Repository: UIHistories Project: Convocation - 1942 Winter-Spring [PAGE 67]

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ind make frccl) the d < ions in t ma ol whi< h th< n |K. well and rtl) t ;cthi an sumption not always and ev< whe, in 1' represent i | bilit) I >> ,,, human natun <d tuali d NS u ir: : ••"• "' ' favorabl litions. We hav( i, IT- t, m i M1 lcm M ' < ) in this < Mut rv. though not enougl, I 5 >*1 tn excuse I be sell i hteous about it, < implacenth n >n. We had thought, it an earliei I , that the advai en knowledge and < nomic well being would conveniently 1N N ,l u !l l , u b , " e bring all other nations to a like happy statt \\ kno* nou thai w were wrong, The struggle to "make the « >rl : ' democr ' is a longer tnd more bitter on< than w had < *liev< ind the end. decidedly, is not yet. Vet President Wilson's ds, wl h have o isioned much cynical amusement in the last 2 haw ring of authenticity, of sober realism, today, that cannot 1. rhe world must be )>iailr safe for democracy/' or it will •ver be for peace and decenc) and human happiness. And t

ike it safe is to i nstruct an order, economic, political, and moral. ' g the nations oi the world in which the forces that gave rise t > talitarianism will not again be let loose upon us because men will not g in be r e d u c e d to a level on which a Hitler can in fact be their spokesman a n d e x p r e s s their will. T h e a n s w e r to totalitarianism. finally, is the c o n s t r u c t i o n of an ordered society in which its cynical umptions al ut h u m a n behavior will be false, where they are only t l y false today in the chaotic world we live in. T o believe that totalitarianism is w r o n g about what h u m a n life is. and can become, is lieve that we h a v e the resources in stamina, intelligence, and ^Oi)o\ will I build the society in which democracy can be safe because men 1 n a t i o n s accept the responsibility oi their freedom. N o t h i n g m o r e than this is required to justify the democratic faith. 1 r it is this o r d e r that c o m m a n d s the h u m a n will when it has a chance expl itself without fear and to know its purpose clearly. Comred with the o r d e r of h u m a n happiness which such a society can ure. tin- mindless violence of the totalitarian ideal is seen for what i fever and not a faith." the d r e a r y imagining oi twisted and u n h a p p y souls who have never understood what life is, and can become, when it'ceases to be violent and fulfills itself in art and knowledge and h u m a n friendship, the goods which violence has never had at its o m m a n d and never will. It is this fulfillment of life that political dom must m a k e possible, this generous development of human apaeity. not as the privilege oi a master race or a political or economic lite but as the shared concern of all of us "standing with free men on il t h a t ' s f r e e " It needs no other or higher justification.

Yel if nothing more than this is required for the long run justifitfion of our cause, nothing less will suffice, and that will be a hard

aying for many. The lesson Faust learned only at the end oi his