Liberalism and Education

Abstract

The Crisis through which the world is passing is not a crisis of capitalism versus some other form of economic organization; it is not a crisis of war or peace; it is fundamentally a question whether man shall surrender everything that has been gained in his long, upward, and arduous struggle for freedom. Those who have lived under the blessings of free institutions tend not only to forget this struggle but are in danger of ignoring the fact that constant vigilance is the price that must be paid if these institutions are to be maintained and handed on. In a period of strain and tension such as the one through which we are passing today, at a time when millions do not know where they will get their daily bread, when youth feels that it is being deprived of its heritage, it is perhaps not a cause for surprise that there should be a tendency to follow the lure of plans and schemes that promise an easy way out without counting the sacrifice involved. Disappointed and disillusioned, men tend to be swayed more by their emotions than by their intelligence, more by promises for the future than by the realized achievements of the past and present, more by a policy of collective action than by a philosophy of individualism guided by the golden rule. From whatever point of view the crisis is viewed, the one fact that emerges is that the ideals of liberalism, freedom and democracy are being challenged both by their enemiesand by those who profess to be their friends. Liberalism as a social and political faith is gradually being crushed out of the world, and even in the few remaining countries in which it survives-the English-speaking nations, France, Belgium, Holland, and the Scandinavian countries, it is being challenged.