“A little girl’s hair”

I begin with a little girl’s hair. That I know is a good thing at any rate. Whatever else is evil, the pride of a good mother in the beauty of her daughter is good. It is one of those adamantine tendernesses which are the touchstones of every age and race. If other things are against it, other things must go down. If landlords and laws and sciences are against it, landlords and laws and sciences must go down. With the red hair of one she-urchin in the gutter I will set fire to all modern civilization.

Because a girl should have long hair, she should have clean hair; because she should have clean hair, she should not have an unclean home; because she should not have an unclean home, she should have a free and leisured mother; because she should have a free mother, she should not have an usurious landlord; because there should not be an usurious landlord, there should be a redistribution of property; because there should be a redistribution of property, there shall be a revolution.

That little urchin with the gold-red hair, whom I have just watched toddling past my house, she shall not be lopped and lamed and altered; her hair shall not be cut short like a convict’s; no, all the kingdoms of the earth shall be hacked about and mutilated to suit her. She is the human and sacred image; all around her the social fabric shall sway and split and fall; the pillars of society shall be shaken, and the roofs of ages come rushing down, and not one hair of her head shall be harmed.

What’s Wrong with the World (1910).

Published in: on May 25, 2011 at 6:18 am  Comments (3)  

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  1. This is so powerful. I wonder why no-one else has commented on this so far.

    • I love this passage, but I can’t quite wrap my head around it. I found it first in a Christian Communist publication and I can’t embrace communism, but at the same time, there does seem to be forces in the world against the right of a parent to care for their child and against the simple beauty of a little girls hair.

      • This is not communism, this is Christian economic ethics. Free market as it is practiced today, ignoring the needs of millions, is not Christian at all, contrary to what we have been led to believe.


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