Page:Neurath O. (1942) International Planning for Freedom.pdf/7

428 climate may be destroyed! Perhaps civil liberty is of a similar character.

Modern civil liberty and toleration have been built up in the Netherlands, in England and in the U.S.A. through centuries and spread from there into other countries; it is likely that masses in these nations enjoy this atmosphere just as they like their fireplaces or certain traditional habits, and therefore dislike civil wars more than other nations. In Tsarist Russia the atmosphere of suppression was disliked by so many people that a ruthless civil war did not seem too bad. People in despair often think of dismembering the traditional order, anticipating that the new society would in any case be happier than the traditional one. Others who are not in despair but only discontented are not much interested in the simple doctrine that the amputation of a leg in any case removes all discomfort from a painful corn. They would incline to compare 'happiness conditions' when the situation changes without civil war and 'happiness conditions' when the situation changes with civil war. Social engineering takes the 'happiness conditions' of all transition periods into account. It is difficult to transfer despair into a country where such despair plays no great role, in spite of strong and manifold tensions. But it is difficult, too, to transfer the habit of toleration and civil liberty into a country in which not much of this habit has existed up to the present.

Assume the victorious Allies should be interested in a democratization of Germany. There may be different ways to succeed in doing so; one of them might perhaps involve the using of all the nuclei of self-government, toleration and freedom which are to be found as old traditions there, all the nuclei of freer education and other elements like these. It is obvious that such a practical problem would need careful scientific investigations. There are many elements in the German pattern which support e.g. obedience to any governmental command and nationalist over-statements. As early as the 18th century Adam Smith stressed the unique habit of obedience in the Prussian army and its political importance. A mere collection of such 'pros' and 'cons' is insufficient, because we also need investigations of the chance that a habit of an organized nation may be changed.

Let us consider, without analyzing them theoretically, four examples of the persistence of 'social atmospheres'. About 40 percent of the Russian rulers have been killed in one way or another during the last 350 years, but, before 1600, none of the Muscovite princes was killed. What a