MURTI-BING
543
Blood flowed freely
in
Europe during the religious wars; and he
who joins the New Faith today is paying off the debt of that Euro–
pean tradition. Weare concerned here with more significant ques–
tions than mere force.
I shall try to speak of the profound longings in a man as
if
one
really could analyze the essence of his blood and flesh.
If
I should
try to describe the reasons why a man becomes a revolutionary I
would be neither eloquent enough nor restrained enough. I admit
that I have too much admiration for those who fight evil, whether
their choice of ends and means be right or wrong. I draw the line,
however, at those intellectuals who
adapt
themselves, although the
fact that they are adapted and not genuine revolutionaries in no
way diminishes their newly acquired zeal and enthusiasm.
There are, I believe, a few key concepts which may lead us to
understand why men accept Murti-Bing.
The socie.ty portrayed by Witkiewicz is distinguished by the
fact that religion has ceased to exist as a force. Religion long ago lost
its hold on men's minds not only in the popular democracies, but
elsewhere as well.
As
long as a society's best minds were occupied
by theological questions, it was possible to speak of a given religion
as the way of thinking of the whole social organism. All the matters
which most actively concerned the people were referred to it and
discussed in its terms. But that belongs to a dying era. We have come
by easy stages to a lack of a uniform system of thought that could
unite the peasant ploughing
his
field, the student poring over his
books, and the mechanic working on an assembly line. Out of this
lack arises the painful sense of detachment or abstraction that op–
presses those who are the "creators of culture." Religion has been
replaced by philosophy, which, however, has strayed into spheres
increasingly less accessible to the layman. The discussions of Witkie–
wicz's heroes about Husser! can scarcely interest a reader of even
better than average education; whereas the peasants remained
bound to the Church, but only emotionally and traditionally. Music,
painting and poetry have become something completely foreign to
the great majority of people. To bridge the gap between art and
the masses a theory developed that
art
should become a substitute
for religion. "Metaphysical feelings" were to be expressed in the
