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ESSAYS IN PERSUASION

PART

In Europe, or at least in some parts of Europe —but not, I think, in the United States ofAmerica —there is a latent reaction, somewhatwidespread, against basing Society to the ex-tent that we do upon fostering, encouraging,and protecting the money-motives of individuals.A preference for arranging our affairs in such away as to appeal to the money-motive as little aspossible, rather than as much as possible, neednot be entirely a priori, but may be based on thecomparison of experiences. Different persons,according to their choice of profession, find themoney-motive playing a large or a small part intheir daily lives, and historians can tell us aboutother phases of social organisation in which thismotive has played a much smaller part than itdoes now. Most religions and most philoso-phies deprecate, to say the least of it, a way oflife mainly influenced by considerations of per-sonal money profit. On the other hand, mostmen to-day reject ascetic notions and do notdoubt the real advantages of wealth. Moreoverit seems obvious to them that one cannot dowithout the money-motive, and that, apart fromcertain admitted abuses, it does its job well. Inthe result the average man averts his attentionfrom the problem, and has no clear idea what hereally thinks and feels about the whole con-founded matter.

Confusion of thought and feeling leads toconfusion of speech. Many people, who arereally objecting to Capitalism as a way of life,argue as though they were objecting to it on the