Life of Ahmad — Page 4
THE MIGHTY HOUR as 4 Through almost every performance there runs a "sex element", a leaven of licentiousness, which pervades and spoils the whole. Music also has been affected, resulting in the horrible distortion known as Jazz. . . The "music" in almost any respectable parlour would give the alienist material for a whole survey of the degeneracy of modern taste. The dance has been similarly influenced. The old folk-dances are far too tame for modern young people. They have been changed to suit the passions of the times, bringing the participants into such attitudes that their grandmothers, could they see them, would blush for shame. Upon the altar of the pleasure god many costly libations are offered. In Britain alone, despite the hard times and unemployment, £260,000,000 a year is spent on alcoholic liquors, as against £80,000,000 for bread and £70,000,000 for milk. . . Hundreds of millions expended annually with no return save broken homes, spoiled lives, and crowded prisons. Could folly be carried further? Why is it tolerated? There is only one answer. The people want it. The craving for drink must be satisfied. The god of pleasure must have his due. As it was in the days of Rome, of Pompeii, of Sodom and Gomorrah, so it is today. Only nowadays the diabolical deeds that brought fair manhood and womanhood to ruin in those