Late Reviews Read online

16. “Negative Eugenics” (51)

  The idea of eugenics done by eliminating “unfit” people from procreation are based on misunderstandings on how society functions.

  17. “An Important Distinction” (54)

  Lunatics are of two types—those who become insane, and those who were born that way (e.g., mental deficiency).

  18. “Old Tyranny” (56)

  Man has always been enraged, worried and puzzled by insecurity. Thus came religion, and it set the common man in his place, below the landowners and the clergy who worked together to maintain their ascendancy.

  19. “Tyrants” (60)

  The self-elected leaders and masters of supernatural authority.

  20. “A Particular Case” (63)

  How St. Paul set up a fortress of dogma and regulation that has survived to the present.

  21. “Sunset on the Acropolis” (67)

  The various philosophical movements from the Romans and Greeks to the Renaissance and onwards.

  22. “New Liberality” (71)

  Humanity has not progressed very far, though progress accelerated because of the Great War (e.g., the “artificial exaggeration of the ‘weaker sex’ bugaboo” was shaken by women workers), while new leaders grasped the principles of capitalist oligarchy.

  23. “Rosy Dawn” (76)

  After the disillusionment following the Great War, the hope of the world is with the young, but immediate optimism is not indicated.

  24. “Perfunctory Note on Progress” (79)

  A discussion of Darwin and evolution (“now proved to the satisfaction of most reasonable persons”) and the rival theory, promoted by George Bernard Shaw, of “life force” (“a figment of the imagination”).

  25. “Another Aspect of Progress” (83)

  The attitude that human nature never changes is predominantly found, not in the majority, but among Churchmen, self-conscious romantics, and big business men.

  26. “Reasons for a Belief in Progress Within the Race—First Point” (88)

  The change within the human race is the same as with evolutionary progress.

  27. “Second Point” (91)

  Over time human philosophy has come to denounce fighting, while the idea of freedom has also advanced.

  28. “Such Men are Dangerous. A Depressing Section” (97)

  The root of evil is ignorance. The necessity to “earn” perverts the mind from a free condition. The sex instinct is the most important source of human action. Physical debauchery is a trifle compared with intellectual debauchery.

  29. “Cui Bono?” (106)

  The ancient types of government were to the benefit of the rulers.

  30. “Black Men” (109)

  In the Victorian era, the court was still the paramount arbiter of the national life. The poor took refuge in religion. The rich are all conformers.

  31. “Escape” (119)

  Individuals are very conscious of the limitations of ordinary life, and while some have an extraordinary resilience, others seek escape through religion, books, plays and films, or drug-taking.

  32. “The Perfect State” (123)

  The “Perfect State” to which Aickman sometimes refers is a figure of speech, “perfect” deriving from Latin “perfectus” or “finished” and “state” partly reflecting “state of mind.”

  33. “Tchehov [sic] and All That” (125)

  Aickman considers cynicism and eclecticism. One must read Tolstoi’s War and Peace, though a more attractive observer is Anton Tchehov. But Mr. Shaw is possibly the greatest living influence on the world’s intellectual thought. All life is an escape from reality.

  34. “Transitional Section” (141)

  H.G. Wells’s moral is unity. The immediate past provides the social key to the whole of history. A clear appreciation of the truth about human suffering is an educational essential.

  35. “Systems” (144)

  A large number of government systems have evolved. Aickman will cover some of these in this and the next few sections. At the bottom of any system is an appeal to human good.

  36. “The Great Divide” (147)

  There are two parties in the political game, They disagree about the nature of man. The majority believes humanity incapable of looking after themselves (they need to serve someone); the other party believes that a healthy person needs no master at all.

  37. “Monarchy” (150)

  Monarchy is the oldest principle of human government. It is complicated by religion and heredity. Dictatorships are perversions of some of the principles of monarchy.

  38. “Oligarchy” (163)

  Oligarchies do not last long. At its unrealized best, an oligarchy might be an excellent form of government.

  39. “Partial Democracy or Weights and Measures” (173)

  Democracy is not modern, and about it there is much muddled thinking and ignorant shouting.

  40. “The Other Sort of Democracy” (177)

  The history of democracy is too vast to sketch. In its present practice, it is peculiarly liable to the machinations of the unscrupulous. Democracy is a slow process, but at its best it allows the cultivation of individuality.

  41. “The Superman Theory” (190)

  Man is always endangered by his own smugness. Shaw is almost the only man who can advocate for the superman without making the actor, and the part, ridiculous.

  42. “Who was Your Father?” (201)

  Superman theories are closely linked with evolutionary theories. Aickman discusses Lucretius, the Stoic cult, the church, and the theory of creative evolution; that of the life-force, that of Darwin, and of materialist evolution.

  43. “More Black Men” (216)

  Fascism has no real philosophical support. It elevates the lazy-minded and inhibited above the ideals of thinking and the full life. It is from Socialism that Fascism obtains many of its converts.

  44. “Ye Olde Curiositie Shoppe” (231)

  Aristocrats have always looked down upon the shopkeepers. Nineteenth-century industrialism has caused affectionate backward glances upon the guild system. Aickman has noticed a high incidence of Roman Catholics among the more intelligent Fascists.

  45. “Heroes and Hitler Worship” (239)

  Fascism is not the old aristocracy, and it denies the quality not of the low-born, but of all civilized men and women.

  46. “The Centre” (241)

  The “centre” (between the traditional “right” and progressive “left”) is composed of persons who mean well but come to grief through lack of mob-appeal. A centre party attempts to compromise between a social conscience and cucumber sandwiches. The centre party is based on compromise—thus this is a deadly weakness within its fabric.

  47. “Ghosts” (250)

  Aickman notes that he has hitherto considered politics apart from economics, because politics are more amusing. Aickman says he has read only an abridgement of Marx’s Das Kapital (plus numerous explanatory volumes), and decided that the general soullessness of his works means that no one will ever read Karl Marx in full.

  48. “The Idea of Capital” (251)

  There is nothing new about capitalism; it is almost as old as communism. Aickman notes that this book is not necessarily concerned with the history of capitalism (though this is covered lengthily in this chapter), which can be encountered “in countless volumes which may be borrowed (though at the risk of leprosy and sticky fingers) from public libraries.”

  49. “The Idea Argued” (280)

  Arguments for capitalism, including historical perspectives. Another long chapter, yet Aickman concludes that he has entirely failed to suggest any of the arguments for or against capitalism.

  Part II

  50. “Callisthenics” (314)

  New capitalism follows the old (free competition and unregulated markets) until it comes against communal interest. Aickman discusses the newspaper writings of “Mr. Callisthenes” of the 1920s and 1930s—Callisthenes was a pseudonym of Sidney Webb, who was prominen
t in the Socialist movement and author of many books.

  51. “Syndicalism and Excursions” (326)

  Syndicalism (wherein industry is controlled by the technicians and operatives in it) is an economic, not political system. William Morris advocated a form of syndicalism. There follows a discussion of trade unions and general strikes.

  52. “State Capitalism” (350)

  Aickman considers “Building Societies”—a hire-purchase system by which poorer citizens can borrow money with less social stigma—and state capitalism.

  53. “Communism” (371)

  Communism has uncertain definitions from the contradictions of the manifestoes from various practitioners. Communism is essentially a religion.

  54. “A Pendant on Waste” (390)

  Aickman strongly recommends The Great God Waste (1933), by John Hodgson, on the wastefulness of the retail system.

  55. “Socialism and Leninism” (394)

  Socialism is a more reasoned form of Fascism (the worst system yet devised). Bolshevism in practice is not socialism—it is in essence a religion.

  56. “Anarchy and Nihilism” (426)

  Anarchy is a term used legally to describe a country or district “still unblessed by the operation of a Court of Law.” There follows a discussion of anarchists and of imprisonment as a punishment.

  57. “Boom in Bunting” (439)

  Aickman recommends The Language Question (1934) by Mont Follick. Aickman considers capitalism and nationalism, concluding that to eliminate war, what must also be eliminated is the economic system (which requires a constant supply of new markets), the boundaries and the language difficulties.

  58. “A Sublime Inevitability” (454)

  A discussion of the complicated formation of the League of Nations, its theory and its later practice. President Woodrow Wilson was the only great man to take part in the Treaty of Versailles.

  59. “Yew Tree” (480)

  The fear of death and the aftermath of death. Its effects on people, and the use of this fear by religion.

  60. “An Exciting Section” (490)

  Aickman notes that there is every reason to hope that ghosts exist, and that this is comforting to those like himself who “prefer writing and reading ghost stories to writing and reading most other forms of literature.” “The most important element in a good ghost story is the apparent reality of the happenings narrated.” The church usually disapproves of apparitions. Hauntings are often connected with murders.

  61. “Revenants to Order” (504)

  Man has always been unable to resist attempting to communicate with the dead. There follows a long discussion of spiritualism, leading to topics such as the planchette, automatic writing, clairvoyance, telepathy and hypnotism.

  62. “Misconceptions about the Unemployed” (545)

  Healthy people become interested in the next world only when their duration in this world is questioned. Aickman discusses the misconceptions of the unemployed. Unemployment is a symptom rather than a disease. He discusses machinery and capitalism; individual craftsmanship versus the machine-produced; and industrial plants and factories.

  63. “The Obsolescence of Ideas. Part I. Beating Around the Boy” (574)

  The brain power and intelligence of the human race steadily increases, despite the fact that some individuals advance far ahead while other lag behind. Samuel Butler’s The Way of All Flesh is a “more than immortal work” which Aickman uses as a basis to discuss the condition of childhood, parenthood, contraception. The economic relationship between parent and child is like that of the employer and employed. A discussion of causes of emotional maladjustment between generations in a family. Oedipus. The growth of a child: “the maladjustment rate is much higher for intellectual children than even for ordinary children.”

  64. “The Obsolescence of Ideas. Part II. The Philosophy of Life” (601)

  Here Aickman promotes the idea that a balance between the intellect and the emotions is necessary for a proper life-career. “Humanism is an art not a science.”

  65. “Tag” (625)

  “Today, when ninety people say one thing, and ten people say another, one knows that the ten are right.”

  66. “Specialization” (626)

  “Specialization is death to conversation, which is nine-tenths of life.” Yet workers are forced to specialize. A great man must hide some of his talents to be successful.

  67. “Alma Martyr” (640)

  Overspecialization is particularly evident in provincial universities, and much of the education system in place is based on erroneous suppositions.

  68. “Equal” (651)

  The education of the sexes should become more and more similar. Art and human relationships are most fully appreciated through the closest lifelong contact of men and women.

  Part III

  69. “Two Legs, etc.” (657)

  The real flaw of the educational system lies with its similarity to the home system. Aickman also discusses the problems with marriage laws, societal conventions, and fashion.

  70. “Prolegomena to the Truth about the Press Gang” (675)

  The development of advertising.

  71. “The Worst Men in the World. The Facts” (688)

  Advertising, its lack of decorum, and the control advertisers exercise over the press.

  72. “Let Sleeping Dogs Lie” (705)

  The press is the most influential element in contemporary life. The printed word is the most potent disseminator of opinion. Book reviewers are subject to their employers, and they are performers. The press makes certain that readers do not get requisite knowledge.

  73. “Art” (721)

  About the best treatise on art is Oscar Wilde’s “The Critic as Artist.” The temperament of the artist counts the most, as does his age. Originality and vitality gradually dries up. Literature, the most satisfying of the arts, provides a consolation. Still art is only an impression of reality. The artist works best when he is pleasing himself. Freud was not altogether a pioneer in that art is sex in apotheosis. Aickman acknowledges a personal debt to Wuthering Heights, because the genius in it records some of the essence of humanity. The supreme art is the art of creating and criticizing one’s own life.

  74. “The Antick Sits” (777)

  There is no such thing as intellectual snobbery.

  75. “Housing and Transport” (780)

  Towns and countrysides, from various aspects. Travel, development, and the suburbs. Houses and flats. Communities. Motor-cars. Air transport.

  76. “Necessities in Apotheosis or New Morals for Old” (861)

  Existence involves a relationship with everything else that exists. Tolstoi’s greatest error was in being a sentimentalist. Morality is the motive power of society, reinforced by religion. A discussion of meanness as sin. Omarism (as from Omar Khayyam) is a danger to realism.

  77. “The Independent System of Economics” (893)

  Economics are the basis of life, because Man eats, drinks, sleeps, etc. Existing economic texts books should be discarded. The individual has choice. Much more on economic systems.

  78. “Sport, Diabolism, and a Last, but Kind, Word about the Church” (956)

  All forms of sport are matters of individual taste. Elements in the idea of sportsmanship are absurd. There follows a long section on religion.

  79. “ ’Tis not the Gentleman that Makes the Clothes” (990)

  There is no reliable journal that propounds liberal or leftist ideals.

  80. “Conclusions. That Gemlike Flame” (996)

  A list of some fifty-one numbered passages (some only a few sentences in length, others much longer) that sum up a number of arguments previously given. Here are a few samples:

  “3. Man is a unity. Body, spirit, and soul (the critical faculty) are the three parts of St. Patrick’s clover leaf. …”

  “14. Morality is expediency—the exact opposite of what it invariably claims to be.”

  “34. The artist alone can
rise above the petty obligations of life, The artist not only sees life whole; he can see it from outside. …”

  “51. Walter Pater considered that the life of the individual should ‘burn with a hard gem-like flame.’ ”

  The chapter is Aickman as his most epigrammatical.

  Note on “Hamlet” (1033-1037)

  Hamlet is a sensitive to an abnormal degree. Hamlet’s inability to act is because his father drained from him his intellectual vigor.

  What in the end are we to make of Panacea? First, it should be remembered that it is the work of a very young man. Aickman was born on June 27th, 1914, so that in June 1936 he would have turned twenty-two, and in June 1937, twenty-three; and those years cover the writing of Panacea. Aickman did not write very extensively for the next few decades—primarily he did some reviews, articles and the beginning of the short story writing which became his métier. Probably by the time he wrote the first of his autobiographies in the mid-1960s he viewed Panacea as juvenilia, and as something whose manuscripts were better presumed lost. What is most interesting of Aickman’s comments about Panacea in The Attempted Rescue is that he could observe that, “I did not claim to solve every problem, but those I did solve, I solved lucidly and for ever.” Clearly he still viewed the exercise with considerable value. And it remains a remarkable achievement that Aickman, at the age of twenty-two or twenty-three, was able to complete such a massive and ambitious work.