Never since the mob called out, "Less bread! More taxes!"
in the nonsense story, has there been so truly nonsensical
a situation as that in which the strikers demand Government
control and the Government denounces its own control as anarchy.
The mob howls before the palace gates, "Hateful tyrant, we demand that you
assume more despotic powers"; and the tyrant thunders from the balcony,
"Vile rebels, do you dare to suggest that my powers should be extended?"
There seems to be a little misunderstanding somewhere.
In truth everything I saw told me that there was a large
misunderstanding everywhere; a misunderstanding amounting to a mess.
And as this was the last impression that London left on me, so it
was the impression I carried with me about the whole modern problem
of Western civilisation, as a riddle to be read or a knot to be untied.
To untie it it is necessary to get hold of the right end of it,
and especially the other end of it. We must begin at the beginning;
we must return to our first origins in history, as we must return
to our first principles in philosophy. We must consider how we
came to be doing what we do, and even saying what we say.
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