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in Asia, and elsewhere, the conflict of Russia and America.
If
one
viewed all these things in terms of old-style capitalist imperialist com–
petition, the situation would indeed seem desperate. The only thing that
saves us is the faith of economists that we are guided by the ghost
of
Maynard Keynes, like Blake's tempera painting of Nelson guiding the
spiritual form of Leviathan.
With the nightmare of the wider world-context behind tfs,
the
English response to these things-trotting the Royal Family round the
world, thousands of dog lovers protesting against Sputnik II-does look
pretty silly. And the silliness can turn ugly when it is backed up by the
British press, as the misrepresentation of Malcolm Muggeridge's article
on the Royal Family, and the attempt to destroy his career, show. We
are going through a period in which pins are being stuck into the bot–
toms of all the ostriches-royal, trades unionist, conservative, labor,
complacent and angry-with their heads stuck in the sands. The trouble
is that the pin-stickers have as narrow vision as the ostriches. Still, the
present situation cannot last.
Stephen Spender
