GUIDE TO GOOD READING

Why ‘Time’ likes Toynbee

“History repeats itself!” “The
more it changes, the more it
is the same.”

* *

“The poor we have always

with us.”
> *

“Don’t worry about tomorrow,
because today is the tomorrow
you worried about yesterday.”

. *

THESE ARE ONLY a few
among the many Sayings design-
ed to convince the people that
there is nothing they can do to
change and improve their way of
life. The argument runs like
this: since the future will al-
ways be the same as the past,
we must learn to accept wars,
depressions insecurity and pov-
erty. These, we are told, have
always been part of our lives
and will, therefore, always be.

Not all the arguments. to
prove this point are as simple as
the above. Some of the spokes-
men for this view are much more
subtle. One of the craftiest of
such “theoreticians” operating to-
day is Arnold J. Toynbee, the
British historian who has become,
in the last couple of years, the,
darling of fancy intellectual cir-
cles in North America.

First, the one-volume version of
Toynbee’s six-volume A Study of
History became Book - of - the-
Month Club selection. And now,
a collection of his essays and lec-
tures, Civilization on Trial, has
been seized upon by many of the
larger publications — Time and
Life in particular have devoted
flattering pages to Toynbee.

* * *

TOYNBEE IS OBVIOUSLY
useful to those who would like to
prevent any kind of progressive
change in our society, He presents
the same old poisor, in a new bot-
tle bearing a very scholarly and
learned label.

Toynbee starts by granting that
there are serious problems facing
“Western” civilization:

= the Western world has
become suddenly very anxious
about its own future, and our
anxiety is a natural reaction to
the formidableness of the situa-
tion in which we now find our-
selves,”

But even this situation is be-
coming to Toynbee, the result of
a process of historical repetition.
His theory is that there have been
20 societies before our own, and
that all of them have died* or are

dying. Our own, the 21st, is faced .

with the same fate.

The big question posed by Toyn-
bee is whether the process of his-
torical repetition will force us on
the same path of destruction, or
whether there is a possibility and
a means of salvation, His answer
is that there is such a possibility.
Thus, he gives the appearance
that he is not a believer in’ the
theory that history repeats itself,
the cyclical theory of history. A
more careful analysis of his ex-
planation of the “chOice” avail-
able to us, however, betrays Toyn-
bee’s real support of the theory,
with an additional touch of super-
naturalism.

Toynbee says he does not be-
lieve that history repeats itself,
but what can he do when the
facts of history, as he reads them,
force him to recognize that his-
tory really does repeat itself?

According to Toynbee, man
must share his already restricted
driver’s seat with God. Neither
God nor man, he defiantly de-
clares, “are the slaves of fate.”
But how is man to exercise his
creative action in conjunction
with God in order to save our
civilization from the fate of the
other 20 that have gone before it,
and toward which it seems to be
headed? “... we may and must
pray that a repreive which God
has granted to our society once
will not be refused if we ask for
it again in a humble spirit and
with a contrite heart.” So man’s
major, if not only, creative effort

to save our society becomes one .

of prayer in “a humble spirit.”
* * *

MARXISTS WOULD certainly
not disagree that capitalist so-
ciety — “Western - civilization” in
Toynbee’s vocabulary — is dying.
But unlike Toynbee, we under-
stand this to be an inevitable and
desirable outcome of historical
development, and do our best to
hasten the day of the final end
of this last social system based on
the exploitation of man by man
—the day of the birth of social-
ism.

Other social systems have died
before. This is proof not of a
cyclical repetition of history, but
of the essential differences be-
tween different epochs and stages
of man’s history. It is possible to
generalize concerning the way in
which changes take place from
one stage of development to an-
other. i

Thus, Marx pointed out in his
A Contribution to the Critique of
Political Economy:

“At a certain stage of their de-

- velopment, the material forces of

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MEETINGS

Swedish-Finnish Workers Club
meets last Friday of every month
at 7.30 p.m. in Clinton Hall.

WHAT'S COMING?

Orchestra.
Hall is available for rent,
HAstings 3277.
PERSONALS
in B.C.

Fresh Air Dance— ‘
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Saturday night. ;

PICNIC — Annual United Labor
Picnic of New Westminster and
District will be held on August
29 at Lawrence St. Park, Queens-
boro. Speaker, Harold Pritchett.
There will be games, refresh-
ments, etc. All are welcome.
Please note change of date, due
to inclement weather.

production in society come in con-

flict with the existing relations of
production, or—what is but a iegal
expression for the same thing—
with the property relations with-
in which they have been at work
before. From forms of develop-
ment of the forces of production
these relations turn to their fet-
ters. Then begins an epoch of
social revolution.”

But the specific causes for the
destruction of the old society at
each stage of development have,
of course, varied, The ruling class
of each society has been a differ-
ent class from the ruling class of
any other society. The rising, rey-
olutionary class has also been
different in each stage of man’s
history, and the aims of each new
society have’ been different from
the aims of each preceding one.

In his preface to the German
Edition of the Communist Mani-
festo, published in 1883, Frederick
Engels summarized this idea:

“,. economic production and
the structure of society of every
historical epoch necessarily aris-
ing therefrom constitute the
foundation for the political and
intellectual history of that epoch
+-+.. Consequently (ever’since the
dissolution of the primeval com-
munal ownership of land) all his-
tory has been a history of class
struggles, of* struggles between
exploited and exploiting, between
dominating classes at various

stages of social evolution; ... —

this struggle, however, has now
reached a, stage where the ex-
ploited and oppressed class (the
proletariat) can no longer eman-
cipate itself from the class which
exploits and oppresses it (the
bourgeoisie), without at the. same
time forever freeing the whole of
society from exploitation, oppres-
sion and class struggles .. .”

Marxists, therefore, insist that
not only has change been a regu-
lar feature of history, but that
only through sharp, revolutionary
changes, taking the form of class
struggles, has mankind been able
to progress to its present change
of development.

Se  : ae

THE CAPITALISTS who today
constitute the ruling class of Can-
ada were, a century and a half
ago, the revolutionary class strug-
gling for the economic and poli-
tical freedom so badly needed by
the earliest stages of free, com-
petitive capitalism. The decaying
character of imperialism, the
present monopoly and banker
controlled stages of capitalism,
does not spell the doom of human-
ity. Only capitalism, with its de-
pressions, wars and fascism, is
approaching its end.

Even though history does not
repeat itself, Marxists and all
other progressives must learn a
fesson from the past history of
‘other significant social changes!

The lesson is that the old ruling
class, in its desperate effort to
hold on to its position of privilege
and domination, stops at nothing
no matter how violent and unjust,

_to prevent social change. The de-

fense of the right to advocate and
struggle for such changes is
therefore a major responsibility
of all progressive people in cap-
italist _ society. Thought-control
measures and efforts to outlaw
the Labor-Progressive Party and
other organizations which look to
the future must be fought and de-
feated. They represent only hys-
terical efforts to halt history in
its tracks. Capitalism might as
well order the earth to halt its
revolutions. *

Even Toynbee’s cyclical theory
of history will’ not help them in
this hopeless task—BENJAMIN.
PASKOFF.

Lockout resolved —

For a time it looked as if the deadlock between the Metropoli-
tan Opera Association of New York and five AFL unions represent-

ing its employees would lead to

a lockout of the entire company

for the 1948-49 season, and here Met stars Richard Tucker and
Polyna Stoska look through the want ads in front of the bare opera
house billboard. The dispute has now been ended by a compromise

agreement,

SPEAKING OF CIRCULATION

How to win friends

HOW TO WIN FRIENDS... for the Pacific Tribune...
1 method not found in Carnegie’s book, was outlined by

Harold Pritchet last week.

Harold has pledged to get at

least two new subs every week. To do this, he has evolved

a method all of his own: Fir
friends all over the province,
some of whom he has not seen
for years, Then he writes them
a personal letter, telling of the
work that the Pacific Tribune is
trying to do, and asking them
to send in the price of a sub-
scription ...a sample copy of
tthe paper is mailed to clinch the
bargain.

It works! Harold Pritchet is
fulfilling his pledge, and is going
to raise it substantially.

Why not try it yourself?

* * *

MANY PEOPLE WILL become
friends of the Pacific Tribune.
All they need is an introduction, .
and an invitation to join .our
icircle of readers.

On Friday last week, when it
was raining as it can only in
Vancouver, an elderly man walk-
ed into the ‘effice, Water “dripped.
out of his hat brim as he bent
forward to talk to the girl be-
hind the counter. He wanted to
subscribe to the paper. He had
picked up a copy, he said, in
the newsstand of the tram depot,
glanced through it, and found the
kind of paper he had been look-
ing for,

An old age pensioner from the
Okanagan, this man found art-
icles in the Tribune which voiced
and gave direction to thoughts
which had been going through his
mind for years, e

“Why didn’t someone tell me
about this paper before?” he°*
asked,

Many of your friends will find .
the Pacific Tribune as interesting
‘as did this elderly pensioner who
made an out-of-the-way trip in
the rain to buy a subscription.
Do them a favor. Introduce them
to the paper and ask them to
subscribe, . ;

* * *

FIVE HUNDRED of our read-

ers, are given to procrastination,

st he sits down and thinks of
AIL ALU

Film called off

THE WIDESPREAD protest
‘that greeted The Iron Curtain,
20th Century-Fox screen version
of the Canadian “espionage” casé
and the fact that it did not regis-
ter where Hollywood is most sen-
sitive—in the box office—is having
an effect. :

A number of Hollywood studios,
hoping to cash in on the anti-
communist campaign and at the
same time spread the hysteria
through the powerful propaganda
medium of the screen, announced
anti-communist films in the course
of production, They ranged from
Republic’s The Red Menace to In-
dependent’s I Married a Com:
munist. :

Now, having learned from 20th
Century-Fox’s experience that the
movie-going.public doesn't go for —
such films, one announced produc’
tion, Confessions of a Communist
has been called off. :

AN

or so we must conclude becaus?®
they haven't renewed their sub-
scriptions. Experience shows that
it only takes a friendly call t?
get them back on the lists, 5°
this coming Tuesday a_ largs®
‘group, led by Nigel Morgan ‘
:prominant trade unionists, will
be calling on these tardy readers:
Theme song of the evening, we'l@
told, will be: a

Should auld acquaintance b®

forgot

And never brought to mind
Your Tribune sub is overdue —
And just two months behind:
_ Offer your services for this T@
newal drive on August 31,. Phon®
Marine 5288 today,. ;
—FEL ASHTON
i

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——

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUGUST 27, 1948—PAGE 1