Less chastity, more delicacy
… So two cheers for Democracy: one because it admits variety and two because it permits criticism. …
What about Force, though? While we are trying to be sensitive and advanced and affectionate and tolerant, an unpleasant question pops up: does not all society rest upon force? If a government cannot count upon the police and the army, how can it hope to rule? And if an individual gets knocked on the head or sent to a labour camp, of what significance are his opinions?
This dilemma does not worry me as much as it does some. I realise that all society rests upon force. But all the great creative actions, all the decent human relations, occur during the intervals when force has not managed to come to the front. These intervals are what matter. I want them to be as frequent and as lengthy as possible, and I call them “civilisation.”
Some people idealise force and pull it into the foreground and worship it, instead of keeping it in the background as long as possible. I think they make a mistake, and I think that their opposites, the mystics, err even more when they declare that force does not exist. I believe that it exists, and that one of our jobs is to prevent it from getting out of its box. It gets out sooner or later, and then it destroys us and all the lovely things which we have made. But it is not out all the time, for the fortunate reason that the strong are so stupid.
– E. M. Forster, What I believe (1938-9)
Many thanks to Michael Ashbridge for passing this along.
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Comment
- His definition of ‘civilization’ brought to mind a quote from Gore Vidal. I don’t have the precise wording at hand but it’s to the effect of “America is the only major society in history to have gone from barbarism to decline without an intervening period of civilization.”
Small wonder he spends most of his time in Italy.
— Phineas Sep 14, 1:15pm # - The Forster quote is a tasty morsel of what I have been craving lately: voices that refuse to minimize the pain, affliction, and wrongheadedness of this current low-point in human history by falling back on that wimpy saying “all things must pass,” but a voice that at the same time gives hope by reminding us that yes, all things must pass.
— Kendra Sep 15, 5:03pm # - “America is the only major society in history to have gone from barbarism to decline without an intervening period of civilization.”
I think making vague, general criticisms of 300,000,000 people and their lifestyles without offering any support for such an extreme statement is both helpful and important, because rarely is the Internet used as a soapbox or written diarrhea receptacle.
Thanks!
— Warren Sep 16, 8:23pm # - I’ll pass that along to Gore the next time I’m lunching at the villa.
Thanks!
— Phineas Sep 17, 9:09pm # - OK, seriously now. Forster’s is an articulate and considered point of view. However, I’m compelled to think of the relationship between art and society here. (‘Art’ might be considered as an excellent barometer of ‘civilization’. Indeed, it may give shape to its essence.) Speak to any aware citizen of a country which has recently experienced some kind of political repression or blatant totalitarian excess within the broad ‘Western’ matrix (ie. Romania, Poland, Yugoslavia, Argentina, Chile, etc.) In my experience, almost to a person they will remark upon how vital, inventive and important were the cultural productions of their region when so much was disallowed. The making of art was a transparent politcal act and often a very lifeline to clarity and sanity, no matter how encoded. Upon liberation from obvious censorship and the reins of governmental control and violence, their ‘art’ became pale and derivative – lacking in purpose and fecundity.
My background is most specifically in the theatre – a most public art, by defintion! – and my colleagues from around the world remind me of this melancholy conundrum whenever we speak. The apparent fatigue of radical playwright Vaclav Havel upon reaching a position of political autonomy and power is an interesting case in point. When does the flame of a great artist and humanitarian burn out?
It could be argued that the most exciting experiments in American art have occurred when civil turmoil was at its highest.
Now: let’s enjoy some polemic on the relationship between the ‘new capitalism’ and ‘freedom of expression’.
— MOJdeB Sep 18, 1:40am # - I think it was da Vinci who said, Art lives from constraints and dies from freedom.
I have been reminded lately of the fact that so much of the finest writing appears to be produced after a massive political upheaval (war, revolution…).
But we’ll first have to wait until the obligatory propaganda finishes working its magic.
(And then there are all those brillant Russians from the 20s – and I wonder what’s happened to satire.)
— gail Sep 18, 4:00am # - Satire? -It’s been ravaged and tossed by Irony.
— Alberto Sep 18, 2:50pm # - and drowned out by base sarcasm
— Sep 18, 5:40pm # - “Art lives from constraints and dies from freedom.”
I’m reminded of this often, as my high school design students whine and pule every time I announce a new client project, and its specifications.
“Why can’t we just do what we want, and then you grade it?” But inevitably, when I give them free reign a few times a year, very little is produced, and only rarely something that either they or I like.
At the end of the year when it’s time to critique the class, almost every students mentions that their favorite aspect of the class was doing real projects for real clients, the very ones they complained about bitterly at the time.
— susan bein Sep 19, 11:08am #
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