Show LEARN OR PERISH T THE HE AUTHORITIES in British East Africa I 1 who have ordered the execution of 60 natives natives natives na na- na- na tives for the murder of an old woman who was supposed to be a witch evidently be believe believe believe be- be lieve that untutored tribesmen can be civilized civi civi- Hied by sheer force Sixty scaffolds in a row ought to make an imposing spectacle The surviving natives whatever their private emotions about the affair may be will at least be impressed by bythe bythe bythe the fact that the old custom of killing witches is not approved by the government So in the course of time it will happen that no more witches are killed in British East Africa And the natives whose natives whose mental processes will still find nothing wrong in the idea of killing witches witches will will in spite of themselves themselves themselves them them- selves take on one more attribute of civili civIli- This is all rather interesting to meditate upon especially since all the rest of us are more or less in the same boat We have managed without intending to to get ourselves into o a spot in which we must very speedily take on the customs of a higher civilization or perish First we mechanized the world We made possible the production of goods on a scale infinitely greater than anything previously dreamed of We improved transportation so that all distances shrank to a fiftieth of their old length We improved communication systems so that every man had the world for fora a neighbor We erected an enormously intricate intricate intricate cate and complicated industrial financial-industrial system so that the whole world has to stand or fall together Having done this we failed to understand that a civilization of that sort could not be conducted by men and women whose mental outlook was just about what the mental outlook outlook outlook out out- look of their great-grandparents great had been Our troubles today come chiefly from the fact that we have not yet been able to live up to this glittering new civilization Our minds for instance still tolerate such things as Ignorance Ignorance ig ignorance Ig- Ig norance poverty prejudice international rivalry and war as natural features of human society society although although our new civilization must inevitably go to pot unless such things are eliminated We stand pretty much where the African natives stand We must get civilized or perish |