A REAL DANGER

Utopia of Userers, et al

by Gilbert K. Chesterton

A REAL DANGER, UTOPIA OF USERERS, ET AL by Gilbert K. Chesterton
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Heaven forbid that I should once more wade in those swamps of logomachy
and tautology in which the old guard of the Determinists still seem to be
floundering. The question of Fate and Free Will can never attain to a
conclusion, though it may attain to a conviction. The shortest
philosophic summary is that both cause and choice are ultimate ideas
within us, and that if one man denies choice because it seems contrary to
cause, the other man has quite as much right to deny cause because it
seems contrary to choice. The shortest ethical summary is that
Determinism either affects conduct or it does not. If it does not, it is
morally not worth preaching; if it does, it must affect conduct in the
direction of impotence and submission. A writer in the "Clarion" says
that the reformer cannot help trying to reform, nor the Conservative help
his Conservatism. But suppose the reformer tries to reform the
Conservative and turn him into another reformer? Either he can, in which
case Determinism has made no difference at all, or he can't, in which case
it can only have made reformers more hopeless and Conservatives more
obstinate. And the shortest practical and political summary is that
working men, most probably, will soon be much too busy using their Free
Will to stop to prove that they have got it. Nevertheless, I like to
watch the Determinist in the "Clarion" Cockpit every week, as busy as a
squirrel--in a cage. But being myself a squirrel (leaping lightly from
bough to bough) and preferring the form of activity which occasionally
ends in nuts, I should not intervene in the matter even indirectly, except
upon a practical point. And the point I have in mind is practical to the
extent of deadly peril. It is another of the numerous new ways in which
the restless rich, now walking the world with an awful insomnia, may
manage to catch us napping.


Must Be a Mystery

There are two letters in the "Clarion" this week which in various ways
interest me very much. One is concerned to defend Darwin against the
scientific revolt against him that was led by Samuel Butler, and among
other things it calls Bernard Shaw a back number. Well, most certainly
"The Origin of Species" is a back number, in so far as any honest and
interesting book ever can be; but in pure philosophy nothing can be out of
date, since the universe must be a mystery even to the believer. There is,
however, one condition of things in which I do call it relevant to
describe somebody as behind the times. That is when the man in question,
thinking of some state of affairs that has passed away, is really helping
the very things he would like to hinder. The principles cannot alter, but
the problems can. Thus, I should call a man behind the times who, in the
year 1872, pleaded for the peaceful German peasants against the triumphant
militarism of Napoleon. Or I should call a man out of date who, in the
year 1892, wished for a stronger Navy to compete with the Navy of Holland,
because it had once swept the sea and sailed up the Thames. And I
certainly call a man or a movement out of date that, in the year 1914,
when we few are fighting a giant machine, strengthened with all material
wealth and worked with all the material sciences, thinks that our chief
danger is from an excess of moral and religious responsibility. He
reminds me of Mr. Snodgrass, who had the presence of mind to call out
"Fire!" when Mr. Pickwick fell through the ice.

The other letter consists of the usual wiredrawn argument for fatalism.
Man cannot imagine the universe being created, and therefore is "compelled
by his reason" to think the universe without beginning or end, which (I
may remark) he cannot imagine either. But the letter ends with something
much more ominous than bad metaphysics. Here, in the middle of the
"Clarion," in the centre of a clean and combative democratic sheet, I meet
again my deplorable old acquaintance, the scientific criminologist. "The
so-called evil-doer should not be punished for his acts, but restrained."
In forty-eight hours I could probably get a petition to that effect signed
by millionaires. A short time ago a Bill was introduced to hold
irresponsible and "restrain" a whole new class of people, who were
"incapable of managing their affairs with prudence." Read the supporters'
names on the back of that Bill, and see what sort of democrats they were.

Now, clearing our heads of what is called popular science (which means
going to sleep to a lullaby of long words), let us use our own brains a
little, and ask ourselves what is the real difference between punishing a
man and restraining him. The material difference may be any or none; for
punishment may be very mild, and restraint may be very ruthless. The man,
of course, must dislike one as much as the other, or it would not be
necessary to restrain him at all. And I assure you he will get no great
glow of comfort out of your calling him irresponsible after you have made
him impotent. A man does not necessarily feel more free and easy in a
straight waistcoat than in a stone cell. The moral difference is that a
man can be punished for a crime because he is born a citizen; while he can
be constrained because he is born a slave. But one arresting and
tremendous difference towers over all these doubtful or arguable
differences. There is one respect, vital to all our liberties and all our
lives, in which the new restraint would be different from the old
punishment. It is of this that the plutocrats will take advantage.


The Plain Difference

The perfectly plain difference is this. All punishment, even the most
horrible, proceeds upon the assumption that the extent of the. evil is
known, and that a certain amount of expiation goes with it. Even if you
hang the man, you cannot hang him twice. Even if you burn him, you cannot
burn him for a month. And in the case of all ordinary imprisonments, the
whole aim of free institutions from the beginning of the world has been to
insist that a man shall be convicted of a definite crime and confined for
a definite period. But the moment you admit this notion of medical
restraint, you must in fairness admit that it may go on as long as the
authorities choose to think (or say) that it ought to go on. The man's
punishment refers to the past, which is supposed to have been investigated,
and which, in some degree at least, has been investigated. But his
restraint refers to the future, which his doctors, keepers, and wardens
have yet to investigate. The simple result will be that, in the
scientific Utopia of the "Clarion," men like Mann or Syme or Larkin will
not be put in prison because of what they have done. They will be kept in
prison because of what they might do. Indeed, the builders of the new
tyranny have already come very near to avowing this scientific and
futurist method. When the lawyers tried to stop the "Suffragette" from
appearing at all, they practically said: "We do not know your next week's
crime, because it isn't committed yet; but we are scientifically certain
you have the criminal type. And by the sublime and unalterable laws of
heredity, all your poor little papers will inherit it."

This is a purely practical question; and that is why I insist on it, even
in such strenuous times. The writers on the "Clarion" have a perfect
right to think Christianity is the foe of freedom, or even that the
stupidity and tyranny of the present Government is due to the monkish
mysticism of Lord Morley and Mr. John M. Robertson. They have a right to
think the theory of Determinism as true as Calvin thought it. But I do
not like seeing them walk straight into the enormous iron trap set open by
the Capitalists, who find it convenient to make our law even more lawless
than it is. The rich men want a scientist to write them a _lettre de
cachet_ as a doctor writes a prescription. And so they wish to seal up in
a public gaol the scandals of a private asylum. Yes; the writers on the
"Clarion" are indeed claiming irresponsibility for human beings. But it
is the governments that will be irresponsible, not the governed.

But I will tell them one small secret in conclusion. There is nothing
whatever wrong in the ancient and universal idea of Punishment--except
that we are not punishing the right people.