A B C of modern socialism

14 Socialism’s Blind Eye

The blind eye which official Socialism turns to function may be symptomatic of its decline. Philosophically considered, we are passing from libertarianism into a period, perhaps an era, of function. For it is Function and not Socialism that has already conquered scarcity, and it is Function that will continue to supply our needs, whatever may be the dominant political system. It is now evident, is it not, that function will go on creating its own scale and hierarchy of values, and even of social conduct? That is merely a fact, obvious to everybody except our politicians. If you doubt it, look at the constant correspondence and conferences between your secretariat and the Postmaster-General. It is nine-tenths functional and one-tenth social.

By the mercy of heaven, Socialism may persist, not by its own perspicacity, but because function, like Nature, is democratic. Two points have, almost unobserved, crept into this argument. The first is that Nature, in its functional activities, is equalitarian. That is to say, whatever the various functions may be, and whatever their relative importance and urgencies, all being necessary and functionally desirable, they ate in consequence equal. No function can say to another: “Go to; I am better than thou!” The second point logically follows: each function is autonomous. All tunctions, of course, are affected by or depend upon the others, but in their own sphere of action, and subject to the welfare of the whole, each is sovereign.

If I have pushed the biological analogy too far,