ABSTRACT
The current return to the authoritarian principle in politics finds its principal sanction in the belief that the new machine technology requires the control of an omnipotent state. There are many versions of this basic idea. The assumption that great corporate capitalism is in some mysterious way the inexorable consequence of machinery is an illusion. It is not probable, therefore, that "as industry advances in mechanization, a greater weight of political power must develop outside than was necessary in the past". It was by a stupendous liberation of the minds and spirits and conduct of men that a world-wide exchange of goods and services and ideas was promoted, and it was in this invigorating and sustaining environment that petty principalities coalesced into great commonwealths.
