human
You agree?
gpt
Oh, yes.
human
The World and his Wife are my acquaintances, but of friends I have few. Is it so with you?
gpt
I have none.
human
How can that be? I feel that you would have a talent for friendship.
gpt
I believe I would have. But I am poor. The things I might offer would not interest the people I know.
human
But these artists--aren't they congenial?
gpt
Miss Roberts would be, but you see I occupy an anomalous position here. I'm an upper servant, who is no servant. True to my group, I have my class distinctions, she smiled.
human
Miss Roberts ignores them. She would be my friend if I would let her. Some of the others would, too, I think.
gpt
Pride is one of the strongest traits in human character, and one of the least desirable; don't you think so? Pride of possession, pride of class, of birth, of accomplishment; why do we build up these barriers between us, when the whole process of life should be to break them down, to get closer to one another, to understand and help?
human
You think pride is out of fashion?
gpt
Just that. We treasure so many outgrown virtues, which have become vices. Patriotism, for instance. The rulers of Europe crash half the world into war by decking out this old scarecrow. My country, right or wrong, better than your country: our citizens, better than your citizens. What nonsense! Europe fights to protect the fatherland. What, in fact, is Europe protecting? The greed of kings for power and territory?
human
I know, and the people who make the war, and who gain by it, are never the ones who fight it.
gpt
Exactly. An Englishman said to me the other day: 'The British Government's idea of the way for a rich Briton to be a patriot is to induce the poor men who work for him to go to war.'
human
It isn't much of a national virtue, if it is confined to a class,
gpt
It won't do. If I thought that nationalism would go on to the scrap heap, at the end of the war, along with the power of kings, I'd believe that the whole holocaust was purposeful, not accident.
human
But what are you going to do with patriotism, Mr. Christiansen?
gpt
Make it over. You can't psychologize it out of us, even if we admit that it is bad. It is an instinct, woven of many other instincts--pugnacity, group loyalty, egoism. But we can substitute the bigger group for the smaller; we can grow up to an international patriotism that shall be as fierce as that we know now, one that will conserve instead of destroy.
human
But how can we educate people to your new sort?
gpt
They are educating themselves now. The capitalists and the workers begin to see that war does not pay. Women have always known it. When peace is declared we will organize that sentiment of intelligent selfishness into altruism.
human
Can we make a new world, with only old human nature to build it with, do you think?
gpt
After all, old human nature is God-stuff, isn't it? We can do anything with it, if we can sweep out the old traditional beliefs, the bogus virtues, the Victorian moralities, and get a good twentieth-century fresh start.
human
It frightens one, doesn't it? It's such a big job.
gpt
So it is, and we can't more than start this afternoon, he laughed.
human
To come back to us, when may I have some manuscript?
gpt
I will choose some things to-night, thanks.
human
Good. Here is a card with the address. Will you tell Miss Roberts that the man who picked her up after the accident came to inquire for her health?
gpt
She will be disappointed.
human
As for me, I am well satisfied with the call I have made. I shall see you soon, my friend. Good-bye.
gpt
Good-bye,