Democracy an£> IReltgton.

81

not only in Moscow but also in atheistic Berlin,Paris, London and New York . The old forms ofreligious belief for many contemporaries havebecome empty shells. " Fundamentalism " as apetrification of the past will not help. Thewestern world not less than Soviet Russia lives onthe remnants of the religious past, and spends itsspiritual capital which still cements the socialfabric. The fact stands that we are surroundedby the ruins of decaying democracy. The youngshoots of socialism are suffocated by the droughtof materialism.

There is no form of political organisation whichoffers a better handle to the strong and wealthyto erect a new and soulless domination than ademocracy estranged from its spiritual sources.Capitalism is gaining power through the corrup-tibility of both the elected and the electors. It isgaining power above all over the press in order tomake public opinion just as it makes rails andcalico. Democracy is becoming a dead form,despised by the intellectuals, revolted against bythe " wage slaves." Farseeing observers of ourmodern State agree with Bryce that the realdanger to western democracy lies in politicalmaterialism.

There is no form of State organisation whichoffers a better handle to corruption than thatsocialism which has become materialistic andutilitarian. No economic system is more subjectto stagnation than that socialism whose officialsconceive of their own existence as an end in itselfand breed officials in order to reward partisans.