Collective, Where Do We Stand Now?

[1] However greatly opinions may vary as to the causes which have produced the present world-upheaval, or as to the kind of remedies which must be applied if there is to be any decent security for mankind in the future, we shall at least agree that the crisis through which we are passing is of profound historical significance. Our period marks the end of a chapter. For the political, economic and social changes which will be involved if any peace-settlement is to be achieved are likely to be so fundamental that a new type of civilization must almost certainly be created in the process. In such a situation any attempt to revive the old order would be doomed to failure. Even politicians are beginning to talk of establishing a 'new world'.

Most of us are conscious, indeed that it is not enough to take a short-term view and concentrate our attention on the problems immediately confronting us. The 'new world' will be no more than an abstract idea in our minds, a pious sentimentality, if we are unable to comprehend the direction in which events are moving, or to conceive the ultimate ends which we should seek to achieve. On the other hand, we have to beware of the tendency which is evident in may quarters to-day to formulate detailed programmes of the political and economic reforms which it is considered should be applied when hostilities have ceased. There is an obvious futility in such schemes. Those who draw them up most eagerly are not usually the people who are likely to be able to exercise much influence upon the Government when the war ends. Moreover, the act of compiling 'peace aims' and of becoming absorbed in a campaign for promulgating these aims tends to draw the support of such enthusiasts to the side of the Government on the false assumption that the Government will be coerced into carrying their programme into effect. Non of us - the Government included - can foretell with [2] any accuracy what the outcome of the struggle will be, though recent emergency decrees suggest that the Government fears socialist opposition in the future and is preparing for this eventuality.

Nevertheless, is is well that men and women to-day should be thinking about and discussing such questions as the kind of the new world which they desire to create. It is essential that post-war policy should not be dictated, as was largely the case in 1919, by statesmen uncontrolled by intelligent public opinion. Moreover, if public opinion is to be effective, it must view the existing conflict in a wider perspective than that merely of an attempt to overthrow the Nazi rulers in Germany. We must try to discover the process which is at work beneath the present war so as to estimate what is happening and what is likely to happen to the world.

Text Informations

Collective, Christian Left Pamphlet No. 5, 1940
Src : British Library