In All Earlier Civilizations, It Should Be

Elites Quite Naturally Define As The Most Important And Admired Qualities For A Citizen Those On Which They Themselves Have Concentrated.

Obviously We Don't Have 300 Million People. We Haven't Got A Big Army. We Don't Have Hollywood. We're A Medium Small-sized Country. We Have To Do What Medium Small-sized Countries Do, Which-even Though We're Not Smarter Than Other People-is To Make Ourselves Seem To Be Smarter. We Have To Work Harder And Know More Than Other People.

It Is The Considered Opinion Of Most Members Of Our Rational élites That, In Any Given Difference Of Opinion With Reality, Reality Is Wrong.

Now Listen To The First Three Aims Of The Corporatist Movement In Germany, Italy And France During The 1920s. These Were Developed By The People Who Went On To Become Part Of The Fascist Experience: (1) Shift Power Directly To Economic And Social Interest Groups; (2) Push Entrepreneurial Initiative In Areas Normally Reserved For Public Bodies; (3) Obliterate The Boundaries Between Public And Private Interest -- That Is, Challenge The Idea Of The Public Interest. This Sounds Like The Official Program Of Most Contemporary Western Governments.

They (the Novelists) Became The Voice Of The Citizen Against The Ubiquitous Raison D'état, Which Reappeared Endlessly To Justify Everything From Unjust Laws And The Use Of Child Labour To Incompetent Generalship And Inhuman Conditions On Warships. The Themes They Popularized Have Gradually Turned Into The Laws Which, For All Their Flaws, Have Improved The State Of Man.