The Wooden Shepherdess
“The British appeared to have reached the ethical level of rattlesnakes, ending their General Strike like that with nobody shot or knifed or even kicked in the teeth—though this was the nearest thing to a civil war which Britain had known since heaven-knows-when. Jeremy thought all this had been Baldwin’s predeterminate plan: “Dr. Baldwin’s National Vaccination” he called it, writing to Joan: “A minimal dose of the Continental virus of Revolution aimed at conferring lifelong immunity.”
Joan ...showed Jeremy’s letter to Ludovic Corcos, who merely remarked: “Yes, they order things better east of the Rhine.”
He left her to guess what he meant. But in Germany Nazis and Communists, Nazis and Social Democrats, Stahlhelm—these rivals could hardly meet on the streets without somebody getting killed. Fifty to eighty casual deaths each year was part of the normal process of winning votes; and if that was the norm which Franz’s and Lothar’s generation was used to, then England’s bloodless General Strike (so far from being admired) could only portend a hopelessly lightweight nation that couldn’t be serious even over its politics.MoreLess
Joan ...showed Jeremy’s letter to Ludovic Corcos, who merely remarked: “Yes, they order things better east of the Rhine.”
He left her to guess what he meant. But in Germany Nazis and Communists, Nazis and Social Democrats, Stahlhelm—these rivals could hardly meet on the streets without somebody getting killed. Fifty to eighty casual deaths each year was part of the normal process of winning votes; and if that was the norm which Franz’s and Lothar’s generation was used to, then England’s bloodless General Strike (so far from being admired) could only portend a hopelessly lightweight nation that couldn’t be serious even over its politics.MoreLess
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