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Shangri-la, issue 7, July-August 1948

Page 8

Thus, the whole world was separated into two groups, those in comfort in back of the glass windows of life and those in discomfort and even actual destitution in front of those sofsame glass windows. And, through these glass windows the two groups of humanity looked at each other and each forgot they were brothers, under the skin. On one side of the window was comfort, warmth, and luxuriant clothing. But on the outside of that window was hardship, penury, cold, hunger, a life only possible by hard work, a life that was only lived because of thehardships of death. It cost too much to die.

What happened? The rich did not know. They had always been curiously uninterested in the reactions of the unfortunate. The Queen of France suggested that the peasants eat cake if they had no bread. The child of the millionaire asks her nurse if pedestrians feel pain the way autoists do. Later, enormous Foundations are formed to eradicate hookworm and prevent malaria, but still there is no real effort made, either by the rich or by the poor, to understand each other. The glass windows not only form a barrier of bodies but also of souls.

And, generation by generation, the window gazers have looked longingly at the good things in the life behind the windows of the rich, behind the glass of the shop-keepers. The little boys and girls going to school, the laborer trudging to work and toiling back, the tired mother with two children hanging on her skirts and one in her arms, lovers wondering if the two can live as cheaply as one in one room -- all these, and millions more, have for centuries looked in through the windows of life and seen the abundance of things life has denied them, the possession of which would mould the world closer to their heart's desire. They have looked through thsss glass windows, and have remembered the longings and the disappointments of life, and they have transmitted these thoughts to their children and their children's children as inherited memories.

Slowly, through the ages, this shimmering, beautiful, transparent substance has become a hate symbol, and the desire to destroy it, to obliterate it in some way so that the good things on the other side will be easily accessible, has remained a constant desire. It is true that this desire is usually repressed and it is also true that often it lingers in the subconscous, below the threshold of conscousness, but it is there always and needs only a definite stimulus to liberate it.

Therefore, these windows are broken -- by the thief who tries to break them, snatch his prize and escape amid the noise and confusion; by the insane who loses, through his psychosis, his power to repress desires contrary to his code of social ethics; by the cild simply out of malicious mischief; or by the drunken man, who suffers loss of his judgment through alcoholic intoxication.
These are individual instances, but every riot, every rebellion and revolution carry with them the breaking of glass and
(Con'd on page 16)

(8)

Saving...

Thus, the whole world was separated into two groups, those in comfort in back of the glass windows of life and those in discomfort and even actual destitution in front of those sofsame glass windows. And, through these glass windows the two groups of humanity looked at each other and each forgot they were brothers, under the skin. On one side of the window was comfort, warmth, and luxuriant clothing. But on the outside of that window was hardship, penury, cold, hunger, a life only possible by hard work, a life that was only lived because of thehardships of death. It cost too much to die. What happened? The rich did not know. They had always been curiously uninterested in the reactions of the unfortunate. The Queen of France suggested that the peasants eat cake if they had no bread. The child of the millionaire asks her nurse if pedestrians feel pain the way autoists do. Later, enormous Foundations are formed to eradicate hookworm and prevent malaria, but still there is no real effort made, either by the rich or by the poor, to understand each other. The glass windows not only form a barrier of bodies but also of souls. And, generation by generation, the window gazers have looked longingly at the good things in the life behind the windows of the rich, behind the glass of the shop-keepers. The little boys and girls going to school, the laborer trudging to work and toiling back, the tired mother with two children hanging on her skirts and one in her arms, lovers wondering if the two can live as cheaply as one in one room -- all these, and millions more, have for centuries looked in through the windows of life and seen the abundance of things life has denied them, the possession of which would mould the world closer to their heart's desire. They have looked through thsss glass windows, and have remembered the longings and the disappointments of life, and they have transmitted these thoughts to their children and their children's children as inherited memories. Slowly, through the ages, this shimmering, beautiful, transparent substance has become a hate symbol, and the desire to destroy it, to obliterate it in some way so that the good things on the other side will be easily accessible, has remained a constant desire. It is true that this desire is usually repressed and it is also true that often it lingers in the subconscous, below the threshold of conscousness, but it is there always and needs only a definite stimulus to liberate it. Therefore, these windows are broken -- by the thief who tries to break them, snatch his prize and escape amid the noise and confusion; by the insane who loses, through his psychosis, his power to repress desires contrary to his code of social ethics; by the cild simply out of malicious mischief; or by the drunken man, who suffers loss of his judgment through alcoholic intoxication. These are individual instances, but every riot, every rebellion and revolution carry with them the breaking of glass and (Con'd on page 16) (8)