The opportunity of Liberalism has come at last, an overwhelming opportunity. The age of militarism has rushed to its inevitable1 and yet surprising climax2. The great soldier empire, made for war, which has dominated Europe for forty years has pulled itself up by the roots and flung itself into the struggle for which it was made. Whether it win or lose, it will never put itself back again. All Europe, following that lead, is a-field for war. The good harvests stand neglected, the factories are idle, a thin, uncertain trickle3 of paper money replaces the chinking flow of commerce; whichever betide, defeat or deadlock4, the capitalist military civilisation5 uproots6 itself and ends. The war may burn itself out more quickly than those who regard its immensity think, but the war itself is the mere7 smash of the thing. The reality is the uprooting8, the incurable9 dislocation.
Trying to map and measure that dislocation is rather like one’s first effort to think in sun’s distances. 61It is to transfer one’s mind to a new and overwhelming scale. Never did any time carry so swift a burthen of change as this time. It is manifest that in a year or so the world of men is going to alter more than it has altered in the last century and a half, more indeed than it ever altered before these last centuries since history began. Think of the mere geographical10 dislocation. There is scarcely a country in Europe that will not emerge from this struggle with entirely11 fresh frontiers, sovereign powers will vanish from the map, new sovereign powers will come. In the disorders12 that are upon us and of which this war itself is the mere preliminary phase in uniform, inevitably13 there must be social reconstruction14. Who can doubt it? Who can doubt the break-up of confidence and usage that is in progress? Plainly you can see famine coming—in France, in Germany, in Russia. Does anyone suppose that those sham15 efficient Germans have fully16 worked out the care and feeding of the madly distended17 hosts they have hurled18 at France? Does anyone dream that they have reckoned for a check and halt? Does anyone imagine their sanitary19 arrangements are perfect? There will be pestilence20. And can one believe that whatever feats21 of financial fiction we contrive22, their financial crash can be staved off, and that the bankers of Hamburg and Frankfort are likely to be shovelling23 gold next January in a still methodical 62world? The German State machine has probably already done all that it was ever made to do. It stands now exhausted24 amidst the turmoil25 of its consequences. Its mobilization arrangements are said to have been astonishingly complete. Ten million men for and against have been got into the field—with ammunition26. Prussian Germany has carried out its arrangements and committed the business to Gott. German foresight27 has exhausted itself. If Gott fail Germany, I do not believe that Germany has the remotest idea what to do next. For the most part those millions will never get home any more. They will certainly never get back to their work again, because it will have disappeared.
When I think of European statecraft presently trying to put all these things back again I am reminded of a story of a friend whose neighbour tried to cut his throat and then repented28. He came round to her with a towel about his neck making peculiar29 noises. It was a distressing30 but illuminating31 experience for her. She was a plucky32 and resourceful woman, and she did her best. “There was such a lot of it,” she said. “I hadn’t an idea things were packed so tight in us.”
It is characteristic of such times as this—that much in the world, and, more particularly, much in the minds of men, much that has seemed as invincible33 as the mountains and as deeply rooted as the sea, magically loses its solidity, fades, changes, 63vanishes. When one looked at the map of Europe a month ago most of the lines of its frontiers seemed almost as stable as the coastlines. Now they waver under one’s eyes. When one thought of the heritage of the Crown Prince of Germany, it seemed as fixed34 as a constellation35, and now in a little while it may be worth as little as a bloody36 rag in the trenches37 of Liège. In little things as in great, one is suddenly confronted by undreamt-of instabilities. The Reform Club, which has been a cheerful and refreshing38 trickle of gold to me for years, now yields me reluctantly for my cheque two inartistic pound notes. My other club has ceased the kindly39 custom of cashing cheques altogether. One is glad that poor Bagehot did not live to see this day. Each day now I marvel40 to wake and find I have still a banker.... And I perceive too, that if presently my banker dissolved into the rest of this dissolving world—a thing I should have thought an unendurable calamity41 a month ago—I shall laugh and go on.... Ideas that have ruled life as though they were divine truths are being chased and slaughtered42 in the streets. The rights of property, for example, the sturdy virtues43 of individualism, all toleration for the rewards of abstinence, vanished last week suddenly amidst the execrations of mankind upon a hurrying motor-car loaded with packages of sugar and flour. They bolted, leaving Socialism and Collectivism in possession. 64The State takes over flour mills and the food supply, not merely for military purposes, but for the general welfare of the community. The State controls the railways with a sudden complete disregard of shareholders44. There is not even a letter to the Times to object. If the State sees fit to keep its hold upon these things for good, or loosens its hold only to improve its grip, I question if there is very much left in the minds of men, even after the mere preliminary sweeping45 of the last two weeks, to dispute possession. Society as we knew it a year ago has indeed already broken up; it has lost all real cohesion46; only the absence of any attraction elsewhere keeps us bunched together. We keep our relative positions because there is nowhither to stampede. Dazed, astonished people fill the streets; and we talk of the national calm. The more intelligent men thrown out of their jobs make for the recruiting offices, because they have nothing else to do; we talk of the magnificent response to Lord Kitchener’s appeal. Everybody is offering services. Everybody is looking for someone to tell him what to do. It is not organisation47; it is the first phase of dissolution.
I am not writing prophecies now, and I am not “displaying imagination.” I am just running as hard as I can by the side of the marching facts, and pointing to them. Institutions and conventions crumble48 about us, and release to unprecedented49 65power the two sorts of rebel that ordinary times suppress, will and ideas.
The character of the new age that must come out of the catastrophes50 of this epoch51 will be no mechanical consequence of inanimate forces. Will and ideas will take a larger part in this swirl-ahead than they have even taken in any previous collapse52. No doubt the mass of mankind will still pour along the channels of chance, but the desire for a new world of a definite character will be a force, and if it is multitudinously unanimous enough, it may even be a guiding force, in shaping the new time. The common man and base men are scared to docility53. Rulers, pomposities, obstructives are suddenly apologetic, helpful, asking for help. This is a time of incalculable plasticity. For the men who know what they want, the moment has come. It is the supreme54 opportunity, the test or condemnation55 of constructive56 liberal thought in the world.
Now what does Liberalism mean to do? It has always been alleged57 against Liberalism that it is carpingly critical, disorganised, dispersed58, impracticable, fractious, readier to “resign” and “rebel” than help. That is the common excuse of all modern autocracies59, bureaucracies, and dogmatisms. Are they right? Is Liberal thought in this world-crisis going to present the spectacle of a swarm60 of little wrangling61 men swept before the mindless besom of brute62 accident, or shall we be able in this 66vast collapse or re-birth of the world, to produce and express ideas that will rule? Has it all been talk? Or has it been planning? Is the new world, in fact, to be shaped by the philosophers or by the Huns?
First, as to peace. Do Liberals realise that now is the time to plan the confederation and collective disarmament of Europe, now is the time to re-draw the map of Europe so that there may be no more rankling63 sores or unsatisfied national ambitions? Are the Liberals as a body going to cry “Peace! Peace!” and leave the questions alone, or are they going to take hold of them? If Liberalism throughout the world develops no plan of a pacified64 world until the diplomatists get to work, it will be too late. Peace may come to Europe this winter as swiftly and disastrously65 as the war.
And next, as to social reconstruction. Do Liberals realise that the individualist capitalist system is helpless now? It may be picked up unresistingly. It is stunned66. A new economic order may be improvised67 and probably will in some manner be improvised in the next two or three years. What are the intentions of Liberalism? What will be the contribution of Liberalism? One poor Liberal, I perceive, is possessed68, to the exclusion69 of every other consideration, by the idea that we were not legally bound to fight for Belgium. A pretty point, but a petty one. Liberalism is something 67greater than unfavourable comment on the deeds of active men. Let us set about defining our intentions. Let us borrow a little from the rash vigour70 of the types that have contrived71 this disaster. Let us make a truce72 of our finer feelings and control our dissentient passions. Let us re-draw the map of Europe boldly, as we mean it to be re-drawn, and let us re-plan society as we mean it to be reconstructed. Let us get to work while there is still a little time left to us. Or while our futile73 fine intelligences are busy, each with its particular exquisitely-felt point, the Northcliffes and the diplomatists, the Welt-Politik whisperers, and the financiers, and militarists, the armaments interests, and the Cossack Tsar, terrified by the inevitable red dawn of leaderless social democracy, by the beginning of the stupendous stampede that will follow this great jar and displacement74, will surely contrive some monstrous75 blundering settlement, and the latter state of this world will be worse than the former.
Now is the opportunity to do fundamental things that will otherwise not get done for hundreds of years. If Liberals throughout the world—and in this matter the Liberalism of America is a stupendous possibility—will insist upon a World conference at the end of this conflict, if they refuse all partial settlements and merely European solutions, they may re-draw every frontier they choose, they 68may reduce a thousand chafing76 conflicts of race and language and government to a minimum, and set up a Peace League that will control the globe. The world will be ripe for it. And the world will be ripe, too, for the banishment77 of the private industry in armaments and all the vast corruption78 that entails79 from the earth for ever. It is possible now to make an end to Kruppism. It may never be possible again. Henceforth let us say weapons must be made by the State, and only by the State; there must be no more private profit in blood. That is the second great possibility for Liberalism, linked to the first. And, thirdly, we may turn our present social necessities to the most enduring social reorganization; with an absolute minimum of effort now, we may help to set going methods and machinery80 that will put the feeding and housing of the population and the administration of the land out of the reach of private greed and selfishness for ever.
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1
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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climax
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| n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点 | |
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trickle
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| vi.淌，滴，流出，慢慢移动，逐渐消散 | |
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deadlock
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| n.僵局，僵持 | |
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civilisation
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| n.文明，文化，开化，教化 | |
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uproots
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| v.把（某物）连根拔起( uproot的第三人称单数 )；根除；赶走；把…赶出家园 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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uprooting
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| n.倒根，挖除伐根v.把（某物）连根拔起( uproot的现在分词 )；根除；赶走；把…赶出家园 | |
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incurable
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| adj.不能医治的，不能矫正的，无救的；n.不治的病人，无救的人 | |
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geographical
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| adj.地理的；地区(性)的 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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disorders
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| n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 )；凌乱；骚乱；（身心、机能）失调 | |
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inevitably
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| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
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reconstruction
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| n.重建，再现，复原 | |
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sham
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| n./adj.假冒(的)，虚伪(的) | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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distended
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| v.（使）膨胀，肿胀( distend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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hurled
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| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
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sanitary
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| adj.卫生方面的，卫生的，清洁的，卫生的 | |
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pestilence
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| n.瘟疫 | |
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feats
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| 功绩，伟业，技艺( feat的名词复数 ) | |
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contrive
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| vt.谋划，策划；设法做到；设计，想出 | |
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shovelling
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| v.铲子( shovel的现在分词 )；锹；推土机、挖土机等的)铲；铲形部份 | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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turmoil
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| n.骚乱，混乱，动乱 | |
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ammunition
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| n.军火，弹药 | |
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foresight
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| n.先见之明，深谋远虑 | |
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repented
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| 对（自己的所为）感到懊悔或忏悔( repent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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distressing
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| a.使人痛苦的 | |
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illuminating
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| a.富于启发性的，有助阐明的 | |
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plucky
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| adj.勇敢的 | |
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invincible
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| adj.不可征服的，难以制服的 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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constellation
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| n.星座n.灿烂的一群 | |
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bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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trenches
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| 深沟，地沟( trench的名词复数 )； 战壕 | |
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refreshing
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| adj.使精神振作的，使人清爽的，使人喜欢的 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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marvel
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| vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事 | |
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calamity
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| n.灾害，祸患，不幸事件 | |
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slaughtered
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| v.屠杀，杀戮，屠宰( slaughter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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shareholders
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| n.股东( shareholder的名词复数 ) | |
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sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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cohesion
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| n.团结，凝结力 | |
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organisation
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| n.组织，安排，团体，有机休 | |
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crumble
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| vi.碎裂，崩溃；vt.弄碎，摧毁 | |
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unprecedented
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| adj.无前例的，新奇的 | |
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catastrophes
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| n.灾祸( catastrophe的名词复数 )；灾难；不幸事件；困难 | |
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epoch
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| n.(新)时代；历元 | |
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52
collapse
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| vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷 | |
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docility
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| n.容易教，易驾驶，驯服 | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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condemnation
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| n.谴责; 定罪 | |
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constructive
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| adj.建设的，建设性的 | |
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alleged
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| a.被指控的，嫌疑的 | |
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dispersed
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| adj. 被驱散的, 被分散的, 散布的 | |
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autocracies
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| n.独裁( autocracy的名词复数 )；独裁统治；独裁政体；独裁政府 | |
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swarm
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| n.(昆虫)等一大群；vi.成群飞舞；蜂拥而入 | |
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wrangling
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| v.争吵，争论，口角( wrangle的现在分词 ) | |
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brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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rankling
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| v.（使）痛苦不已，（使）怨恨不已( rankle的现在分词 ) | |
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pacified
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| 使（某人）安静( pacify的过去式和过去分词 )； 息怒； 抚慰； 在（有战争的地区、国家等）实现和平 | |
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disastrously
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| ad.灾难性地 | |
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stunned
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| adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
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improvised
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| a.即席而作的,即兴的 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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exclusion
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| n.拒绝，排除，排斥，远足，远途旅行 | |
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vigour
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| （=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力 | |
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contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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truce
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| n.休战，(争执，烦恼等的)缓和；v.以停战结束 | |
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futile
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| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
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displacement
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| n.移置，取代，位移，排水量 | |
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monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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chafing
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| n.皮肤发炎v.擦热（尤指皮肤）( chafe的现在分词 )；擦痛；发怒；惹怒 | |
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banishment
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| n.放逐，驱逐 | |
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corruption
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| n.腐败，堕落，贪污 | |
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entails
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| 使…成为必要( entail的第三人称单数 )； 需要； 限定继承； 使必需 | |
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machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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