REAL FREEDOM 



corresponding measure. A denial of the 

 reality and efficacy of my power to shape 

 my own character In accordance with con- 

 sciously fabricated Ideals and so to exer- 

 cise genuine freedom to enlarge, purify, 

 and ennoble my personality Is a reversion 

 to a primitive and tawdry fatalistic 

 mythology of a barbarous age. 



The natural fruits of such a primitive 

 mythology are reversion to barbarism. If 

 I delude myself with the pretense that I 

 have no control of myself, my environ- 

 ment or my fellow-men, my personal prob- 

 lems are greatly simplified. The moral 

 Issue cannot be raised. This seems to 

 satisfy some people. Not feeling account- 

 able for their actions to themselves or any 

 other power, they justify themselves in 

 all sorts of Indulgence and antisocial prac- 

 tices. And they condone such practices in 

 others with resulting weakening of the ma- 

 chinery of social control all along the lines 

 from family discipline to courts of law and 

 legislative assemblies. 



These vicious tendencies can be suc- 

 cessfully combated In some quarters by 

 moral and religious appeals. In some other 

 circles these motives are less effective, 

 apparently because they seem to be at 

 variance with a defective philosophic or 



[95] 



