William Morris
English designer, writer and socialist (1834 to 1896); author of Signs of Change.
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What they believe
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Competition is war, which at best pursues one’s own advantage at the cost of someone else’s loss
War or competition, whichever you please to call it, means at the best pursuing your own advantage at the cost of some one else’s loss, and in the process of it you must not be sparing of destruction even of your own possessions, or you will certainly come by the worse in the struggle.
gutenberg.orgSaid c. 1883–1888This on korrents
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Beliefs
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Competition is war, which at best pursues one’s own advantage at the cost of someone else’s loss
War or competition, whichever you please to call it, means at the best pursuing your own advantage at the cost of some one else’s loss, and in the process of it you must not be sparing of destruction even of your own possessions, or you will certainly come by the worse in the struggle.
Signs of Change: Seven Lectures (1888; 1896 edition) Said c. 1883–1888
Every civilized country has, or could have, plenty for all, and sharing existing wealth fairly would make everyone comparatively comfortable
For what I want you to understand is this: that in every civilized country at least there is plenty for all—is, or at any rate might be. Even with labour so misdirected as it is at present, an equitable distribution of the wealth we have would make all people comparatively comfortable; but that is nothing to the wealth we might have if labour were not misdirected.
Signs of Change: Seven Lectures (1888; 1896 edition) Said c. 1883–1888
Under the present system labour-saving machines have not cut any worker’s hours
So I say that, in spite of our inventions, no worker works under the present system an hour the less on account of those labour-saving machines, so-called.
Signs of Change: Seven Lectures (1888; 1896 edition) Said c. 1883–1888
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Letting machines be our masters rather than our servants is what injures the beauty of life today
I don’t quite admit that; it is the allowing machines to be our masters and not our servants that so injures the beauty of life nowadays.
Signs of Change: Seven Lectures (1888; 1896 edition) Said c. 1883–1888
The real masters of society are landlords and capitalists, whom political reform alone would not touch
The real masters of Society, the real tyrants of the people, are the Landlords and Capitalists, whom your political triumph would not interfere with.
Signs of Change: Seven Lectures (1888; 1896 edition) Said c. 1883–1888
Trying to change the present system piecemeal underrates how strongly it grinds people into their places
Those who think that they can deal with our present system in this piecemeal way very much underrate the strength of the tremendous organization under which we live, and which appoints to each of us his place, and if we do not chance to fit it, grinds us down till we do.
Signs of Change: Seven Lectures (1888; 1896 edition) Said c. 1883–1888
Socialists’ work lies outside Parliament, in educating the people to know, take and use their own
I say that our work lies quite outside Parliament, and it is to help to educate the people by every and any means that may be effective; and the knowledge we have to help them to is threefold—to know their own, to know how to take their own, and to know how to use their own.
Signs of Change: Seven Lectures (1888; 1896 edition) Said c. 1883–1888
The modern workman works harder than the feudal serf, lives little better, and produces far more luxury for his master
The workman of to-day, if he could realize the position of his forerunner, has some reason to envy him: the feudal serf worked hard, and lived poorly, and produced a rough livelihood for his master; whereas the modern workman, working harder still, and living little if any better than the serf, produces for his master a state of luxury of which the old lord of the manor never dreamed.
Signs of Change: Seven Lectures (1888; 1896 edition) Said c. 1883–1888
An inevitable social revolution lies ahead that will end mastery and bring the triumph of fellowship
Yet this we know, that ahead of us, with nothing betwixt us except such incidents as are necessary to its development, lies the inevitable social revolution, which will bring about the end of mastery and the triumph of fellowship.
Signs of Change: Seven Lectures (1888; 1896 edition) Said c. 1883–1888
It seems impossible for the destruction of privilege to stop short of absolute equality of condition
It is impossible to see how destruction of privilege can stop short of absolute equality of condition; pure Communism is the logical deduction from the imperfect form of the new society, which is generally differentiated from it as Socialism.
Signs of Change: Seven Lectures (1888; 1896 edition) Said c. 1883–1888
Reformers seek to end class struggle while the exploiting class keeps exploiting, which is an impossible problem
They propose to themselves the impossible problem of raising the inferior or exploited classes into a position in which they will cease to struggle against the superior classes, while the latter will not cease to exploit them.
Signs of Change: Seven Lectures (1888; 1896 edition) Said c. 1883–1888
The aim of art is to increase human happiness by making work happy and rest fruitful
Therefore the Aim of Art is to increase the happiness of men, by giving them beauty and interest of incident to amuse their leisure, and prevent them wearying even of rest, and by giving them hope and bodily pleasure in their work; or, shortly, to make man’s work happy and his rest fruitful.
Signs of Change: Seven Lectures (1888; 1896 edition) Said c. 1883–1888
Art cannot result from external compulsion, because the labour that produces it is voluntary
In other words, I believe that art cannot be the result of external compulsion; the labour which goes to produce it is voluntary, and partly undertaken for the sake of the labour itself, partly for the sake of the hope of producing something which, when done, shall give pleasure to the user of it.
Signs of Change: Seven Lectures (1888; 1896 edition) Said c. 1883–1888
Work that is a burden and a slavery cannot produce art, only bare utility or sham
At the risk of being accused of sentimentality, I will say that since this is so, since the work which produces the things that should be matters of art is but a burden and a slavery, I exult in this at least, that it cannot produce art; that all it can do lies between stark utilitarianism and idiotic sham.
Signs of Change: Seven Lectures (1888; 1896 edition) Said c. 1883–1888
The belief that all labour is good in itself is convenient for those who live on the labour of others
In short, it has become an article of the creed of modern morality that all labour is good in itself—a convenient belief to those who live on the labour of others.
Signs of Change: Seven Lectures (1888; 1896 edition) Said c. 1883–1888
Goods of folly and luxury made for the idle rich are not wealth but waste
These things, whoever may gainsay me, I will for ever refuse to call wealth: they are not wealth, but waste.
Signs of Change: Seven Lectures (1888; 1896 edition) Said c. 1883–1888
Competitive salesmanship has grown so much that many things cost far more to sell than to make
This is a larger body of workers than might be supposed, for it includes amongst others all those engaged in what I should call competitive salesmanship, or, to use a less dignified word, the puffery of wares, which has now got to such a pitch that there are many things which cost far more to sell than they do to make.
Signs of Change: Seven Lectures (1888; 1896 edition) Said c. 1883–1888
Making someone do the same task every day with no hope of change turns their life into a prison-torment
To compel a man to do day after day the same task, without any hope of escape or change, means nothing short of turning his life into a prison-torment.
Signs of Change: Seven Lectures (1888; 1896 edition) Said c. 1883–1888
The great conflict of the age is no longer absolutism against democracy but mastership against fellowship
No, it is not Absolutism and Democracy as the French Revolution understood those two words that are the enemies now: the issue is deeper than it was; the two foes are now Mastership and Fellowship.
Signs of Change: Seven Lectures (1888; 1896 edition) Said c. 1883–1888
The richest are still the idlest, and those who do the hardest work are the worst rewarded
The richest are still the idlest, and those who work hardest and perform the most painful tasks are the worst rewarded for their labour.
Signs of Change: Seven Lectures (1888; 1896 edition) Said c. 1883–1888
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