Modern Writers in
the World of Necessity
STEPHEN SPENDER
THE
FASCISTS
in their downfall have left us a sinister inheritance,
a world which they have lost but on which they have been able to
set their curse. The curse is the spell which they invoked in order to
achieve their triumphs. It is the curse of a necessity which hangs over
everyone and everything, justifying conscription, economies, censor–
ship, discipline, because there is a continual crisis in the world which
can only be solved by the most ruthless use of governmental power.
When the fascists expired in flames of self-destruction, they were like
that old peasant who, on his deathbed, told his children that there
was a treasure of gold buried at the bottom of the field. He knew
that they would have to dig for the rest of their lives. And the fascists
· know that we must build and control everything and almost everyone
after they have gone. They may think that after their deaths the curse
which they laid on their own countries in their lives will be laid on
the whole world.
The difference, of course, between fascism and this heritage
from it is that with fascism the conditions for the conscription of
every branch of life into the totalitarian effort were largely forced;
with us, ruin, shortages, the disasters left by fascism. have made the
total organization of society really necessary. The difference is be–
tween necessity as an excuse, and necessity as a reality.
If
the fascist
governments had been superseded by other forms of government,
before 1939, then these other governments could have ruled without
introducing measures of control and conscription. Any government
now, whatever its party, if it is to govern, must control and ration and
organize at home, while approving of equally strong measures in its
foreign policy abroad, to bring world order out of the chaos left
by
fascism.
The problem of our time has always been power. The evils of
power are fully proved to us, and our age is a classic demonstration
of Lord Acton's famous saying that all power corrupts and that abso–
lute power corrupts absolutely. Yet it is impossible for us to renounce
