Bolshevism is not merely a body of belief and speculation. When the
Bolsheviki seized the government of Russia and began to attempt to carry
out their ideas, Bolshevism became a living movement in a world of reality
and subject to the acid test of pragmatic criteria. It must be judged by
such a matter-of-fact standard as the extent to which it has enlarged or
diminished the happiness, health, comfort, freedom, well-being,
satisfaction, and efficiency of the greatest number of individuals. Unless
the test shows that it has increased the sum of good available for the
mass, Bolshevism cannot be regarded as a gain. If, on the contrary, the
test shows that it has resulted in sensibly diminishing the sum of good
available to the greatest number of people, Bolshevism must be counted as a
move in the wrong direction, as so much effort lost. Nothing that can be
urged on philosophical or moral grounds for or against the moral or
intellectual impulses that prompted it can fundamentally change the
verdict. Yet, for all that, it is well to examine the theory which inspires
the practice; well to know the manner and method of thinking, and the view
of life, from which Bolshevism as a movement of masses of men and women
proceeds.
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