Three worlds. Liberal, Communist and Fascist Society

284 Pages·11.683 MB·English

by  Timasheff N.S.

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COLLEGE LIBRARY

SCIENCE AND CULTURE SERIES
Joseph Husslein, S.J., Ph.D., General Editor
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THREE WORLDS
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in 2011 with funding from
LYRASIS IVIembers and Sloan Foundation
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THREE WORLDS
Liberal, Communist; ana
Fascist Society
N. TIMASHEFF, LL.D.
S.
Associate Professor of Sociology
Fordham University
THE BRUCE PUBLISHING COMPANY
Milwaukee
3X1
Copyright, 1946
by The Bruce Publishing Company
Printed in the United States of America
c
PREFACE BY THE GENERAL EDITOR
The purpose of this book is to explain the significance
of the social changes that have taken place in the world
ofour day. "Is this in reality," people inquire, "the Decline
of the West foretold by Spengler?" It is not hard, indeed,
to understand the ominous forebodings that possess the
minds of men when they behold the clouds gathering
anew as a prelude, it might seem, to a still more terrible
World War HI.
No one will deny that there is reason for speaking of a
decline. But it is not a decline that we must deem in-
evitable, much less one that necessitates the total destruc-
tion of our Western civilization. There is question mainly
of a decline in one phase of this civilization, in the
remnant, namely of that false Liberalism fostered by the
so-called "Enlightenment" and formulated into the un-
christian social doctrine of laissez faire, based on a dis-
regard of the individual man created to the likeness of
God and endowed with inalienable rights. The conditions
thus induced among the laboring classes and the poor,
in the heyday of this teaching, soon caused men to cast
about for a new social order.
Two such alternatives suggested themselves. The first,
developed by Marx, resulted in that Russian Communism
which since has passed through various stages. The second
is Fascism in its purely totalitarian form. Still other forms
of Fascism exist that are not the expression of the same
vi Preface by the General Editor
paganized theory but must be judged according to their
several aspects in different countries.
This, therefore, gives us three distinct social orders,
three worlds in conflict with each other— Liberal, Com-
munist, and Fascist Society.
For genuinely totaHtarian Communism and Fascism
there can be no salvation. It enslaves man to the state
and must be condemned by all true religion, of which in
turn it constitutes itself the deadly foe. The third form
of society, on the other hand, is not necessarily flawless,
yet it has the possibility at least of cleansing away what-
ever taints remain of the old classic Liberalism, and so of
renewing itself in a glorious rebirth by its conversion into
a true Theistic Liberal Society. It is truth that must set
men free, and the most fundamental of all truths is the
fact of a Creator God to whom man is responsible for
his stewardship. Not laissezfaire, but recognition of every
man's human dignity and eternal destiny, irrespective of
race, color, or condition of life, must be the end aimed at.
That, and only that, is true Liberalism. In the meantime,
Labor and Capital alike must be prepared to exercise
due restraint and truly seek the common good.
It is this philosophy that underlies the present book
with its amazing wealth of information, and its relentless
effort at minute accuracy in every statement.
At present, as the author recognizes, there is deadly
competition between the three main social orders, em-
bodying the three proposed solutions of the problems of
our day. While Commimism, like its twin brother, Nazism,
has been defiant in its purpose of world conquest and
seeks to permeate all lands and subject them to its own
Red Moscow banner, displaying its emblems of sickle and
hammer, America has remained purely on the defensive.