J. B. Priestley

[Mike Weaver]

There's this book by J. B. Priestley which I think must have been an early 
source of inspiration for Mr. P.
Out of the People was published in 1941, first of a series from Vigilant Books
I've just put the cover and a chapter on the WCML website.

It is relevant to the political/religious discussions I think vis a vis 
TP's underlying philosophy.

Here's a bit

>THE people are not the masses. These are two different conceptions. 
>Indeed, they are opposed. One rejects the other. When I say to myself "the 
>people," I have a confused but lively vision of a hundred faces and a 
>hundred voices, as if a picture by old Breughel had suddenly come to life. 
>In short, I think of persons. But when I say to myself "the masses," I see 
>at once a grey featureless horde, and hear nothing but a muttering and 
>murmuring. I do not think of persons. The masses are not real human 
>beings. They have been de-humanised. The supreme mystery does not flower 
>in them as it does in us, who always feel ourselves separated from them. 
>They are rough bundles of instincts and appetites. They are units of 
>man-power. After using their muscles and collecting their pennies, you can 
>consider and gratify their immediate needs; but you carinot love them. 
>They are not real persons.


>It has been said more than once that this conception of the masses 
>dominates our world, that the masters among us who gain their ends and 
>achieve enormous power are those who understand about the masses. There is 
>some truth in this. Hitler, the vindictive doss-house dreamer, thinks and 
>acts always in terms of the masses and never for a moment in terms of the 
>people. He is essentially a manipulator of the masses. This has been his 
>strength but will prove his fatal weakness. The people always have roots, 
>whereas the masses are rootless; moving almost like sleep-walkers 
>everywhere, anywhere, in and out of their giant factories or mechanical 
>places of amusement

Why early? Check the cover against the early covers of V and GR and see if 
you agree.

www.wcml.org.uk/jbp.html

Cheers Mike the webweaver