PROBLEM OF POWER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 December 1938, Page 7

PROBLEM OF POWER

ENGINES AND DICTATORS.

The problem of power is our own special problem, in this age of engines and dictators, writes Mr Basil de Selincourt in reviewing Mr Bertrand Russell’s book, “Power —a New Social Analysis.” Man in past ages has been dogged by a sense of helplessness, convinced that happiness must lie in limitation of desire. Recently his opportunities have multiplied, his limbs lengthened inordinately, and he tends now to assume that the more he can learn to ask for the greater his happL ness will be. Even so, a little reflection shows that many kinds of desire are in their nature unrealiseable —only one man can ride the winner in next year’s Grand National. Indeed, it soon appears that the greater the power at our disposal the more important it is to examine our desires. Nothing more terrible can happen to a man than to want wrong things and get them; in modern life it is likelier to happen than it ever was z before. Power may mean getting what we want; the amount of power available for the average man is ten to a thousand times what it was thirty years ago. How can he learn quickly to distinguish between the desires that enrich his life and the desires that undermine it? The subject admittedly is difficult. It involves an interpretation of the processes of evolution and of the passage in human development, from prehistoric to historic custom and tradition It involves a complete philosophy o: ; life. In what condition are brains morepowerful than muscles, in what conditions are feelings more powerful than thoughts? What are the laws that govern successful combinations of forces, material or spiritual, and wha' kinds of combinations are most to be relied on to produce enduring results? Why, over the whole of Asia, has n< form of government existed since time began save monarchy or tyranny, and why, at this late date, is Europe discovering what Asia has always understood?