ABSTRACT
Is the first part of this book, we saw that machinery, which is physically capable of conferring great benefits upon mankind, is instead inflicting untold evil, of which the worst may be still to come. We traced this evil to three sources: private property, nationalism, and the mechanistic outlook. We found that if mechanism is to become a boon to mankind, private property, at least as regards land and all natural and legal monopolies, must be replaced by some form of public ownership and control; nationalism must give place to internationalism, both as regards sentiment and as regards certain governmental functions, notably war, movements of population, and the distribution of raw materials; while the mechanistic outlook must give place to one which values mechanism for its extra mechanical uses, but no longer worships it as a good in itself. We found that there is not, as Marxians contend, something fatal about sociological development, but that, on the contrary it can be controlled and completely changed by public opinion and the operation of
human desires and beliefs. This becomes more and more true as men advance in intelligence and in control over nature. We are at this moment the victims, not of natural forces outside ourselves, but of our own folly and our own evil passions. “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.” It is popular philosophy that is at fault; if that were changed, all the evils in the world would melt away.
