Transcript

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{word} = hard to understand, might be this

Ladies and gentlemen, on Monday we had no class, but instead, you had a better thing. You had an object lesson in American social history. The fate of Washington's birthday is intimately connected with things I have tried to tell you about the lack of cohesion of this country because of the not-quite-healthy interplay of war and peace. Any society, we said, is divided, split open, in a different manner in war and a different way in peace. And the American situation has been unique--except perhaps for the Roman Empire--that after every war, there was a undisclosed fate, only illustrated by the remaining military establishment, which pointed to a new task, not yet organized within the existing forms of government.

And if you see then this break, through war, in the continuity you have in George Washington -- he said that after such a catastrophe, after such a war, there never was simply this line, but there was this, as organized--and if I may put it this way--infinite space beckoning. Here you have the 13 colonies in 1783, and you have on the other hand, a society. Which parts of the United States at that time wa- -- were already parts of the states, and yet not organized? Would -- don't you tell me? In '83. There were 13 colonies. Was this all? Well, I come from a region in the United States which certainly was not included in the 13 colonies, but which at that time was at open war with the 13 colonies. Which state is this? Well, it is one of the smallest.

(Vermont.)

Vermont. In my home town, the majority of the people in 1791 voted to go with Canada and against the Union. We were -- outnumbered. So I live as a suppressed part of the United States.

Now I think it's quite important for you to remember that in 1783, there was this tiny speck as an apple of discord between the state of New York and the state of Massachusetts -- from both sides were encroaching on the rights of the -- of the squatter property, you see. They had been given away, the lands, twice. The New Yorkers, they had gra- -- given grants. They -- the governor of Massachusetts had given grants. And the people who finally kept the country were there without any grant. And that's Vermont. But besides, of course, the whole Northwestern Territory--when was this handed over to the Union? Well, we -- who owned it? Ohio, for example. Who owned that? { } ought to know.

(Was it a colony?)

What? Well, which colony? Wie? No, no. The 13 together had at that time no official property. Well, which colony did own it?

(Massachusetts.)

Oh no, no. Run by the { }, the little { } yes. Connecticut and Pennsylvania, didn't they? Virginia, too.

The -- the whole Northwest Territory came into the United States in this manner. But I -- only -- this seems to be never mentioned, becau- -- Vermont, however, had this significance, that it was unruly, that it was in open rebellion, that there was no state of peace in 1783, you see. The -- nobody knew who was the ruler of this territory. I think the other bran- -- parts of the western reserve were given over by treaty between the individual colony and Washington. But not so with Vermont.

Now I only have to prove one point, that there were left, after every war, to these United States territorial problems, territories, you may even say, just nakedly, who were not comprised in the peace settlement. And so they -- the -- the peace was not made with the 13 colonies and England. Or if it was made, it left undecided something that already was there, you see, to be decided. And I don't think that you understand the history of this country by dreaming up this -- this dream which is in your textbook that in 1783, the 13 colonies established themselves as the -- you see, the Republic of the United States. It isn't as simple as that. There's more to chew. And that's the explanation of course of the Louisiana Purchase, that already the western -- the western territory was there, and had to be snatched away from the English. It had to be under the rule of Uncle Sam, a central government.

Now this triangular situation, as I said, was repeated after the Jay Treaty with the Louisiana Purchase, because it was already, in -- by 1783, decided: the English should not get hold of the western territories. Now the Louisiana Purchase to Jefferson meant that if Napoleon couldn't give them this territory, the English might come back to the Mississippi, you see. And this had to be prevented by all -- in -- under all circumstances. And so the pressure of precedent of the whole story of America against England forced this Louisiana Purchase upon, as you know, a very unwilling president in the sense that he had to go against his own principles. But the facts of the previous war decided the issue. Can you see this? And this came only, you see -- in -- in 1800 about--that is, 17 years after the war.

And please, would you learn from this problem of a social history of the United States, that the periods of history are intertwined and dovetailed. You

must never think that an event can be chronicled in such a way that in 1783 everything can be said about 1783. This is one of the tragedies of the modern mind, that he thinks in -- the lines of physics, about time. In physics, one moment seems to follow the next -- the -- the previous, and on it goes. Gentlemen, this is not the time of living human beings. And everybody in this country with whom I talk seems to be hit by this physics -- physicists' bug, that he thinks this is the essence of time: past, present, and future. This is utter nonsense. Nobody lives in such a time. You live by fear -- and by memory, and expectations. You live as an heir and a founder. At this very moment, you are still the son of your parents, but you are also perhaps already the founder of a family. There the two -- tenses of your existence, the past and the future, overlap. Because you already know whom you are going to marry, or what you are going to do, at this moment, where you stand here, you see, the future is beckoning. And there is the pressure from the future. You expect something, or you fear something. You prepare at this moment. How can you prepare yourself for life if the future isn't already present? What is this word "pre-paration" if it doesn't mean before that which you expect? You want to be a doctor? So, you'd better go to medical school.

In -- in order -- in other words, at this moment, the future is very active in your life. And it should be. This has nothing to do with physics, gentlemen. Where is the future in physics? That's the dead time. Physicists have the privilege of dealing with corpses. For them, the universe is dead. To you and me, it's alive. And this -- this has encroached upon your mentality, that your mind is absolutely dead, because it deals with the dead time. That's why history cannot be taught at this moment in the United States of America, because all the audience is dead-set into believing that time marches like this.

But gentlemen, the second coming of Christ, or Judgment Day is upon us at this moment. The future is already deciding whether you are withering on the stem, or whether you are putting out a new leaf and a new with- -- a green branch. You can miss the boat at this moment; and your whole family, and your -- the profession which you choose, and the locality in which you try to live, that may all already be doomed. You better watch out. Every moment you decide whether you are on the way out into -- into the -- from de- -- the bottomless pit, or -- or you are rising to the -- into the real future.

Now since this is so, it is so hard to tell you -- to talk to you--look here at the past. Here is this past infringing upon your decisions. Your mother has still something to say; and she has too much to say in this country. I don't have to say this today. You -- you read it in the papers. And -- and this is the reason. Every American, dreaming that he is independent, has of course fallen into this motherly trap, because the things we do not admit, gentlemen, are always the ones who visit us -- which visit us, most. And because everybody in this country has been

tald -- told that beginning at the Month One, he is independent. Of course, he's the most dependent creature on the world. But instead of being dependent on his father and the laws of the country, he's just dependent on his mother. That is, he's only dependent physically, instead of being dependent morally on the history of his country. This is the disease today; it { } disease. But it all boils down to the fact that you live in a -- in an absolutely cemetery time, in a cadaverous time. But you -- we actually believe, "There is the past, there am I, and there is the future." And then you -- it results of course in Mr. Henry Ford's idiotic remark, "History is bunk." And now look at the Ford Foundation. If history is bunk, where would be the Ford Foundation? Where would be Mr. Henry Ford II? Where would the Edsel car be, I mean? The Ford family itself has a history, has it not?

Here. So will you kindly take note that the future and the -- and the past are at any one moment creating the fut- -- the present? The present is that which is struggling to decide how much past and how much future.

This is at this moment in this -- in this classroom, from 2:00 to 3:00, I -- we have created by common agreement a present. That is, time stands still at this moment. I can prove this to you. Why does it stand still? Because at 2:49, I still correct -- can correct without evil consequences what I have said at 2:00. In the serious life, in a -- in a c- -- law court or so, I couldn't. If I had signed my name at 2:01, I couldn't go there at 2:49 and say, you see, "I -- I'm rueful," you see. "I would -- don't -- want -- please give it back to me."

But in this cl- -- class, because it meets in -- under conditions of mutual confidence, of charity, and love, and hope, we can--I hope you have the hope; I have no hope with you, of course--every -- the times are reversible. The utmost you can say of any present is that times are reversible. The miracle can be achieved by human beings that during the -- such an hour of common dialogue and common commitment, we can go back and forth without, you see, having to fear that we are nailed down. Think that we are in Russia at this moment, and that a -- a -- a spy, a Communist is present to report what the professor said. Even in this case, the repor- -- the professor could clear up a misunderstanding till the end of the class. Once the class is over, the traitor could go crawling to the police, you see, and he couldn't risk -- retrace his steps. But at this moment, even in a -- in such a -- under such observation, a man could make clear that he was misunderstood, that he better explains, you see, what is meant. And in this moment, you must understand that this has nothing to do anymore with the times of physics.

Living time has -- empowers men to reverse past and future. That's the whole power that we have to create renaissances, rebirths of the past. We have

the Olympic Games again. We can conjure up the past in order to influence the future; and when -- then -- we can project the future into the past, and declare that the perfect man has already -- begin to come into existence 1959 years ago. And that's the essence of the Christian faith, the transformation of dead time into living time. That's all it is. It's a very banal and trivial thing. But in this country, it has absolutely been forgotten. Even the so-called theologians in this country believe in physicists' time. Lo- -- lost all notions with their social gospel and all this thing, that time is of the essence, ladies and gentlemen. Time is a living quality of yours and mine. And you are only alive as long as you can bring together past and future in this moment. And make them ex- -- even exchange roles.

Now a -- a birthday, like Washington's birthday, should remind you of this simple fact. The memorial days of a nation are attempts to bring the past into such a relation to the present that it still can have influence, that it is not, you see, the -- treated as a transient thing, but as still here. And the -- I'm now going to tell you the story of Washington's birthday, because it's intimately connected with the Society of the Order of Cincinnati.

Washington and the Order of Cincinnati both were at- -- are attempts--one in person by his biography, and the other by constitution and scheme--to remind the people at pea- -- in peace, that they had been created in a war. So the omnipresence of war in peacetimes, and the omnipresent, by the way, of peace in wartimes, as I told you, is -- makes a human being. We live in these two aggregates of the body politic, in that we are alternatingly at war and alternatingly at peace. Whether it's social war or military war, makes absolutely no difference. It's -- we have the Cold War today. It's the same thing.

Now George Washington, as you know, made his reputation in the war against the French. And he wouldn't have -- been commander-in-chief of the 13 colonies if he hadn't gained this reputation. It is necessary for men to have a way of making a reputation. And we have great trouble in -- for 1960, because at this moment in this country, with its corporations and -- it's nearly impossible for a man in peacetime to make a reputation that fits him for presiden- -- for presidency. And that's why Mr. -- Ulysses Grant, and why Mr. -- General Taylor, and why War- -- George Washington, and why Andrew Jackson, and why Mr. Eisenhower all have become presidents of the United States, because you cannot outrank a victorious general in the -- grateful hearts of the citi- -- the citizens.

Only to prove to you that war is present in peacetime. It determines who shall -- who can be considered a complete representative of the nation. A complete representative of the nation must be somebody who has served in both ways, in -- war and peace. Before, he's incomplete.

Again, this is like the physicists' time. It's all forgotten, because you believe that you will choose a candidate in 1960 on his merits in the year 1960. Don't be such fools. A man has to be accredited to his country by going through the important stages of his nation's history. And that is always war and peace. You may choose a veteran in 1960. But I -- you can be sure it must be a man who -- has seen action in one of the two world wars. Even Mr. Truman only became a possible candidate for presidency with all his simplicity, because he had been a major in the First World War. And that had made him, as a matter of fact. All he knows about history and politics comes from this, that he has seen fire in France.

All this must not be talked about in this country. You are such a peaceful people in peacetimes and so belligerent -- in wartime, that nobody ever mentions the two things together in your history books. I can under- -- can't understand it. But George Washington is a case in point. You and I -- we owe George Washington to the British, because they allowed him to take command under Sir Pepperell -- what was his first name?--Thomas Pepperell? No, no--in the -- in 1759, was it? or '57. And what -- what was his rank at the time? How high did he get -- come? Does anybody know? Wie?

(He began as lieutenant, and he was made captain.)

Oh, a little more, wasn't it? Wie? It's quite interesting, how far you have to go in the previous war so that it should, you see, count. It is not a ridiculous question, you see.

I have -- I have a friend who said, "If I had -- been a colonel in World War II," you see, "I now would be high in politics." But -- he volunteered as a private, although he was a man of 40, and could have had a commission as a colonel. He was a professor of philosophy at Duke University, and he felt this his duty to volunteer for his country. But he paid a high price, because he didn't accept a commission, you see, from one of these play colonels at headquarters; and instead went in as a private, and passed his officers' exams then with 99 -- with the highest honors in his corps district. But when he came out, he was quite bitter and he said, "I hadn't left the -- the war," you see, "with such a high sta- -- sta- -- standing that it will benefit me in peacetime." He -- he knew that he had paid a very high price.

I said to him, "I'm very glad that some people are like you. That's how we won the war." Because if everybody wants to get a commission as a colonel directly, you see, then the country is lost.

Well, this is not quite beside the point, because I want to draw your attention to the fact that in the personality of Washington, this country has received a

mold, a formed person, you see, whom we could take over ready-made, so to speak, from previous history. He has- -- Mr. George Washington is not accidentally the commander-in-chief of the -- of Continental Congress, obviously, you see. But he was there. And of course, that was his tremendous donation to the -- to the new nation, that he volunteered to cease to be a ge- -- a British gentleman, and to receive a British baronet title. And his agony was very great. And there exists a forgery, which I recommend to your attention.

In 1778, the Randolph family of Virginia forged letters on -- which proposed -- purportedly Washington had written to Randolph, the -- on behalf of his distress that he should lead a rebel army against the British. And the forgery has been much discussed, and I think it's still worth your while to look into it, because from forgeries, you always see what the people at the time think was important. And you would see from this -- these forged letters of Washington to Randolph, that this decision--should he keep to his record as a British soldier, you see, or should he begin all over again, as an American--was something that everybody as- -- ascribed to him as his moral problem of the time, you see.

Because war makes destiny. You cannot have fought for a cause and then go out of it and forget about it. This has left a mark in you -- it has made you. It has given you status with your own self. You have recognized who you are. A man who -- who fights on a battlefield cannot go home and say, "I didn't do that."

Now George Washington's birthday was to be celebrated when he became first president, if John Adams had had his way. But Jefferson said, "This would be royalty again, and we must not celebrate George Washington's birthday." And so it came to pass that instead we celebrate the 4th of July and not Washington's birthday under his -- during his whole -- own presidency. And you know perhaps that this was a real, social issue. That is, the old -- good society--to use the word "society" now in its double sense--the old society wanted to make George Washington play the role of George III on this continent. And Jefferson said, "If we do this, then we have a new royalty, and the birthday of the ruler must not be celebrated, but the Constitution instead."

And so American society was founded on the fact that no living being should be -- celebrated here. It's quite interesting. If you go to Europe, for example, a 70th birthday is always the cause for a tremendous celebration, you see, that -- since Luther's days in -- in Europe, the case that the mercy of God who has led a man to his 70th birthday is -- is then reason for rejoicing. In this country, people let their faces hang with shame, because they are 70, because they are now absolutely old, and -- and dead. And nothing is done about the dead. So that's the similar reaction as to George Washington's birthday, you see. So we --

will hold onto this.

George Washington's birthday -- the soldiers tried to celebrate it. The Order of Cincinnati tried to celebrate it. Jefferson prohibited it, the celebration. We now celebrate. This isn't the same. You now -- we now celebrate George Washington's birthday so that we don't have to celebrate Mr. Eisenhower's birthday. Do you understand? If you celebrate a dead man's day, you protect yourself against the living. It's very important to know, because George Washington, of course, at his -- in his own day, was to be celebrated as the living president of the United States, you see. And today, since -- if we think of him, he is celebrated as -- I mean it, to over-tower -- to tower over and above the living presidents, you see, and thereby put them in their place as merely temporary, you see, placement for his own office.

The wars after George Washington's birthday celebration, or attempt to it, and the 4th of July celebration, the later wars have not led to further holidays. And this is an explicit weakness of the American historical tradition. The tragedy of the Civil War, of First -- of World War I and World War II is that they have not led to a unanimous celebration. As you know, Memorial Day was instituted in the North, only; and the Confederacy did not celebrate, and does not celebrate Memorial Day. So it is a day of division. It is not a day of union for the history of the United States. It is the nearest that occurred -- we have to remember to record a war.

We had then later, after World War I, Armistice Day. Most unfortunate, because it was between war and peace; and the United States, by allowing themselves to celebrate Armistice Day, were put off the track that they hadn't made peace, that they had just marched home, forgot the war, and that of course, the war had to come back 20 years later, for this reason. The United States have decided, by celebrating Armistice Days, that they didn't know what it had meant to make peace.

You know the -- the formula which has haunted the United States is the formula of Grant in -- at Vicksburg: unconditional surrender. The -- dictation in Paris was very similar. You know, the -- the -- the -- the Germans had to sign on the dotted line. Of course, that's an armistice, but not a peace treaty. And in 1945, Mr. Roosevelt decided to make it impossible for the Germans to get any peace by demanding ahead of time even the unconditional surrender.

So three times, there has been no peace. Appa- -- after Appomattox, there has been no peace, just surrender. After 1918, there has been no peace, just armistice. And after 1945, Cold War. And you are in it. And I beg your pardon if I insist on this -- thank God that we are at least still a little bit still in the Cold War.

It's the only way in which this country may still solve its real problems. If you think that you are at peace at this moment, as most of you try to think in Los Angeles--it's very hard to believe anything else--you will be counted out of history. Mr. MacMillan's visit to Mr. Khrushchev was very ominous, because the European powers just try to -- hard to -- to do something about these problems. And we simply stand put and say, "We stand on our armistice terms." Gentlemen, armistice terms are no terms, you see. If you look at Europe, it's under the terms of the armistice, the division of Germany, for example. That's not peace. It's just deadlock.

I don't know if this country is ever willing to understand the difference between armistice and peace. That we do not shoot is much worse than if we would shoot. Then there would peace be necessary. In a family where you no longer even grovel, and where you no longer quarrel, there's no hope. That people have arranged their coldness of heart in such a way that they just live side by side. As long as there is storm and fight in a family, you still can return to normalcy. But in this country, it's different. People are so kind, they never quarrel. But they have given up loving each other. Hostility is not bad. But armistices are terrible. That's cold, that's -- or lukewarm. And God spits out the lukewarm. War and peace are loving processes. This holding on, in suspended animation at 35 degrees of temperature, it's neither here nor there.

But this is preferred here. You think armistice is a normal state of affairs. Now on November 11th, 1918, there was this fantastic celebration of Armistice Day. You know the armistice was celebrated a little too early in this country, even. They couldn't wait for it, and so they thought it had happened -- a day earlier. After this Armistice Day, from 1918 to 1945, it had been limping, so to speak. It was a typical limp holiday. You don't -- can't remember, you are too young. But some of the older ones of you may remember, that it just declined all the time. It never was abandoned, but it was always less eagerly celebrated. At the end, in our college, there was no class between 11:00 and 12:00, at noon. Otherwise everything went on quite normally, you see. And -- so clever pro- -- students of course only took courses between 11:00 and 12:00.

Gentlemen, a great country like this is in a terrible position if its greatest war memories are not celebrated and enshrined. We have now made this compromise, that we call Armistice Day now "Veterans' Day." I had -- so we can telescope the First and the Second World War into one. It's not a real celebration, gentlemen. Veterans' Day is not the celebration of either victory or peace. It's just the respect for the individual who has given his life. Not even this is en- -- enshrined in -- Veterans' Day. With veterans you think of the living today. The veteran are not the dat- -- the dead on the battlefield. And that would -- therefore I -- I resent the term "Veterans' Day" as an absolute impoverishment of the --

of the task of such a holiday. Memorial Day is much better, because there you go to the cemetery. But in this moment, where we are in the hands of the medical profession, death has been abolished officially. Nobody remembers the dead: "Oh, dead? We have nothing to do with the dead. We live." And so you mustn't even say "The Day of the Dead," "The Day of All Souls," as the Catholics at least say on November 2nd. You must say, "Veterans' Day. How nice. Here is the man with the broken tooth at the -- ripe age 103, and we celebrate him." Well, you shouldn't celebrate the man without teeth at 103. You should celebrate the young man who went down battling, shouldn't you? Are they included in the word "veteran"? They aren't. There is absolutely no association in the -- with the -- or between the sacrifice of life and the word "veteran."

And so I think the -- the -- Washington's birthday is an unsolved problem to this day. In George Washington's birthday, and in the Order of Cincinnati, there appeared before this nation the demand that the leadership in war should be recorded in peace in some form and action forever. It was rejected. The Order of Cincinnati was resented as creating a military nobility. And the birthday -- Washington -- Washington's birthday was resented as creating the supremacy of a -- the president. But Memorial Day, Armistice Day, and Veterans' Day--perhaps you will remind these -- mark these three things out--are abortions. Memorial Day, because it is divisive; Armistice Day, because it lulled the nation into this sleep which -- from which it then woke up in the -- in the Depression in 1929, that they never had made peace; and today, Veterans' Day, because it -- allows a society, which is already living without any memory, without any respect for the dead, without any relation to the dead, with every effort to forget that people must die. I don't have to say this in Los Angeles, with Evelyn Waugh, and her -- what's this famous book on the cemetery here?

(The Loved One.)

The Loved Ones, yes. Now, you are against the wall here. You are the worst offenders, according to the opinion of the rest of the country. They think that the orange groves of Los Angeles have made you forget that we are mortals. And that all life we own -- we owe to the death of other people. Children to their mothers, and -- and a law -- the laws of a country go back to the soldiers who have laid down their lives for them -- for those laws. And there's no other dignity for the living, unless they invoke the faith of the people who have died for them.

Since you -- this is abolished at this moment in this country, most people cannot understand what history is about. History is an attempt, gentlemen, to fight the dead time of physics by making parts of the past -- those parts of the past influence the future, which already started the future, or which started us on our march into the future. Those parts of the past belong to history, I would

say--especially wars--in which something was started that belongs to the future, and which, despite our laziness and despite our forgetfulness have to -- bypass us into the future, you see, whether we blo- -- like to block it or not. That we speak, that we pray, that we write poetry, that we ride railroads, whatever you take, that we can write, that we have boundaries, that we have law and order, that murder is -- is punished, treason, theft, et cetera -- that's all already decided long ago by the sacrifices of good men, is it not? And we -- you may or may not destroy this.

But one thing is true. These laws are more parts of the future than you and me at this moment. We may be blocks in the way of the future, roadblocks. But what these actions have -- have established is something that is already part of the complete future of the -- destiny of the human race, is it not? It is not past, but it is -- just called it the beginning of the future -- or the beginnings of the future. The future must start somewhere. Do you think it starts with you? Or me? Obviously it has started long ago. And anything that has started long ago must bypass ours -- us, and our resistance against it into the future or we destroy it. And of course, we are hell-bent at this moment. I think this country destroys the things of the past by calling them "the past." You can destroy the pa- -- living past by saying, "Oh, that's all gone." Then history is bunk. In this very moment, you put it in the wastepaper basket, or you play with it, as Ramona.

(Speaking about a play, there was a very terrible production of Hamlet last night, in which Fortinbras is cut out.)

The whole future.

(No succession. No one to hear his dying voice.)

{What} is great. You know what Hamlet says when he meets Fortinbras? "Not to stir without great moment -- ar- --."

Well, the abolition of history is something of course to which we owe a load of gratitude to Hollywood. This dream world in which we all live, which has abolished death, has abolished -- the authority of the dead over the living, the obligation under which we are put to continue the beginnings of the future, or at least not to prevent them from reaching the future. They are -- they've all been abolished. If you go as a girl to college now, the one thing you -- you should decide: you are talked out of it. Do you help the children how to pray, or not to? That's the only important decision for a young woman to make. But you -- this is -- never mentioned in college. You think -- there is an example. Nobody who teaches his own child to pray understands prayer fully, understands theology fully. Nobody is the pope himself when he has a child to educate. But you

have to educate your children whether you understand it or not. You have absolutely no excuse by saying, "I hadn't just this lesson in psychoanalysis, or this lesson in theology, and therefore I cannot teach my child." This doesn't help you at all. You are not out of your responsibility before you have studied this and gotten a degree for it. Here you are, on the spot, and you have to hand over everything valuable, whether you understand it fully or not.

The -- a holiday is the recognition of this fact; and that's why I think the fate of Armistice Day, and Veterans' Day, and Memorial Day, and George Washington's birthday is an important chapter in the social history of this country. It is -- has not been solved, the relation of war and peace. You can see it from this. Each one of these days is limping, is -- is -- hasn't come off.

Now I have always hoped, but I'm wavering now in my hope, that mankind would rise to the occasion of a common holiday for the two world wars. I don't see why it should be impossible to institute a -- a day, you see, in which all the nations of this tremendous brotherhood, you see, recall this. But it seems not to be possible to think of such a dramatic move. Something has to be done which brings home to every ser- -- men -- member of every of the -- all the nations in -- in the -- involved in the conflict, that they have to live differently after that, these two conquests. And this cannot be done by nationalistic, or western-bloc or eastern-bloc forms of life. Obviously it has to be a common form.

I have -- first have thought of such a common holiday. I have proposed other solutions: a universal service for every member of the global community would do exactly the same. I am at this moment engaged in a crusade in Europe to institute such a universal service -- duty of service for every member who -- a man who -- or woman who are represented by this strange organization called United Nations. Because it isn't enough that the nations should unite. Every one of us has to live differently after this struggle, you see. Because let me say -- sum all -- up the -- all this talk in one thing. After a war, life differs. If it hasn't differed -- doesn't differ, the war hasn't happened. The war has only happened if it leaves in some form -- way of life a definite change. Now the holiday is the minimum of this recollection, because through the holiday, you can still reach further generations, you see. Later generations always point to this day and say, "It makes a difference. This day didn't exist before."

So the fight against mythology--of which you hear so much today in -- for example, among modern theologians--is a very simple thing. You live mythological today in -- in Ca- -- Southern California, because you live not after the Second World War. You don't live -- only mechanically you live after the Second World War. But nothing in your life differs on the surface of things, because it is after the Second World War. There is no appropriation on your part of the fact that

you live in 1959. For all practical purposes, you could just as well live in 1911, politically speaking.

Pragmatism is mythology. And John Dewey is still almighty in this country. And pragmatism just means that you have not -- are not dated, you see, that you are not an historical being, but that at this very moment, you do what you think is practical, that you don't live in the living time process of the one time of history in which one spirit moves through all times. But that everybody has, with his little own mind, is just -- has a flashlight, and says, "Now, what do I get next?"

The complete lack of a common hope, and a common expectation, gentlemen, is prevalent in this country since the death of William James. And the last word of William James was an appeal, so to speak, to George Washington's birthday or to the Veterans' Day, or to Memorial Day, or to Armistice Day, although the world wars hadn't happened. His last word was his famous speech before the peace society of this country on the moral equivalent of war. And he appealed to everybody and said, "War can only be abolished if we recall it in our everyday action by something to replace it." You may -- you may have heard this, have you? -- this speech. It is still very modern, and I only use it to round out the picture of the celebration of the memory of war. The moral equivalent of war of -- William James is the last word of continuous historical thinking in the official America. After 1910, I assure you, this country has lost its connection with its own memories. And Armistice Day and Veterans' Day are proof of this, because it has not been able any longer to articulate its own experience.

Yes?

(How is change possible in a past-determined future? How is change possible in a past-determined future?)

Well, if you believe that the -- you see, it's a good question, but { } other way around. You know who Butler was -- the Amer- -- the satirist Samuel Butler, the English satirist? He said that although God cannot alter the past, historians can. And that's way He needs historians, you see, to alter the past. You -- you say that the future is governed by the past. I can only tell you that the future governs the past. And in the light of your future, you even ch- -- change your ancestry. Jesus' genealogy, I -- I recommend the first chapter in Matthew. Have you ever read the New Testament?

(No, I haven't.)

No. It's a good book. And -- and in the first chapter of Matthew, the whores, and the harlots, and the adulteresses, you see, are brought out to have

given birth to the -- our Lord, and not the dignified ladies of the Daughters of the Revolution. That is, Matthew has altered--by his history of the birth of Jesus--the past. Because what was looked upon as a liability before, that He had in his ancestry, you see, the -- the harlot of -- of Jericho, and the -- Bathsheba, the adulteress, you see, of the Hittite, {Uriah}, and so on, this was turned into an asset. And you always change the past by the future when you turn liabilities into assets, Sir. If you are an orphan, and if you are Helen Keller, and you get -- become the real Helen Keller of the end, you have altered the past, have you not? By all her antecedents she is cursed; and by all her future, she's blessed. There is no past-determined future. That's your curse, that you are Mr. Einstein's follower. You are a physicist. That's only true in physics.

Gentlemen, you take this man -- young man Einstein, or you take Mr. Planck, or you take Mr. {DeBohr}, you take Mr. Teller, you take Mr. Oppenheimer, you take Newton -- don't you think that the expectation they had of their achievement dictated their lives against all their handicaps? Michael Faraday was the valet of Mis- -- Sir Davys, the physicist. Just the -- the -- the -- the -- carrying out the pot de chambre. And -- and he became the greatest physical -- physicist of the 19th century. He altered his past by being inspired by his future. What is freedom except -- you -- you here, in this country -- I always hear talk about freedom, and then I hear about pre-determinism. But gentlemen, freedom means that you can change the past. That's all.

(And the past may determine how { }.)

That tradition, which deserves only to be known is the record of freedom in the past. Wherever people have broke -- broken chains, you have to invoke their power so that they may in- -- re- -- accord you the same. History is the record of freedom in the past, is it not? What is remembered? Thermopylae is remembered. Marathon is remembered. Brutus is remembered. The -- Declaration of Independence is remembered. The -- history consists of the -- those acts of freedom that have already occurred and that which we today by our teaching of environments, statistics, psychology, destroy again. You live in a slave country today, because you believe in environment, you believe in the phil- -- laws of the past, you believe that you are pre-determined. You have a philosophy of despair. I don't know what you have, but certainly not freedom, in your own heart. So if you look into the past and say, "There people are free, and we are not. So how do we regain it?" Read history.

(But we are free, provided the past doesn't hamper our march into the future, provided we can -- we can go { } unhampered by tradition, because we must { }.)

This is { }. The tradition of freedom -- this is the one thing that { } reinforce your power.

(On freedom, I agree. The tradition of freedom, but not the tradition of particulars, in which -- if they are -- appear to { } will hamper future freedom).

No, Sir. I don't follow you. {That's a fact.} You mean, you see, with your "freedom" this emptiness, void, nothing. Gentlemen, a free man of course has just to ex- -- execute the laws of his country. Jesus had to go to the Cross, and He wasn't a rebel. He wasn't a mutineer. Mutiny on the Bounty -- the Bounty is not the { } of life. That's what you think. { }. That's ridiculous. You speak, don't you? How old is your language? Five thousand years. What you tell me are -- at this moment is incorporating 5,000 years of human tradition. And you think you are free, as of this moment?