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ON THEATRE AND CINEMA— UNIVERSAL The flippant form of Lord Keynes's argument is obviously intentional, yet it should not deceive us. Behind it is a profound appreciation of the 'totality' of a theory of culture in which economics and theatre are linked together. In his more recent book on The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936) he makes the following trenchant comment, after having brought to life again the social and economic philosophy of mercantilism: 'No wonder that such wicked sentiments called down the opprobrium of two centuries of moralists and economists who felt much more virtuous in possession of their austere doctrine that no sound remedy was discoverable except in the utmost of thrift and economy both by the individual and by the State. Petty 's "entertainments, magnificent shows, triumphal arches, etc." gave place to the pennywisdom of Gladstonian finance and to a state system which "could not afford" hospitals, open spaces, noble buildings, even the preservation of its ancient monuments, far less the splendours of music and the drama, all of which were consigned to the private charity or magnanimity of improvident individuals.'1 Against this theoretical background, Lord Keynes's programmatic and emphatic pronouncements as Chairman of the Arts Council can now be adequately understood.
I refer to his broadcast in July 1945 (Cf. The Listener, July 12th 1945): 'There never were many theatres in this country or any concert halls or galleries worth counting. Of the few we once had, first the cinema took a heavy toll and then the blitz. . . .' Lord Keynes declares that the Arts Council will attempt to help in the decentralisation of the dramatic, musical and artistic life of Great Britain. And with explicit reference to film he states unmistakably: 'How satisfactory it would be if different parts of this country would again walk their different ways as they once did and learn to develop something different from their neighbours and characteristic of themselves. Nothing can be more damaging than the excessive prestige of metropolitan standards and fashions. Let every part of Merry England be merry in its own way. Death to Hollywood.' There indeed, is a social theory expounded which embraces state and individual and their cultural activities as a whole. And only 'the whole', as Hegel taught us, 'is truth'.
The modern cinema has taken over the heritage of the universal theatre in the sense defined in the preceding pages of this chapter. Only the cinema has a mass appeal which can be compared with the classic theatre of Athens and the Roman circus. The modern
1 The General Theory, etc., p. 362. 40