A Shaw Anthology
An introduction to the unpopular ideas of Bernard Shaw edited and prefaced by R. P. Finch
If you want to know where Shaw stood regarding Politics and Political Parties, take a look at this ANTHOLOGY. If you want to know where he stood on matters of religion and philosophy, evolution and economy, take a look at this ANTHOLOGY. If you want to know the Shaw that really mattered, read this new work compiled, prefaced and edited by R. Parsifal Finch, Artist/Writer.
His words deserve to be woven into the fabric of our society. He had a vast range of interests which led to his socialist understanding. He was the spokesman for parliamentary politics when parliamentary socialism was defending itself from socialist hostility. He had the genius to recognize the unity in all great argument and the development in all art and yet dance to the rhythms of life's abundance. The world was his stage. He knew it could be improved. That was his politics.
R. P. Finch
He is neglected by politicians in the wrong belief that politics is merely a parliamentary matter. He believed at the time that Hitler was more than the bogey we made of him and compared him to Lenin and Stalin. He admired Mussolini and Hitler before the war and was so utterlydisappointed before the end of it that he had to write Everybody's Political What's What. He was influenced by the ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche and Karl Marx, who, he said, made a man of him and gave him purpose. He brought Wagner to the fore in England with his Music Criticisms and never gave up on Ibsen. He believed to the end of his life that equality of income was essential to stop the collapse of civilization. I too, with Shaw, believe that civilization as a whole would benefit mightily from this equalization and think Nietzsche's attack on it was childish. I think it would enhance civilization beyond what we seem able even to comprehend as things stand: and from that new civilization; a socialist civilization (for want of a better word), the concept Ubermensch (Superman) would have a creative and real meaning. The world would be a place worth living in for all and leadership would have a great joy attached to it because it would exist, not for the purpose of acquiring thrones, crowns, riches and power over others, but to express the longing for human emancipation from so called 'nature' and its developed political dissimulations, hypocrisies, lies and frauds. But such a notion of leadership is beyond even consideration today and is 'instinctively' believed impossible and scorned. The conditioned reflexes of thousands of years of exploitative power has made us one-sided and top-heavy to the extent that we feel every other possible social arrangement impossible and 'unnatural.' Education would take on a new meaning in a world able to go beyond its present social horizon and 'cultured' cul-de-sac. If it was able to do this, life itself would be grander, bigger, open to all (and simply more exciting).
R.P.Finch
Soft Cover £14.00
Hard Cover 25.00
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