance, we got a dozen.
Instead of one form of cruelty, practiced by man upon his fellow-men, we
got a hundred.
And a society which was just beginning to rid itself of the horrors
of religious bigotry was obliged to put up with the infinitely more
painful manifestations of a paltry form of racial intolerance and social
intolerance and a score of petty forms of intolerance, the existence of
which had not even been suspected a decade ago.
* * * * *
This seems very terrible to many good people who until recently lived in
the happy delusion that progress was a sort of automatic time-piece which
needed no other winding than their occasional approbation.
They sadly shake their heads, whisper “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity!”
and mutter disagreeable things about the cussedness of the human race
which goes everlastingly to school, yet always refuses to learn.
Until, in sheer despair, they join the rapidly increasing ranks of our
spiritual defeatists, attach themselves to this or that or the other
religious institution (that they may transfer their own burden to the
back of some one else), and in the most doleful tones acknowledge
themselves beaten and retire from all further participation in the
affairs of their community.
I don’t like such people.
They are not merely cowards.
They are traitors to the future of the human race.
* * * * *
So far so good, but what is the solution, if a solution there be?
Let us be honest with ourselves.
There is not any.
At least not in the eyes of a world which asks for quick results and
expects to settle all difficulties of this earth comfortably and speedily
with the help of a mathematical or medical formula or by an act of
Congress. But those of us who have accustomed ourselves to consider
history in the light of eternity and who know that civilization does not
begin and end with the twentieth century, feel a little more hopeful.
That vicious circle of despair of which we hear so much nowadays (“man
has always been that way,” “man always will be that way,” “the world
never changes,” “things are just about the same as they were four
thousand years ago,”) does not exist.
It is an optical illusion.
The line of progress is often interrupted but if we set aside all
sentimental prejudices and render a sober judgment upon the record of
the last twenty thousand years (the only period about which we possess
more or less concrete information) we notice an indubitable if slow rise
from a condition of almost unspeakable brutality and crudeness to a state
which holds the promise of something infinitely nobler and better than
what has ever gone before and even the ghastly blunder of the Great War
can not shake the firm conviction that this is true.
* * * * *
The human race is possessed of almost incredible vitality.
It has survived theology.
It due time it will survive industrialism.
It has lived through cholera and plague, high heels and blue laws.
It will also learn how to overcome the many spiritual ills which beset
the present generation.
* * * * *
History, chary of revealing her secrets, has thus far taught us one great
lesson.
What the hand of man has done, the hand of man can also undo.
It is a question of courage, and next to courage, of education.
* * * * *
That of course sounds like a platitude. For the last hundred years we
have had “education” driven into our ears until we are sick and tired
of the word and look longingly back to a time when people could neither
read nor write but used their surplus intellectual energy for occasional
moments of independent thinking.
But when I here speak of “education” I do not mean the mere accumulation
of facts which is regarded as the necessary mental ballast of our modern
children. Rather, I have in mind that true understanding of the present
which is born out of a charitable and generous knowledge of the past.
In this book I have tried to prove that intolerance is merely a
manifestation of the protective instinct of the herd.
A group of wolves is intolerant of the wolf that is different (be it
through weakness or strength) from the rest of the pack and invariably
tries to get rid of this offending and unwelcome companion.
A tribe of cannibals is intolerant of the individual who by his
idiosyncrasies threatens to provoke the wrath of the Gods and bring
disaster upon the whole village and brutally relegates him or her to the
wilderness.
The Greek commonwealth can ill afford to harbor within its sacred walls a
citizen who dares to question the very fundaments upon which the success
of the community has been built and in a poor outburst of intolerance
condemns the offending philosopher to the merciful death of poison.
The Roman state cannot possibly hope to survive if a small group of
well-meaning zealots is allowed to play fast and loose with certain laws
which have been held indispensable ever since the days of Romulus, and
much against her own will she is driven into deeds of intolerance which
are entirely at variance with her age-old policy of liberal aloofness.
The Church, spiritual heir to the material dominions of the ancient
Empire, depends for her continued existence upon the absolute and
unquestioning obedience of even the humblest of her subjects and is
driven to such extremes of suppression and cruelty that many people
prefer the ruthlessness of the Turk to the charity of the Christian.
The great insurgents against ecclesiastical tyranny, beset by a thousand
difficulties, can only maintain their rule if they show themselves
intolerant to all spiritual innovations and scientific experiments and in
the name of “Reform” they commit (or rather try to commit) the self-same
mistakes which have just deprived their enemies of most of their former
power and influence.
And so it goes throughout the ages until life, which might be a glorious
adventure, is turned into a horrible experience and all this happens
because human existence so far has been entirely dominated by fear.
* * * * *
For fear, I repeat it, is at the bottom of all intolerance.
No matter what form or shape a persecution may take, it is caused by fear
and its very vehemence is indicative of the degree of anguish experienced
by those who erect the gallows or throw fresh logs upon the funeral pyre.
* * * * *
Once we recognize this fact, the solution of the difficulty immediately
presents itself.
Man, when not under the influence of fear, is strongly inclined to be
righteous and just.
Thus far he has had very few opportunities to practice these two virtues.
But I cannot for the life of me see that this matters overmuch. It is
part of the necessary development of the human race. And that race is
young, hopelessly, almost ridiculously young. To ask that a certain form
of mammal, which began its independent career only a few thousand years
ago should already have acquired those virtues which go only with age and
experience, seems both unreasonable and unfair.
And furthermore, it warps our point of view.
It causes us to be irritated when we should be patient.
It makes us say harsh things where we should only feel pity.
* * * * *
In the last chapters of a book like this, there is a serious temptation
to assume the rôle of the prophet of woe and indulge in a little amateur
preaching.
Heaven forbid!
Life is short and sermons are apt to be long.
And what cannot be said in a hundred words had better never be said at
all.
* * * * *
Our historians are guilty of one great error. They speak of prehistoric
times, they tell us about the Golden Age of Greece and Rome, they talk
nonsense about a supposedly dark period, they compose rhapsodies upon the
tenfold glories of our modern era.
If perchance these learned doctors perceive certain characteristics which
do not seem to fit into the picture they have so prettily put together,
they offer a few humble apologies and mumble something about certain
undesirable qualities which are part of our unfortunate and barbaric
heritage but which in due course of time will disappear, just as the
stage-coach has given way before the railroad engine.
It is all very pretty but it is not true. It may flatter our pride to
believe ourselves heir to the ages. It will be better for our spiritual
health if we know ourselves for what we are—contemporaries of the folks
that lived in caves, neolithic men with cigarettes and Ford cars,
cliff-dwellers who reach their homes in an elevator.
For then and only then shall we be able to make a first step toward that
goal that still lies hidden beyond the vast mountain ranges of the future.
* * * * *
To speak of Golden Ages and Modern Eras and Progress is sheer waste of
time as long as this world is dominated by fear.
To ask for tolerance, as long as intolerance must of need be an integral
part of our law of self-preservation, is little short of a crime.
The day will come when tolerance shall be the rule, when intolerance
shall be a myth like the slaughter of innocent captives, the burning of
widows, the blind worship of a printed page.
It may take ten thousand years, it may take a hundred thousand.
But it will come, and it will follow close upon the first true victory of
which history shall have any record, the triumph of man over his own fear.
_Westport, Connecticut_
_July, 19, 1925_