Functional socialism

176 FUNCTIONAL SOCIALISM

curtain with his sword. He hesitated, afraid of being ridiculed asa romanticist. Finally, hunger conquered ridicule, out came his sword, slash! and in he went. The point is that we are no forrader. The title of this chapter is “No Change”. Plus ¢a change, plus cest la méme chose.

Let us dig deeper.

The reactions of Europe towards an older form of authority, coupled with our own perplexities at a political and economic system that obviously remains stolidly rooted in the past, call for analysis. What really is happening?

One of the clues to the puzzle is cited above. We have more employment, yet more unemployment. In other words, our productive machine is outpacing our economic system; it seems to move on an axis of its own. To those who understand, the lesson is plain; to those who don’t, it is a source of continuing anxiety. Why is production more and yet more equal to effective demand? Because function, during these later years, has grown stronger, more efficient, more prolific than its political counterpart. Function knows nothing of public policy, of political expediency; it has a job and does it. Within its own sphere, every activity, human or mechanical, is directed to the one end. The person, supreme in politics or culture, yields to function, which knows no subjective rights. In the fulness of time, function says to the whole body of citizenship: ‘“Tell me what you want and I will give it to you.” Then finance, fearful of its dividends, says: ““You shall give it only