I had not read any of H. G. Wells’ fiction; but I did slog through his massive compendium of earth’s history (The Outline of History) but without the footnotes prominent in prior editions), though he was never a trained historian. He was not strictly a member of the counter-culture, for he was all for science and technology (industrial progress), which would ostensibly culminate in the only slaves being machines, and liberating the (enslaved) masses from the rule of money (i.e., Jewish power).
Here is Wikipedia’s sympathetic summary of his 1200 page culminating work, initially completed in one year, in reaction to the horrifying mass death inflicted by aristocratic Great Powers. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Outline_of_History.
Wells started his synoptic book in 1919 (during a year of upheaval), but this edition was completed after WW2. However, Wells shockingly omitted the Nazi murder of European Jewry, a disaster not in Wells’s comprehensive chronology nor was it mentioned in Wikipedia, perhaps because such events did not jibe with the Wells assault on cultural and racial superiority, lauded by Wiki and affirming the moderate men. (His preference for male heroes and anti-heroes such as Alexander the Great, Napoleon (predecessors to “insane” Hitler?) was mentioned by Wiki.
Since I have focused many blogs on multiculturalism, antisemitism and the waywardness of 18th Century Protestant theologian J.G. von Herder’s influence, which culminated in “cultural anthropology,” race, “roots,” environmentalism, and national character: result, antisemitism and Christian Socialism (one 19th Century precedent of Fabian Socialism, also omitted by Wikipedia).
Nor did Wiki see that American greatness contradicted by a Wellsian emphasis on globalism and its constantly reiterated wish for “peace.” Toward the end of peace was his obvious preference for the Muslim and Buddhist religions. His Christian Socialism was also hinted as he regarded Jesus as a revolutionary who opposed the rich.
Surprisingly, and unlike the popular volumes by the anti-imperialist, somewhat Wilsonian, Charles and Mary Beard (1927), Wells expressed positive views of American promise (Wells,like Marx,lauded the American Civil War as a bourgeois revolution), but Wells did attack Stalinism, omitting however, antisemitism in Marx (who also railed against the rule of money as “the universal pimp.”)
So what are left with? Wells was a precursor of the counter-culture, notwithstanding his enthusiasm for machines which would presumably release the masses from toil. And, being a Fabian Socialist, Wells was apparently the father of the Peace Studies movement, the father of other moderate men (the “socially responsible capitalists” of the Democratic Party) and of left-leaning Pacifica radio.
The Clare Spark Blog 
“The intolerance of the Jewish mind did keep its essential faith clear and clean…. Judaism, it must be confessed, in its earlier phases, entered but little into the souls of men; it let them remain lustful, avaricious, worldly or superstitious; but because of its persuasion of a promise and a divine leadership to serve divine ends, it remained in comparison with Buddhism bright and expectant, like a cared-for sword.” – Wells
Comment by Stereo Realist — August 18, 2018 @ 2:34 pm |
Another hit, as usual Clare.
I’ve gone back and forth on Wells over the years. Was he ‘visionary’? Totalitarian? Foolish? Sinister? Boring and out of touch? A gentle, well-meaning man? A Victorian wind bag?
I still don’t know, but “moderate man” seems to be about as good a description as any.
I have “The Outline of History,” third edition (1922), and I see no mention of Jews after Catherine the Great, and nothing of Zionism or modern Muslims. The few earlier references to Jews are somewhat disparaging. But Buddhism and Islam get their own chapters. Was he ignorant, or was he ignoring? Was he covering up is xenophobia, or was he being controlled? Hard to tell.
It is good to have histories like this. First, because they knew more details about the past than we will ever know, and second, because it reveals prevailing attitudes that shaped events and that we have trouble understanding today. On the other hand, there is so much that is excised or incorrect that the casual reader cannot call exception to. We are meant not to think about certain things.
For example, a drawing of an “Assyrian warrior” bas-relief has been edited to remove the little bag that this character was holding. It is a small detail, but if you have seen a lot of these carvings from photographs, you know that this deletion was deliberate. It removes the mystery. History books of this sort are trying to settle “facts” not open controversy or new interpretation. Wells is painting a Vast diorama of the past and controlling your view and hopefully your conclusions — which is a very moderate man thing to do.
Comment by Stereo Realist — August 18, 2018 @ 2:14 pm |