But there is another and more subtle way in which we may miss the point;
and that is, not by keeping a dead silence about it, but by being just
witty enough to state it wrong. Thus, some of the Liberal official
papers have almost screwed up their courage to the sticking-point about
the bestial coup d’etat in South Africa. They have screwed up their
courage to the sticking-point; and it has stuck. It cannot get any
further; because it has missed the main point. The modern Liberals make
their feeble attempts to attack the introduction of slavery into South
Africa by the Dutch and the Jews, by a very typical evasion of the vital
fact. The vital fact is simply slavery. Most of these Dutchmen have
always felt like slave-owners. Most of these Jews have always felt like
slaves. Now that they are on top, they have a particular and curious
kind of impudence, which is only known among slaves. But the Liberal
journalists will do their best to suggest that the South African
wrong consisted in what they call Martial Law. That is, that there is
something specially wicked about men doing an act of cruelty in khaki
or in vermilion, but not if it is done in dark blue with pewter buttons.
The tyrant who wears a busby or a forage cap is abominable; the tyrant
who wears a horsehair wig is excusable. To be judged by soldiers is
hell; but to be judged by lawyers is paradise.
Now the point must not be missed in this way. What is wrong with the
tyranny in Africa is not that it is run by soldiers. It would be quite
as bad, or worse, if it were run by policemen. What is wrong is that,
for the first time since Pagan times, private men are being forced to
work for a private man. Men are being punished by imprisonment or exile
for refusing to accept a job. The fact that Botha can ride on a horse,
or fire off a gun, makes him better rather than worse than any man like
Sidney Webb or Philip Snowden, who attempt the same slavery by much less
manly methods. The Liberal Party will try to divert the whole discussion
to one about what they call militarism. But the very terms of modern
politics contradict it. For when we talk of real rebels against the
present system we call them Militants. And there will be none in the
Servile State.