GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

THEORY OF COMMUNISM
which the pinch of economic hardship has been most
severely felt. Capitalism has not hesitated to reveal the
contempt which it has always entertained for liberal shibboleths
by destroying democracy, suppressing liberty and
establishing upon their ruins reaction open and unashamed.
In other words, the capitalist driven into an economic
corner turns fascist, and Fascism may, therefore, be
regarded as the last phase of Capitalism. Even in the more
prosperous capitalist countries, die limit of the concessions
which political liberty can be used to secure has already
been reached. The passing of the Incitement to Disaffection
Act in England is regarded as a significant pointer, showing
that the tide of political liberty is even in England already
on the ebb. Those who care for political liberty and wish
it to be preserved are, therefore, contending for something
which, from the point of view of the depressed classes, is
a shadow from which what substance it ever possessed
has departed. The above constitutes a brief summary of
arguments which are urged with considerable force in
Professor Laski's book, Democracy in Crisis.
Similar arguments are used by a number of communist
writers to suggest that, at the present stage of capitalist
development, there is a definite antithesis between political
liberty and economic equality. If political liberty
reality,
is a
if those peoples who enjoy it can make use
of it to obtain economic concessions, its effect is to per*
petuate Capitalism by diminishing the revolutionary
ardour of the workers who benefit from the concessions.
If it is not and its reality belongs already to the past
to present it to the people as a thing desirable, is to put
them off with a shadow. Those who value political
goods such as democracy and liberty are, therefore,
accused of mistaking the shadow for the substance. Hie
working classes, it is said, are beginning to recognize
political liberty for the imposture that it is, and show themselves
as a result increasingly impatient of those who
ask them to rally to its defence in face of the encroach*
ments with which its is threatened by Capitalism in decay.