ENDS AND MEANS
this energy to do what nobody else will do, to break the
new ground that nobody else will break.
The function of the well-intentioned individual, acting
in isolation, is to formulate or disseminate theoretical
truths. The function of well-intentioned individuals in
association is to live in accordance with those truths, to
demonstrate what happens when theory is translated into
practice, to create small-scale working models of the better
form of society to which the speculative idealist looks
forward. Let us consider the sort* of things that would
have to be done by associations of individuals devoted to
the tasks of establishing peace and a new form of economic
and social organization, in which the present obsession
with money and power should not be given the opportunity
of coming into existence. The two tasks are, of course,
closely related. Both capitalism and nationalism are fruits
of the obsession with power, success, position. Economic
competition and social domination are fundamentally mili-
taristic. Within a society the various classes have their
private imperialisms, just as the society as a whole has
its own, essentially similar, public imperialism. And so
on. Any association which tried to create a working
model of a society unobsessed by the lust for power, and
success would at the same time be creating a working
model of a society living in peace and having no reasons
for going to war. For the sake of convenience, I shall
deal separately with the pacifistic and economic activities
of our hypothetical association. In reality, however, the
two classes of activity are closely related and comple-
mentary.
*A11 men desire peace, but very few desire those things
that make for peace.* The thing that makes for peace
above all others is the systematic.practice in all human
relationships of non-violence. For full and recent dis-
cussions of the subject the reader is referred to Richard
138