DR. ASHLEY MONTAGU'S book possesses two great merits rarely found in
current discussions of human problems. Where most writers over-simplify,
he insists on the principle of multiple and interlocking causation. And
where most assume that "facts will speak for themselves," he makes it
clear that facts are mere ventriloquists' dummies, and can be made to
justify any course of action that appeals to the socially conditioned
passions of the individuals concerned. These two truths are sufficiently
obvious; but they are seldom recognized, for the good reason that they
are very depressing. To recognize the first truth is to recognize the
fact that there are no panaceas and that therefore most of the golden
promises made by political reformers and revolutionaries are illusory.
And to recognize the truth that facts do not speak for themselves, but
only as man's socially conditioned passions dictate, is to recognize
that our current educational processes can do very little to ameliorate
the state of the world. In the language of traditional theology (so much
more realistic, in many respects, than the "liberal" philosophies which
replaced it), most ignorance is voluntary and depends upon acts of the
conscious or subconscious will. Thus, the fallacies underlying the
propaganda of racial hatred are not recognized because, as Dr. Montagu
points out, most people have a desire to act aggressively, and the
members of other ethnic groups are convenient victims, whom one may
attack with a good conscience. This desire to act aggressively has its
origins in the largely unavoidable frustrations imposed upon the
individual by the processes of early education and later adjustments to
the social environment. Dr. Montagu might have added that aggressiveness
pays a higher dividend in emotional satisfaction than does coöperation.
Coöperation may produce a mild emotional glow; but the indulgence of
aggressivness can be the equivalent of a drinking bout or sexual orgy.
In our industrial societies, the goodness of life is measured in terms
of the number and intensity of the excitements experienced. (Popular
philosophy is moulded by, and finds expression in, the advertising pages
of popular magazines. Significantly enough, the word that occurs more
frequently in those pages than any other is "thrill.") Like sex and
alcohol, aggressiveness can give enormous thrills. Under existing social
conditions, it is therefore easy to represent aggressiveness as good.
Concerning the remedies for the social diseases he has so penetratingly
diagnosed, Dr. Montagu says very little, except that they will have to
consist in some process of education. But what process? It is to be
hoped that he will answer this question at length in another work.
ALDOUS HUXLEY
