ABSTRACT
A general history of the passions in the twentieth century might be framed by the story of three systems of technology and the symbolisms which inevitably accompany them. The first only darkens by derivation the happy little corner of human endeavour celebrated here. It is the technology of death, beginning with the heavy machine gun perfected a little time before the demonstrations of its triumphant efficiency between 1914 and 1918. It was followed promptly by the tank and, in the second war, by the heavy bomber and the freight aircraft capable of delivering tons of explosives, equipment or human bodies anywhere within three or four thousand miles. In no time at all, of course, those same aircraft were delivering millions of tourist passengers, and the political economy of war had, as usual, done its bit for the continued thriving of capitalism.
