lij	NEW   HUMANISM
has been revised in the Stalin Constitution, which lays
down: "From eacn according to his ability, to each
according -to his work." If the traditional dictum was
a useless slogan, the revision, though apparently a tauto-
logical statement, is not necessarily without any mean-
ing; indeed, it has a meaning which justifies inequity
and unequal distribution of wealth in the new social
order. There is no fair method of evaluating work.
The judgment is left to those in power. And it is now
known what has been the consequence.
The post-revolutionary political practice and
economic reconstruction in Russia have been purely
pragmatic. They have no theoretical foundation, no
bearing upon the ideological system of Marxism. There-
fore it is arbitrary to call them socialist or communist.
On the other hand, since the prophet did not prescribe
how the new order should be built, nor held out any
picture even in broad outlines, the label can be attached
to anything, and nobody can prove that the Soviet State
and Soviet economy are not communist. The pragmatic
reality of the new order cannot be fitted; into the hypo-
thetical or imaginary picture which inspired
romantic souls in the days of optimism, when the ideal
had to be only theoretically justified, its realisation being
still in the womb of the future. The discrepancy
between the ideal and the reality of the socialist new
order cannot but dampen the enthusiasm for it. This
disappointing experience has caused heart-searching,
particularly on the part of those for whom a mere sequ-
ence of events in time is not progress; who look for the