Abstract

Britain: The Middle Kingdom

According to the author, the power of a country is the power of its industrial potential, its coal-iron oil. All realists accept this. But it is also more, and it can be measured as a combination of coal-iron oil with manpower and with an intangible, the validity of its myth. The American myth is so sympathetic that people have largely absorbed it, without unfortunately having the necessary resources to keep it up. The Labor government in Great Britain is part of this myth; it reminds one not so much of the nineteenth century. According to the author, it would be pleasant to prophesy a renaissance in the arts, but he do not think that is likely to happen until the rewards of the political vision and economic planning have been established. What effect has a Labor government on the arts? So far, of course, none and in the near future it will have very little. What effect will the arts have on the Labor government is a better way to put it. The Conservative attitude to the arts was ambivalent. Conservative politicians were reasonably well educated, and they knew something about art and literature, but they liked the arts to "keep their distance." Labor politicians know less but perhaps respect the arts more.