WORLD OF NECESSITY
353
power, because none of the problems of the modern world can be
solved without exercising it. We must learn to use it justly and wisely.
This means that governments must be able to exercise the controls
necessary to the postwar world without giving way to the temptation
to set themselves up in a position in which they are irreplaceable. It
means that what is considered necessary must include culture and
criticism, and not just that which is immediately desirable. It means
that the democratic governments must reject the evil inheritance which
fascism has maliciously left them- to become overruling, imperialist
and totalitarian. It also means that the people in the democracies
must deliberately avoid
~lipping
into the mood of acquiescence which
was typical of the peoples living under fascism. They must accept the
sacrifices which are necessary, but they should not do so merely be–
cause the government has mentioned the magic word "necessity."
They should insist that strong government does not mean no pos–
sible alternative to the existing party or coalition in power.
Freedom has been defined as the recognition and acceptance of
necessity. This means that in a situation where men are compelled
by a sense of common social necessity, they recognize freely the rea–
sons for their actions and they accept them. It does not mean that
necessity can be used by the government as an excuse for every kind
of censorship and infringement of liberty. In fact, what determines
freedom is the spirit of criticism and vigilance, so that the controls
which seem to be imposed by the government are willingly imposed
on themselves by free individuals for reasons which they understand.
But what is necessary for society in a state of emergency hardly
ever coincides with the wishes of the individual, precisely because the
margin which distinguishes an individual personality from a mere
economic and social unit almost disappears in a society undergoing
continual crisis. Today people notice the gap between the massive,
generalized, levelling, ruthless, mechanical public activities which are
directed in the interests of all, and yet which coincide exactly with
no one's wishes for himself, and the eccentric, yet creative needs of
individual self-expression. Government becomes more and more con–
cerned with imperative necessity, an either/or meaning that unless
individuals act as is required of them, consciously suppressing their
desire to express themselves extravagantly, they will be romantic
rebels against the measures necessary to feed and clothe the victims
of the war, and to prevent further wars.
The idea of necessity tends to swallow up every cause that cannot
be integrated within the problem of distributing available goods and
