Liberty, Equality, and Eternity
| Date | 01 September 1984 |
| Published date | 01 September 1984 |
| Author | John W. Holmes |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070208403900308 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
JOHN
W.
HOLMES
Liberty,
equality,
and
eternity
We
all
live
on
a
spinning
planet,
and there
are
probably
too
many
of
us.
Though
the
message
may
be
dismissed
as
the
com-
placency
of
the
status
quo,
it
is
necessary
to
insist
that
the
criti-
cal
global
problem
is
not
so
much
'liberation'
as
government,
self-government,
self-discipline.
Even
a
'New
International
Economic
Order'
is
presumably
an
order
of
some
kind.
That
and
a
world
without
war
cannot
be
achieved
by
anything
so
negative
as
'liberation.'
Which
is
not
to
deny
that
there
are
many
oppressive
regimes
that
should
be
toppled
and
millions
in
servitude
who
should
be
liberated
from
something.
The
trouble
with
liberation
movements
is
that,
however
necessary
as
historical
process,
they
simplify
issues
so
drastically.
From
the
Finland
Station
to
the
'liberation'
of
Africa
and
the
struggle
for
'liberation'
in
Central
America,
the problem
remains
of
what
to
do on
the
morning after.
That
stark
truth
has
become
more
ob-
vious
to
us since
Orwell
composed
his
form
of
hell
on
earth.
What
is
true
of
states
is
true
also
of
the
international
com-
munity.
The
creation
of
the United
Nations
in
the
heady
days
at
the
end
of
the
Second
World
War
was
in
a
sense
a
'liber-
ation'
movement.
The
guiding
principle
was,
understandably
enough,
'Never
again!'.
We
were
to
be
liberated
from
the
de-
Professor
of
political
science,
University
of Toronto;
author,
inter
alia,
of
The
Shap-
ing of
Peace:
Canada and
the
Search
for
World
Order
1943-1957
(2
vols,
1979
and
1982).
The
reflections
in
this
essay
were
inspired
by
an
invitation
from
the
Council
of
Europe
to
an
international
symposium
at which
the
reality
of
1984
would
be
ex-
amined
in
the
light
of
Orwell's
vision
of
it.
1984
reread
appears
still
as
fair
warn-
ing,
but
there
is
little
awareness
of
the
problem
of
global
disarray
which
over-
whelms
us
in
the
1984
we
know.
International
Journal
xxxix summer
1984
638
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
pression
of
the
'thirties
and
the
aggressions
of
the
late
'thirties
and
'forties.
The
channels
of
trade
and
money
must
be
freed,
and
aggressors
put
on
notice
that
they would
face
the
resistance
of
a
world
united.
Nationalism
was
at
the
root
of
war
and
pov-
erty;
we
would
find
peace
and
plenty
if
nations agglomerated.
We
have
learned
on
many
grim
mornings
after that
the
causes
of
aggression
and depression
are
more
complex
than
they
had
seemed
in
our
mini-dimensional
world. Nevertheless,
the
labo-
rious
process
of
constructing
an
un-utopian
but
human
order
has
been
dogged
by
the
simplicities
of
the liberation mentality
in
various
forms.
For
too
many
good
souls
it
seems
sufficient
to
take
a
stand
against
wickedness,
against the
arms
race
or
apartheid,
for
or
against
abortion
or
President
Reagan
or
the
United
Nations
or
the
late Mr
Bishop
of
Grenada.
What,
more
precisely,
are
they
for?
There
is
a
danger
from
ideologies
and
slogans
that
have
served
their
time.
They
hang
on
as
dogma,
as
absolutist
convic-
tions
that
stifle
our
adaptation
to
circumstances.
The
price
of
freedom
is
not
only
eternal
vigilance
but
also
perpetual
diag-
nosis.
Historical
perspective
is
essential,
lest
we
get
stuck
in
ruts
of
our
own
making.
Out
of
the
need
to
cope
with
a
rugged
in-
ternational
community the
utopianism
of
the
'forties
gave
way
to
a
more
functionalist
approach
to
world
order,
and
that
seems
all
to
the
good.
Perhaps
however
it
is
a
comfortable
philosophy
into
which
we
can too
easily
settle.
The
constructive
imagination
is
dulled
by
complacency.
Is
a
functionalism
more
laissez-faire
than
dirigiste
adequate
to
save
the
planet?
Is
there
any
alternative?
Is
there
time
for
evolution?
It
might
be
useful
to
cast
one's
mind
critically
over
the
cycles
of
prevailing
thought
since
1945
or thereabouts.
The
Orwellian
nightmare
of
the
'forties
was
a
world
in
which
governments
oppressed
people
for
their
own
good.
It
is
a
horror
story
not
to
be
forgotten,
but
it
is
only
one
way
of
look-
ing
at
tyranny.
In
the
Western
world
at
least
we
have
largely
escaped
this fate,
as
much
perhaps
by
reason
of
our
instinct
for
anarchy
and
the rising cult
of
self-expression
as by
an
abstract
To continue reading
Request your trial