My Life

My Life - Oswald Mosleyearly in 1929. We had a discussion with the leaders of the German socialist movementwho were affiliated to our party in the Second International, but the concentrated talkin the German fashion soon became too serious for the taste of MacDonald. At length,leaning back from the table with his favourite act of the grand seigneur who was adistinguished patron of the arts, he enquired what the current opinion of Van Goghwas in Berlin. Van Gogh? Van Gogh? ran the puzzled query round the table untilsomeone with a flash of light ejaculated—a painter! Then my favourite character atthe meeting, a fine old sweat of a Prussian drill-sergeant, rose to his feet with a clickof heels and said: 'We ring up the museum, we enquire'. MacDonald gave up.So far I had only noted in MacDonald his foolish and ridiculous way of life whichwasted the time of the Prime Minister and consequently the time of the nation. Thedeep element of hysteria in his character only emerged after this European tour. I wasthen to observe the basic character of these men of double-talking and double-dealing.They were entirely different animals in all things, great and small, to the masters ofaction whom history has revealed to our judgment. They are unfortunately a recurrenttype in our country during periods when the river of history is passing through thequiet and peaceful contemporary scene of Winston Churchill's description: 'so calmthat it can even carry on its tranquil bosom the contemptible figures of Baldwin andMacDonald'. The Baldwins and MacDonalds are always present in thosecircumstances, continually changed and adapted in superficial appearance, with newpresentation and make-up to suit the always transient fashion, but in underlyingreality they are the same men. They are the 'goody-goodies', the figures of infiniteworthiness, the models of public virtue and private decorum. They are the products ofthe Puritan tradition, and most faithfully they follow the form of that tradition.Limitless has been the damage they have done to England until now the destructionreaches its climax in the inevitable reaction from Puritan repression.The last direct and notable injury inflicted on the English people by the squalid curseof Puritanism was the Abdication, for which Baldwin was primarily responsible. Nowcomes the inevitable reaction into the contrary absurdity and possible fatality which ithad always invited. A generation on the run from its inhibited past will soon find thateven the relief of drugs cannot shelter it from the fact of living. The curse ofPuritanism may be lost when England enters Europe and a wider consciousness,where an equilibrium can be found again. Meanwhile, the land so respectable as toreject Edward VIII now presents a hilarious spectacle for the diversion of thesophisticated Europeans; the steady old mare which for generations just dragged themilk-bottles from door to door on the domestic round has suddenly run away with thecart and smashed the lot.Personally, I am as much against licence as I am against repression; we need a returnto the sanity and balance of the main European tradition. To revert to Puritanismwould be merely to reverse the medal and in the end to lead back to the presentdisaster in a cycle of inevitability. I deal with these matters to emphasise thecatastrophe of Puritanism, both in primary and secondary result, and to advocate amore rational, European outlook. I write also in order to urge my view that analtogether different kind of man is required for the conduct of great affairs. This typehas appeared before on the stage of history, and in lesser degree during our ownperiod in the person of Lloyd George. He and other less important contemporarieswere rejected largely on bogus moral values by men who were often themselves200 of 424