Florida Pier : writings and about / jmcvey.net
An Idée Fixe, Etc.
Harper’s Weekly (March 15, 1913) : 23
U Michigan copy/scan (via hathitrust) : link
archive.org : link
It is a serious inconvenience to have an idée fixe. One does not enjoy it a whit more than one’s friends, and that is saying a great deal, for one’s friends loathe it. No one knows the insidiousness of it more than the possessor. When every one else thinks that the conversation is going along nicely, you alone know that nothing is irrelevant, and what appeared to you a connection has prodded you off your place of safety, to send you tumbling to your perpetual obsession. It is like being the last rider in a cavalcade that fancies it is presenting a brave appearance. You would like their fancy to be fact, but you have lost your seat, your heels are ignominiously uppermost, and in another second you will land with a noisy thud and every one will be ashamed of you.
You wish your friends could keep you from it. An enthusiasm is as exhausting as any other form of dissipation. You dread it before, you regret it after, and you apologize continually. Every moment is for the enthusiast a separate trap-door which may let him through. He is not to blame; one cannot take precautions against the ground falling from under one’s feet. The fact that one subject favors him means that all others leave him listless, which is the very condition in which to be taken unawares. He has to bear with himself, and this being the case, it is perhaps natural that he should expect others to do the same.
the preceding paragraphs would appear to preface, and apologize for, their author’s own idée fixe that follows.Socialists are constantly told by their partial supporters and by their keenest antagonists that, socialism never having been tried, socialistic contentions only have the light weight of untested theories. But is there not room for a pretty argument in the view that along with the individualistic system which men have evolved for themselves, there has at the same time been evolved an amazingly socialistic system for the women? But is there not room for a pretty argument in the view that along with the individualistic system which men have evolved for themselves, there has at the same time been evolved an amazingly socialistic system for the women? The women live under a régime more than half socialistic. Or rather, they did, until every one, including the socialists, decided to oust them out of it. They had almost no choice of employment, they had to do what was best for the state — that is, provide it with citizens, at no matter what inconvenience to themselves — and they gave their services free. Nothing could be more socialistic. They were in return paid on the according-to-need system. With the rigorous and noble simplicity which the socialists advise, the women were given the necessities. In the cases where they got more, it was through the seduction of the officials, a thing always to be found in a bureaucracy. They were never paid aсcording to merit of work done. An inefficient mother had the same claim for support as had an efficient mother. Both received a minimum wage.
With the same belief in the instinctive industry of human nature which the socialists profess, women were given a greater amount of leisure than the men working under the individualistic system. This brings us to one of the most frequently combated points. If we lacked the pressure of necessity, would we still work for the pure joy of expressing the talents that are in us? The individualists, a doubting lot, say that we would not; the socialists, who believe present humanity extremely worthless and future humanity marvelously good, say that we would. Well, what could be simpler than getting at least an intimation by seeing what the women have done. They were not pushed by necessity; they had leisure. It is a dazzling chance for the socialists to see how the crux of their cause works in practice.
One would almost rather let them look alone, and draw what conclusions they find convenient, rather than do anything so disconcerting as to look over their shoulders. Let us, however, brace ourselves for a fleeting glance. Let us pretend we have taken it — it was a retrospect easy to all of us — and now what do we think? Well, it being human beings under discussion, the most one can say is: “After a fashion, and in some cases — well, taking everything into account, it is difficult to give a judgment” With genuine chagrin at such indecision, one tries again:
in print, this paragraph commences with a quotation mark, which is probably an error; there is no closing quotation mark.It is true that many of the women have used their leisure deplorably, those who had most of it being the greatest sinners; which leads us to believe that leisure is always dangerous from the risk of its remaining leisure. Many of the women used their leisure, on the other hand, as an opportunity for giving beautiful and valuable service. Others clogged the issue very much by never having any; unintelligence on one’s own part, or unintelligence on the part of others — in fact, any immediate lack — acts just the same as creative force or the desire for money: one works.
Which leads us to a second conclusion: that unless all have leisure and are using it well a great number of people have to busy themselves in tidying up after other people. There was a further obscurity created by a few women not realizing that men and women lived under a different régime, so that when women insisted upon entering into individualistic competition they were regarded as interlopers, and as people who ought to be provided for by some one, whether they were or not, in which case remuneration of their services would be absurd, and as very upsetting phenomena altogether. One is brought up sharply at the fact that theories are wise or otherwise according to who practises them. That if we gain a virtue we gain a vice, and that what we believe is the sum total of what we are, which is a matter of mystery A man being an investment, his education is a heavy plunge, the possible large returns being the justification. The monetary test coming at the end made for general soundness among the men. The woman, not being an investment, any but the slightest education would have been unwarrantable extravagance, and no test being put at all, or at least never the one that had been expected, general superficiality resulted.
She being obliged to work whether they liked it or not has made the men principally responsible for the civilization of to-day, and the leisure of the women has in a surprisingly large majority of cases given them a precious subjectivity which makes one remember that the socialists plead for something besides materialism.
Having got so hopelessly involved in what one saw, as to lose entirely what one believed, one is brought up sharply at the fact that theories are wise or otherwise according to who practises them. That if we gain a virtue we gain a vice, and that what we believe is the sum total of what we are, which is a matter of mystery and having arrived at mystery we admit to irretrievable entanglement in our subject.
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