Functional socialism

BRAINS 95

duality. There can, obviously, be no unity during the continuance of the wage system.

And so we return to our search for brains essential to function. Brains hard to find in a system septic to death with the falsities and cruelties of profiteering.

To appreciate the type of mind requisite to the discharge of functional duties it were well, perhaps, to recall our definition of function. It is the method or process necessary to secure the economic stability of the community. And since this is essential to the well-being of the nation, it follows that function, being the material instrument, must take priority over all other interests. Nothing must stand in its way.

From the ploughing to the harvest, from the shearing to the weaving, from the mining to the foundry, and in all stages to the consumer, it is the things that count far above pieces of money or bits of paper. Function knows only the realities; the forms that surround those realities are of minor significance. Function comes into its kingdom when - economic scarcity dies. And dead it surely is.

Yet another aspect of this problem may be noted. There are many trades and occupations of doubtful economic value. Merely because some business brings in a profit, it by no means follows that such a business adds to our economic strength. It may be the exact contrary; the profits thus secured might have been diverted from better uses. Function, with its mandate to ensure and improve our economic position, must scrutinize closely every claim of every