Resisting the Attilas
FROM The World at the Cross Roads by Boris Brasol (Hutchinson, 1921):
There can be no compromise with the Attilas of the Twentieth Century. To compromise is to surrender. It is only the coward who surrenders in face of impending danger. There is no other issue than to accept the challenge. The strategic plan of the enemy is known. There is no mystery about it. This plan itself predetermines the measures of defense to be adopted by those who are attacked. The enemy preaches class hatred. The answer to this challenge is cooperation between the classes. The enemy strives for economic destruction, which must be counteracted by economic construction. The enemy seeks to undermine religious faith. Accordingly, the consolidation of religious faith and the fight against atheism must be urged. The enemy spreads the plague of internationalism. There is no other way to combat this plague than by giving support to the national ideal and national tradition. The enemy appeals to the ignorant. He uses the ignorance of the masses as a means of throwing them under his control. Ignorance can and must be combated by education. The enemy is trying to dissolve the family because it is the nucleus of the present social order. There is probably no task more urgent to-day than the protection of the family and its stabilization. The enemy has declared war on art and beauty, and accordingly, it has become the duty of the enlightened part of humanity to cultivate art and beauty, to disarm brutality by aesthetics, to bring nearer to the masses the immortal creations of genius. Such are the lines of defense, such are the tactics. (more…)




