Comments on The Open Conspiracy by H. G. Wells, Part 3
Series Contents
By Alan Mercer

Revised PDF version of whole series

From The Open Conspiracy and Other Writings, 1933, Waterlow & Sons Ltd., London

Continued from Part 2

Wells continues to describe his new religion:

“The conception of progress as a broadening and increasing purpose, a conception which is taking hold of the human imagination more and more firmly, turns religious life towards the future.  We think no longer of submission to the irrevocable decrees of absolute dominion, but of participation in an adventure on behalf of a power that gains strength and establishes itself.” (p. 25)

He’s saying surrender reality, surrender the past, surrender truth, tradition, cause and effect.  Surrender morality.  And join the “adventure” of “progress” as you mindlessly follow the propaganda of an obsessive international corporate gang.  As George Bush Sr. said, the New World Order is a “tool to address a new world of possibilities”, as in a world where the previously unthinkable and unspeakable becomes normal, as the techno-tyrants reshape humanity itself.

To me, the religions of the past were easy to criticize as irrational, often abusive, and constantly used as tools of suppression by those in power.    So, Wells is asking us to fall in line with his logic and replace the old religions with the new “religion”:

“It seems unavoidable that if religion is to develop unifying and directive power in the present confusion of human affairs it must adapt itself to this forward-looking, individuality-analyzing turn of mind; it must divest itself of its sacred histories, its gross preoccupations, its posthumous prolongation of personal ends.   The desire for service, for subordination, for permanent effect, for an escape from the distressful pettiness and mortality of the individual life, is the undying element in every religious system.” (p. 26)

So the subordination of the self –  the subordination of the individual –  is the aspect of religion that Wells exalts the most.

Ch. VI “Modern Religion is Objective”

“…The idea of inner perfectibility dwindles with the diminishing importance attached to individuality. We cease to think of mortifying or exalting or perfecting ourselves and seek to lose ourselves in a greater life.   We think less and less of “conquering” self and more and more to escaping from self.  If we attempt to perfect ourselves in any respect it is only as a soldier sharpens and polishes an essential weapon.” (p. 27)

Continued: Part 4

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