The Great Illusion

done by the Christian, who, because he did not belong to the conquering class, has had to work and has consequently come to possess whatever capacity for work and administration the country can show, because to do so would be to threaten the Turk’s only trade. If the Turk granted the Christians equal political rights they would inevitably ‘run the country.’ And yet the Turk himself cannot do it; and he will not let others do it, because to do so would be to threaten his supremacy.

“The more the use of force fails, the more, of course, does he resort to it and that is why many of us who do not believe in force and desire to see it disappear from the relationship not merely of religious but of political groups, might conceivably welcome this war of the Balkan Christians, in so far as it is an attempt to resist the use of force in those relationships. Of course, I do not try to estimate the ‘balance of criminality.’ Right is not all on one side⁠—it never is. But the broad issue is clear and plain. And only those concerned with the name rather than the thing, with nominal and verbal consistency rather than realities, will see anything paradoxical or contradictory in Pacifist approval of Christian resistance to the use of Turkish force.

“One fact stands out incontrovertibly from the whole weary muddle. It is quite clear that the inability to act in concert arises from the fact that in the international sphere the European is still dominated by illusions which he has dropped when he deals with home politics. The political faith of the Turk, which he would never think of applying at home as among the individuals of his nation, he applies pure and unalloyed when he comes to deal with foreigners as nations. The economic conception⁠—using the term in that wider sense which I have indicated earlier in this article⁠—which guides his individual conduct is the antithesis of that which guides his national conduct.

“While the Christian does not believe in robbery inside the frontier, he does without; while within the State he realizes that it is better for each to observe the general code, so that civilized society can exist, than for each to disregard it, so that society goes to pieces; while within the State he realizes that government is a matter of administration, not the seizure of property; that one town does not add to its wealth by ‘capturing’ another, that indeed one community cannot ‘own’ another⁠—while, I say, he believes all these things in his daily life at home, he disregards them all when he comes to the field of international relationship, la haute politique. To annex some province by a cynical breach of treaty obligation (Austria in Bosnia, Italy in Tripoli) is regarded as better politics than to act loyally with the community of nations to enforce their common interest in order and good government. In fact, we do not believe that there can be a community of nations, because, in fact, we do not believe that their interests are common, but rival; like the Turk, we believe that if you do not exercise force upon your ‘rival’ he will exercise it upon you; that nations live upon one another, not by cooperation with one another⁠—and it is for this reason presumably that you must ‘own’ as much of your neighbors as possible. It is the Turkish conception from beginning to end.

“It is because these false beliefs prevent the nations of Christendom acting loyally the one to the other, because each is playing for its own hand, that the Turk, with hint of some sordid bribe, has been able to play off each against the other.

“This is the crux of the matter. When Europe can honestly act in common on behalf of common interests some solution can be found. And the capacity of Europe to act in harmony will not be found as long as the accepted doctrines of European statecraft remain unchanged, as long as they are dominated by existing illusions.”

Endnotes

1. The True Way of Life (Headley Brothers, London), p. 29. I am aware that many modern pacifists, even of the English school, to which these remarks mainly apply, are more objective in their advocacy than Mr. Grubb, but in the eyes of the “average sensual man” pacificism is still deeply tainted with this self-sacrificing altruism (see Chapter III, Part III), notwithstanding the admirable work of the French pacifist school. ↩

2. The Matin newspaper recently made a series of revelations, in which it was shown that the master of a French codfishing vessel had, for some trivial insubordinations, disembowelled his cabin-boy alive, and put salt into the intestines, and then thrown the quivering body into the hold with the codfish. So inured were the crew to brutality that they did not effectively protest, and the incident was only brought to light months later by wine-shop chatter. The Matin quotes this as the sort of brutality that marks the Newfoundland codfishing industry in French ships.

   Again, the German Socialist papers have recently been dealing with what they term “The Casualties of the Industrial Battlefield,” showing that the losses from industrial accidents since 1871⁠—the loss of life during peace, that is⁠—have been enormously greater than the losses due to the Franco-Prussian War. ↩

3. The Interest of America in International Conditions. New York: Harper & Brothers. ↩

4. That is to say, all this was to have taken place before 1911 (the book appeared some years ago). This has its counterpart in the English newspaper feuilleton which appeared some years ago entitled, “The German Invasion of 1910.” ↩

5. See letter to the Matin, August 22, 1908. ↩

6. In this self-seeking world, it is not reasonable to assume the existence of an inverted altruism of this kind. ↩