Freedom and civilization / by Bronislaw Malinowski.

  • Bronisław Malinowski
Date:
1944
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Freedom and civilization / by Bronislaw Malinowski. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    change the form in which they are now ruling their people, or else that the nations of Russia will replace the present system by one which is not fraught with the dangers of totalitarianism. Such a hope cannot be voiced too loudly in public by an official spokes¬ man. Thus a committee or many committees of protective vigilance are necessary under present conditions. In these committees, democratic types of thought and conscience ought to be cultivated. Such committees ought to watch over the clear dangers of the present moment. Even within the fighting democracies there is a danger of the means getting the better of the end, that is, of the establishment of imperialisms and totalitarian methods out of the present war impetus. There is danger of losing sight of our ulti¬ mate end: fighting a war to end war. There is a danger of moral and intellectual exhaustion. After the war we shall have once more to recognize that disci¬ pline has to be balanced by the essence of freedom, that is, untrammeled initiative, criticism, and even dissent. The recogni¬ tion of the value of hierarchy will have to make way for a belief in equality. The instrumentalities of secrecy, censorship, and planned General Staff decisions will have to give way to open discussion. It is enough to remember what happened in England and America, in France and indeed in the rest of Europe after the first World War came to an end in 1918, in order to realize how dangerous the process of spiritual demobilization can be¬ come. The surge of passions, the relaxation of purpose, espe¬ cially of moral purpose, the aversion to further planning, since war planning had become so irksome—all this may lead to the breakdown of a consistent, purposeful drive towards the achieve¬ ment of the real fruits of victory. By this I mean naturally the drive towards the achievement of permanent peace. The new isola¬ tionism and the new imperialistic greeds in every victorious com-
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