§ 55

Now, winter is in full swing, the days are short, evenings long, but not dull. The Village Church, well warmed, is used for concerts, when not for them educational addresses are given by members of “The Order.” The big schoolroom is used for dances and play acting. It is considered by Village Communes that their duty is to help recreation as well as encourage labour. Concise little plays have been written by scholars of “The Order.” They make no fuss about scenery; what they do take pains with is the playing, which, in winter, forms a conspicuous item of education. It has been deemed wisest that the plays shall be simple and, above all, CLEAN minded. It is the object of the Village Communes that their people remain simple, which means not stupid, but innocent. As far as I have travelled I have been made aware that “Cinemas” are under strict control. It has been argued and decided that amusements may prove fatal to development. In no sense of priggishness, but as a proper protection. Cinemas are not permitted to show crime; they are used, as other enjoyments are, to excite the nobler not ignoble features of life.

We need not go to Germany now for basket-weaving, straw-plaiting and so on. That ancient industry is restored to England, which had let it slip, with too many others, into the hands of the Teutons an industrious people when the English were getting idle and were trying to live on other people’s earnings and labour, and more shame to them for it. It is the object of the Community so to conduct affairs that the idle are the exception, not the rule as they were growing to be some time ago. While those occupied in the affairs of the Communes are strict (for what is the use of Government if it is ductile, compromising and weak?), they are not autocratic, save in the sense that having framed laws, with consideration they carry them into effect. They do not make a law until they are sure it is a just one, and one which is necessary for the good of the people as a whole, not only for a section of it.