The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

1972 SIX IDEAS TO KEEP US HUMAN 647lacking in characters who exhibitnobility, heroism, kindness, oreven common decency. Anothertack is taken in such a, film as"The Hellstrom Chronicle." Themere ability to film those astonishingpictures of the insect worldrepresents the culmination of thework of many geniuses, but thisheartening thought is squelchedby the narrator who tells ustoward the end of the film thatthey really do organize thingsbetter in the insect world, andhuman beings should learn fromwasps and ants to submerge theirindividual talents for the greaterglory of the hive and termitary!The examples I have cited fromworks of popular science and therealm of entertainment might bemultiplied many times, and theyrepresent no more than the fractionof the iceberg that pokes itselfabove the surface of thewater. The huge mass below thewater line represents the mood,outlook, trend or, drift that swaysthe multitude.In many previous ages lonelythinkers and poets sounded thenote of pessimism, voiced theirdespair, and vented their hatredof life. But they were read andheard by only a handful of theircontemporaries; they did notreach the multitudes. The massesof men in previous ages were comfortablyinsulated against ideas ofany sort; most of them couldn'tread and the range of' the humanvoice limited the size of the audience.The traditional religious beliefgave men's lives meaning andeven dignity, and most humanenergy was used up in producingenough to live on.Catering to the MassesThings are different now. Antihumansentiments, dislike of humanity,hatred of life, are epidemicamong present-day intellectuals,and the idea that lifemay not be worth living has percolateddown to the masses of people.This is a new situation inhistory. The masses of men arerelatively inarticulate but only amass audience can make a book abest seller, or award a goldenrecord to some singer, or enable afilm to gross ten million dollars.The people, books, songs, ideaswhich ride the crest of fashiontoday are held there by popularsupport; whereas, formerly, theartist and composer wrote forwealthy patrons. Joseph Haydencomposed magnificent music forthe Esterhazys; but LeonardBernstein writes his Mass for themasses. We are dealing with aperverse attitude toward lifewhich has infected major sectorsof Western culture at every level.In the year 1929, Joseph WoodKrutch wrote a stunning little