Democracy and inequality!
Was there ever an absurder combination? What is the good of a
social order in which the men at the top are commoner, meaner stuff
than the men underneath, the same stuff, just spoilt, spoilt by
prosperity and opportunity and the conceit that comes with
advantage? This trouble wants so little, just a touch of
aristocracy, just a little cultivated magnanimity, just an inkling
of responsibility, and the place might rise instantly out of all
this squalor and evil temper. . . . What does all this struggle
here amount to? On one side unintelligent greed, unintelligent
resentment on the other; suspicion everywhere. . . .
"And you know, White, at bottom THEY ALL WANT TO BE DECENT!
"If only they had light enough in their brains to show them
how. It's such a plain job they have here too, a new city, the
simplest industries, freedom from war, everything to make a good
life for men, prosperity, glorious sunshine, a kind of happiness in
the air. And mismanagement, fear, indulgence, jealousy, prejudice,
stupidity, poison it all.
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