A B C of modern socialism

23 stances nothing else matters. This is what is meant by function superseding subjective rights. It is “the primacy of things,” to use the philosophic term.

Once ashore, captain, owner, crew and passengers are quit of their functional loyalty to seamanship, and are free to proceed on their lawful occasions. In other words, the function is strictly limited by the terms of its commission. Nothing, not even finance, must be allowed to interfere, thwart or frustrate function in action. And whilst in action it demands the unquestioning loyalty of all concerned. We see a new discipline deriving from an authority higher than mere money or

property.

The Higher Purpose

This is a dramatic way of stating what in a functional society would be mere commonplace. Just as at sea we depend upon the function of seamanship, so on land we depend upon a thousand functions to supply us with the tens of thousands of things which our civilisation demands. And, just as at sea, seamanship controls, so on land the functions must control, each within its own definite sphere of action. And afterwards? The answer is clear: function is not an end in itself, but the means to the end. The end, of course—it is so evident I am almost ashamed to state it—is the greater glory of man, the triumph of the person and the divinity within him. The justification for the functional control of purely selfish interests and rights is that it is the one sure instrument for the

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