BOOKS OF THE MONTH
Follette, Fola La
BOOKS OF THE MONTH By FOLA LA FOLLETTE "MOSES IN BED," by Lincoln Steffens. Dor-ranee aad Company, Philadelphia. I1NOOLN STEFFENS has already had a -j great curiosity about human behavior— th«...
...Life is change, and if you can't adapt to the change you die...
...He has witnessed most of these upheavals which have taken place in the last decade...
...he merely happens to find himself (and his interest) against each and every particular reform that strikes at the root of his old "rights" and privileges...
...And he dedicates his book "to the righteous people everywhere, always, on the not unscientific • !>-«'!'y that, vn'v.i * lli/y ;ir • ...awl...
...It is the fashion ]>i the United States, where ¦We know very little tbout it at first hand, to condemn revolution...
...In the light of his direct experience he began to re-read the historical accounts of past social upheavals...
...The dinosaur is extinct...
...Species, races, classes of society, forms of government, are all subject to the same law...
...These "righteous" people are the reactionary forces which resist the necessary evolutionary human adaptation to changing conditions...
...However diverse the races and traditions, he found that certain manifestations were always similar...
...Out of this faith in the dawning intelligence of men, in their capacity ultimately to understand their own ways and to direct their fate, comes this book with its plea for the scientific study of revolution as the only possible means of eliminating this ancient, wasteful and destructive way of readjustment to ever changing conditions...
...Everywhere he recognized the recurrence of the fame typical situations, the same individual and p»ob psychology which be had seen in the revolutions he had himself witnessed...
...He considers the ancient story of Moses leading the Chosen People out of Egypt to be the archtype of all revolutions, and Moses himself one of the few great leaders of revolt who was loyal to his people...
...For "the Story of Man is the history of the rise and fall of nations: Egypt, Greece, Rome, Spain, France— And the story of the fall of nations is the ever repeated tragedy of the rise of great men...
...And it should be preventable, therefore, but not by prayer and not by force...
...His preference for "evolution" is merely lip service...
...Except for an introductory chapter, Steffens has chosen to present his own views through a re-interpretation of this classic account...
...and not only a beautiful life but a beautiful race of men...
...But Steffens differs with this view...
...I1NOOLN STEFFENS has already had a -j great curiosity about human behavior— th« kind of curiosity that scientists have about natural phenomena...
...Revolutionists feel that it is useless to try to make these privileged "righteous" understand...
...You may not aj^ree with all the author's conclusions...
...There may be famine in the land, but their granaries are full and they don't see why others should be discontented...
...He came to fl>e conclusion that this uniformity of pattern indicated that there are certain natural laws, which, if we thoroughly ¦understood them, would make it possible to avoid, or at least to predicate and control, these devastating crises...
...He is not orthodox, but he is profoundly religious, for he has faith, not in creeds, but in life, and in Nature...
...They make a complete and almost a perfect circle...
...for sometimes Steffens is too clever by half...
...occasionally you may wonder what they are...
...and then even when revolution comes they will not renounce their special privileges as the new order requires...
...They are comfortable, and they have a "righteous conviction" that "their privileges are rights—forever...
...Growing old is growing set—insisting on living in the past instead of adjusting to the present and going forward to meet the future...
...a successful individual career...
...He talked with the leaders...
...If we can understand her laws and co-operate w'ith them we may comprehend the wisdom of Jehovah and learn that "lands of Promise are nothing but lands of opportunity, where men, by their labor, by their growing strength and by their dawning intelligence, may make, if they will, not only a good but a beautiful living...
...It may even make you angry if you are growing old inside, or belong to the "righteous' who believe "their privileges are 'rights'—forever...
...In a spirit of scientific inquiry he has made first hand studies in these human laboratories, seeking knowledge as to the collective ways of man...
...i. . • :uv all one people w.'vh r-ni- cvnymvnj c >rit j-.^l;.>-•: .• !'uU\" "Moses in Ked" N a brief book, liitl it h an important book...
...When revolution appeared in Mexico, and later swept over Europe, Steffens followed its course...
...And this is precisely What the reactionary does everything in his power to prevent...
...For, as Steffens says, "evolution, if it means anything in political economy, is a process of reformation of old laws, customs and institutions to make them conform to the social, economic, and psychological changes that are occurring all the time...
...When society passes, however unintentionally, from hand-labor to machinery, man-made laws, constitutions and customs must be altered and should be allowed to change consciously and easily...
...Steffens' attitude toward revolution is comparable to advising a careful study of the causes of the disease and an elimination of all sources of infection so that no epidemic may occur...
...he saw that the survival of •ur present civilization depends on our capacities to make these new adjustments...
...He does not know it because, being righteous, he has to believe that he is for reform in general...
...That is the law...
...But perhaps if he weren't, he wouldn't got his writing< published—until after his death...
...He was early aware that tte changes resulting from scientific discovery ami invention challenge man's powers of col-Wctive adaptation in new and complex ways...
...It has its causes and its natural history...
...Almost any good reactionary will feel that he has clarified his intellectual attitude and settled the question when he has stated that he believes "in evolution, not revolution...
...It applies to collective groups as well as to individuals...
...The book may irritate and shock you...
...But iC you begin and don't finish, or if you never begin "Moses in Red," you will have neglected a subtle and illuminating account of years of wise and disinterested research in Nature's great experimental laboratory of collective human functioning...
...he compared the behavior of different peoples in different lands during these periods of violent SocUl readjustments...
...For "the tragedy of revolutions * * * is not only that they happen, but that they fail...
...they are killed...
...They revolve...
...The results of all these years of patient observation and thought Steffens has condensed in a modest little volume entitled "Moses in Red...
...You can read it in an r>wi'm;;, but • if your exporietice is simik'.r to nun:- you will ponder it for weeiks...
...What he cannot see is that the effect in general of his resistance in particular is to incite the maddened revolutionists and the mad revolution...
...Imprisoning "radicals," verbal reiteration of faith in "evolution" is about as intelligent and scientific a procedure as killing the sick and mtirrtbling phrases about health in a city stricken with a typhoid epidemic resulting from an infected water supply...
...My theory is," he says, "that the righteous can be saved, that they do not have to be killed...
...His searching' studies of corruption in our American states and cities, which he earned on from 1900 to 1910, convinced him that knowledge and not statistical codes must be the guide to constructive adaptation to a rapidly changing world...
...Though the world changes and the great masses of mankind must adapt or perish, some specially privileged people (the "best" people) are always so situated that they can go on living comfortably...
...Their resistance to necessary change breeds revolution...
...They and not revolutionary leaders make revolutions...
...they stir up counter revolution, and that brings the terror...
...They have enough material wealth and power, as a result of their special privileges, to be able temporarily to create for themselves a miniature world on the old model...
...It has no reality in its application to the changing world...
...of the betrayal of the mass of the people by their owo born leaders, big and little—politicians, priests, business men, journalists, labor leaders —who sell out the faith of their fellows to the rnlers of the land for what our culture calls honor, and so sacrifice the career of a nation as a whole to what our culture calls success...
...The only way to prevent revolution is to recognize and change conditions before they produce revolution...
...era may he IjSL a!«>;• .\::u gactl a...
...A revolution," he says, "is a natural phenomenon, as natural and as understandable as a flood, a fire or a war, a financial depression, an epidemic of disease or a pimple on the nose...
...Whereas Steffens maintains that past history and all the contemporary upheavals conclusively demonstrate that revolution is an involuntary and inevitable collective human reaction to certain conditions...
...The earth changed and the dinosaur couldn't adapt...
...The title was born, I imagine, of the author's great admiration for this historic character...
...They may be so situated that they are even unaware of the changes that are taking place...
...if you arc an orthodox conservative, an orthodox liberal, or an orthodox radical...
...It is this that the conservative blocks...
...He talks as if a revolution were a conscious, volitional, collective action...
Vol. 19 • May 1927 • No. 5
