XVIII SELF-GOVERNMENT

THE Government of Modern Paradise is practically the same as that of a refined family, only larger. State and national boundaries become obsolete as race and national 80prejudices die out by advancing civilization, as we already notice between the States of the United States where we travel across the continent from one State into another without paying any attention to State Lines. The same will also, no doubt, become true in time of the national boundary lines.

As Man becomes really civilized, and the population sanely distributed in co-operating groups over the country, all the armies, navies, police forces, diplomats, rulers, politicians, officials and chaperons of the world will be disbanded and shifted more and more into fields of useful production instead of brutal destruction and discordant meddling as now.

No guns and weapons of war of any kind will then be manufactured and sold, and the present compulsory laws will undoubtedly be superseded by refined self-government; government which emanates from within outward; instead of from without inward; a government which regards the rights and wishes of the non-invasive individual superior to the dictates of society; for we can not have a good Society before we have good Individuals to compose it, so that every restriction and constraint placed on non-invasive—harmless—individuals is an impediment to their fullest 81development and, therefore, a retarding brake on social Progress.

As the Modern Paradisers are all equal partners, no one can there be a commanding “boss” as the bosses and employers are under chattel slavery, serfdom, the wage-system and the give-and-take marriage regime. There would undoubtedly be recognized managers in the various professions and occupations, but they could only request their equal Partners, the same as a refined husband or wife would request instead of command their respective helpmates.

All such kind treatment, unimpaired liberty and mutual helpfulness naturally promote friendly mutuality instead of arousing hatred and discord as the “boss” practice invariably does. During the summer most of the men, women and children work in the field, orchard and garden; in the winter in the factory and large greenhouse. In this way labor can easily be shifted from farm to factory and back again, so that everybody can always be busy when they want to work their short day’s work.

Every Modern Paradise manufactures one or more staple articles besides the smaller things for exclusive home use. To keep the Universal Warehouse and Department store 82in the Co-operative Mansion well filled is all the Modern Paradisers have to do. Men, women and children work side by side in practically all occupations, and as before intimated, often as congenial lovers. Some women run tractors in the field and garden, and some men are cooks in the electric kitchen. Most men, women and youths are highly skillful in a dozen or more occupations. This variety and change of indoor and outdoor work and play keeps them all healthy, sturdy, strong and happy.

The Modern Paradise Transportation of freight, mail and passengers on the firmly-paved highways and in perfected airplanes is mere play. If one Modern Paradise produces more of any particular kind of goods than it needs for its own consumption, it exchanges or sells the surplus to others the same as we now do. But the Transportation would be vastly reduced, because most of the commodities raised, manufactured and mined in the various Modern Paradises are used and consumed on the very estates or near by, where they are produced, instead of shipping them back and forth from the distant farms to the big cities for hundreds or thousands of miles.

The Population will then be quite evenly distributed over the land, so that there is no crowding of people and vehicles like we now 83have in the congested cities and overpopulated districts.

There will then be abundant room for parking and airplane landing, and no crowded highways, so that motoring and truck freighting will always be pleasures, and very few accidents. As before suggested, there is high efficiency, but no strenuous rush as we now have it under the profit-grabbing wage-system, a tendency which is rapidly undermining the good health and natural development of the human race. After the country is blocked off into Modern Paradises four miles square and the population of the nation is sanely distributed over the arable land, motoring over all the fine boulevards will be real pleasure. The intersections will then be four miles apart, so that the driver needs to look ahead only.

In the future, Manners, Customs and Dress will be in conformity with health, welfare and happiness rather than with tradition or ancient precedent. Under this free and struggleless mode of Thinking, Living and Working, crime, insanity, disease and accidents will be reduced to the minimum and envy, jealousy and suicide will be practically unknown; for the causes that produce them are almost entirely removed.

84Posterity will also, no doubt, learn the biological cause of sex, so that prospective parents can have either male or female as they desire. On this important question, our present science is still entirely in the dark.

With the abundant leisure of the future, Literature and Art will develop much more along the lines of the Useful and Artistic with substantially all frivolous fiction and meaningless poetry eliminated and little or no advertising.

There will be much less sensational writing and empty gossip and much more good doing. As before suggested, there will be no soldiers, policemen, cadets, scouts, war veterans, chaperons and secret societies; no superstitious mysticism nor compulsory government, but the physical and mental attainments will be vastly superior to those of the present, and astounding scientific revelations will be made by advancing civilization. The world will be full of inventive wizards like Edison, Ford, Burbank, Steinmetz, Marconi, Wright Bros. and scores of other inventors and discoverers.

In the future, when every man, woman and youth has a $10-a-day job, bequests, and insurance and alimony will be things of the Past, and cremation will be the disposition of the dead.

85In the future, when the human Body will be a model of health, grace and beauty in form and function, when the Mind is clean in thought and purely natural and when Grundyism has died out, men, women and children will live closer to Nature and wear much less clothes and sometimes none. At times, men, women and children will commingle at swimming contests, art galleries and other places, wearing little or no raiment of any kind.

As the power of the dollar, the craving for aristocracy, shallow royalty, superstitious mysticism, extravagant attire, etc., continue to grow in disrepute will the future Topics of Conversation be more and more along the lines of universal welfare and happiness founded on the basis of natural ethics.

Physical beauty, sexual attraction, intellectual attainments, industrial skill, congenial habits, obliging conduct, inventive genius, personal liberty, striking originality, pleasing humor and noble personality will, no doubt, always remain valuable assets for personal popularity and admiration, no matter how far posterity may advance.