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The Way the World Is Going

H. G. Wells

Articles by H. G. Wells on the politics of the late 1920s: China, Fascism, democracy, British government, communism and the future of labour.

The Way the World Is Going: Guesses and Forecasts of the Years Ahead is a collection of Wells's articles on current affairs, each headed with the question it discusses.

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Of all the time-honoured fatuities that men repeat and repeat, and comfort themselves mysteriously by repeating, none surely are more patently absurd than those which assert the unchangeableness of human life. “Human nature” never alters, we are assured; man in the Stone Age, any Stone Age, was exactly what he is now, or rather more so; he felt the same things; he imagined the same things; he travelled the same round; his fears, his hopes were identical. Save for a few superficialities, human life has always been the same and will always be the same, and neither the past nor the future can be allowed to cast a reflection by difference upon our satisfaction with the lives we lead to-day. Life as we know it is, in fact, the cream and the whole of existence. There was nothing very different behind us and there is nothing better ahead.

Contents

  1. 01I Man Becomes a Different Animal. Delusions About Human Fixity
  2. 02II What Is Happening in China? Does the Kuomintang Foreshadow a New Sort of Government in the World?
  3. 03III What Is Fascism? Whither Is It Taking Italy?
  4. 04IV Doubts of Democracy. New Experiments in Government
  5. 05V Democracy Under Revision
  6. 06VI the Absurdity of British Politics: A Shadow on the Whole World. What Has to Be Done About It?
  7. 07VII Baldwinism a Danger to the World. Wanted, a Coalition Government. The Deadlock and the Way Out
  8. 08VIII Communism and Witchcraft
  9. 09IX the Future of Labour. The Struggle Between Capital and Labour. Controversial Hallucinations
  10. 10X What Is the British Empire Worth to Mankind? Meditations of an Empire Citizen
  11. 11XI the Present Uselessness and Danger of Aeroplanes. A Problem in Organization
  12. 12XII Changes in the Arts of War. Are Armies Needed Any Longer? The Twilight of the Guards
  13. 13XIII Delusions About World Peace. The Price of Peace
  14. 14XIV the Possibility of War Between Britain and America. Such a War Is Being Prepared Now. What Are Intelligent People to Do About It?
  15. 15XV the Remarkable Vogue of Broadcasting: Will It Continue?
  16. 16XVI the Silliest Film: Will Machinery Make Robots of Men?
  17. 17XVII Is Life Becoming Happier?
  18. 18XVIII Experimenting with Marriage. Legal Recognition of Current Realities
  19. 19XIX New Light on Mental Life: Mr. J. W. Dunne’s Experiments with Dreaming
  20. 20XX Popular Feeling and the Advancement of Science. Anti-Vivisection
  21. 21XXI the New American People: What Is Wrong with It?
  22. 22XXII Outrages in Defence of Order. The Proposed Murder of Two American Radicals
  23. 23XXIII Some Plain Words to Americans. Are the Americans a Sacred People? Is International Criticism Restricted to the Eastward Position?
  24. 24XXIV Fuel-Getting in the Modern World
  25. 25XXV the Man of Science and the Expressive Man. To Whom Does the Future Belong? Some Thoughts About Ivan Pavloff and George Bernard Shaw
  26. 26XXVI the Future of the Novel. Difficulties of the Modern Novelist
  27. 27XXVII Is a Belief in a Spirit World Growing? Why Many Sensible Men Continue to Doubt and Disregard It. What Is Immortality?

About this edition

Author
H. G. Wells
Era
Modern (c. 1800–1945)
Reading level
Intermediate: some philosophy helps
Formats
EPUB, PDF
Length
223 pages
This edition
Modern Philosophers