Passages with Solved Precis The construction of Utopias used to be despised as the foolish refuge of those who could not face the real world. But in our time, social change has been so rapid, and so largely inspired by Utopian aspirations, that it is more necessary than it used to be to consider the wisdom or wisdom of dominant aspirations. Marx, though he made fun of Utopians, was himself one...

Passages with Solved Precis There have been three kinds of ignorance. There is the ignorance of the stupid who are stupid because they do not know. There is the ignorance of the clever who select what they should know and so miss the truth. There is yet a third kind of ignorance which believes that the truth has been found’ and requires no further effort to know. The large mass of...

Passages with Solved Precis “It has been said that poetry imparts pleasure. This has often aroused controversy. Plato banished poets from his ideal commonwealth because in their desire to please, they overlooked the requirements of morality: “They give us to understand that many evil lives are happy and many righteous men unhappy; and that wrongdoing, if it be understood, is profitable, while, honest dealing is beneficial to one’s neighbour, but damaging...

Passages with Solved Precis There is in the mind of the average theatre-goer a prejudice against tragedy. “When I want to go to the theatre I want to see something cheerful. There is enough pain and tragedy in ordinary life, without showing it to us on the stage.” If he does not use this well tried formula, he will complain of a tragic play that it is “morbid” and “depressing”, so...

Passages with Solved Precis The necessity of planning for the economic development of an underdeveloped country is almost completely accepted by all thinking persons these days. The difference in opinion arises, however, with respect to the pattern that planning should take. The overwhelming prestige enjoyed by the Soviet Union as the first pioneer in the field of total planning in modern times gives a distorted perspective to thinking about ‘planning’ in...

Passages with Solved Precis The habit of reading is one of the greatest resources of mankind; and we enjoy reading books that belong to us much more than, if they are borrowed. A borrowed book is like a guest in the house; it must be treated with punctiliousness, with a certain considerate formality. You must see that it sustains no damage; it must not suffer while under your roof. You cannot...

Passages with Solved Precis Our policy is one of peaceful settlement of international disputes, though we are obliged to resist aggression when it occurs. Our resistance is to be carried out without or hatred. Our faith in ahimsa does not mean cowardly submission to aggression. It is resistance to evil without violence in our minds or hatred in our hearts. While non-violence does not mean surrender to evil, it also requires...

Passages with Solved Precis To deal with this problem it will be necessary to find ways of preventing an increase in world population. If this is to be done otherwise than by wars, pestilences, and famines, it will demand a powerful international authority. This authority should deal out the, world’s food to the various nations in proportion to their population at the time of the establishment of the authority. If any...