Functional socialism

CHAPTER XV NO CHANGE YET

Ir not universal, the belief at least prevails that the War was the great sundering flood between the old and the new.

Of what countries can this be said to be true?

Certainly Russia. There is no going back there. Partly of Italy. Probably the Corporative State has struck some roots, at the moment not deep. And certainly not of Germany. The Nazi régime is little more than a skin eruption. Even if it remains in some permanent form, whatever else it means, its face is turned to the past and not to the future. One of the most significant phenomena in Germany is the struggle of the Confessional Churches to keep their freedom. ‘The Nazi leaders are countering the Christian churches by invoking the ancient Germanic gods, by a frank acceptance of a pre-Christian mythology. A reversion to type is hardly a step forward. If that were not convincing enough, the words and deeds of Schacht, the financial dictator, prove that theoretically he dates back to 1914. France is still driven by its peasants and Austria hankers after 1866.