Political Ideals (1917)

Their wordsThe aim of politics should be to make the lives of individuals as good as possible. There is nothing for the politician to consider outside or above the various men, women, and children who compose the world.

Their wordsThe best life is the one in which the creative impulses play the largest part and the possessive impulses the smallest.

Their wordsThere can be no real freedom or democracy until the men who do the work in a business also control its management.

Their wordsDemocracy is a device—the best so far invented—for diminishing as much as possible the interference of governments with liberty. If a nation is divided into two sections which cannot both have their way, democracy theoretically insures that the majority shall have their way.

Their wordsPossessiveness—the passion to have and to hold—is the ultimate source of war, and the foundation of all the ills from which the political world is suffering.

Their wordsCapitalism and the wage system must be abolished; they are twin monsters which are eating up the life of the world.

Their wordsBut as men grow more civilized, incentives based on hope become increasingly preferable to those that are based on fear. It would be far better that men should be rewarded for working well than that they should be punished for working badly.

Their wordsRevolutionary action may be unnecessary, but revolutionary thought is indispensable, and, as the outcome of thought, a rational and constructive hope.

Their wordsYet I see no reason to believe that any real advance toward democracy, freedom, or economic justice is achieved when a state takes over the railways after full compensation to the shareholders.

Their wordsAny fresh survey of men's political actions shows that, in those who have enough energy to be politically effective, love of power is a stronger motive than economic self-interest.

Their wordsIt is a mistake to suppose that the majority is necessarily right. On every new question the majority is always wrong at first.

Their wordsA good working maxim in such matters is this: Do not trust customary beliefs so far as to perform actions which must be disastrous unless the beliefs in question are wholly true.

Their wordsThe whole realm of thought and opinion is utterly unsuited to public control; it ought to be as free, and as spontaneous as is possible to those who know what others have believed.

Their wordsThe punishment of conscientious objectors seems clearly a violation of individual liberty within its legitimate sphere.

Their wordsTo preserve and strengthen the impulse that makes individuality should be the foremost object of all political institutions.

Their wordsThere is no more justification for the claim to absolute sovereignty on the part of a state than there would be for a similar claim on the part of an individual.

Their wordsThe international authority ought to possess an army and navy, and these ought to be the only army and navy in existence.

Their wordsThe matters in which the interests of nations are supposed to clash are mainly three: tariffs, which are a delusion; the exploitation of inferior races, which is a crime; pride of power and dominion, which is a schoolboy folly.

Their wordsThe international spirit which we should wish to see produced will be something added to love of country, not something taken away.