ENDS AND MEANS
all the evidence, that these bad means can achieve the
good ends we desire. The extent to which even highly
intelligent people can deceive themselves in this matter is
well illustrated by the following words from Professor
Laski's little book' on Communism. 'It is patent/ he
writes, 'that without the iron dictatorship of the Jacobins,
the republic would have been destroyed.* To anyone who
candidly considers the facts it seems even more patent that
it was precisely because |of the iron dictatorship of the
Jacobins that the republic was destroyed. Iron dictator-
ship led to foreign war and reaction at home. War and
reaction between them resulted in the creation of a military
dictatorship. Military dictatorship resulted in yet more
wars. These wars served to intensify nationalistic senti-
ment throughout the whole of Europe. Nationalism
became crystallized in a number of new idolatrous religions
dividing the world. (The Nazi creed, for example, is
already implicit and even, to a great extent, fully explicit
in the writings of Fichte.) To nationalism we owe military
conscription at home and imperialism abroad. * Without
the iron dictatorship of the Jacobins,' says Professor
Laski, *the republic would have been destroyed/ A fine
sentiment! Unfortunately there are also the facts. The
first significant fact is that the republic was destroyed and
that the iron dictatorship of the Jacobins was the prime
cause of its destruction. Nor was this the only piece of
mischief for which the Jacobin dictatorship was responsible.
It led to the futile waste and slaughter of the Napoleonic
wars; to the imposition in perpetuity of military slavery,
or conscription, upon practically all the countries of
Europe; and to the rise of those nationalistic idolatries
which threaten the existence of our civilization. A fine
record! And yet would-be revolutionaries persist in
believing that, by methods essentially similar to those
employed by the Jacobins, they will succeed in producing
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