How we cite our quotes: (Act.Line)
Quote #10
Come, come, my daughter! don't make too much of your little tinpot tragedy. What do we do here when we spend years of work and thought and thousands of pounds of solid cash on a new gun or an aerial battleship that turns out just a hairsbreadth wrong after all? Scrap it. Scrap it without wasting another hour or another pound on it. Well, you have made for yourself something that you call a morality or a religion or what not. It doesn't fit the facts. Well, scrap it. Scrap it and get one that does fit. That is what is wrong with the world at present. It scraps its obsolete steam engines and dynamos; but it won't scrap its old prejudices and its old moralities and its old religions and its old political constitutions. What's the result? In machinery it does very well; but in morals and religion and politics it is working at a loss that brings it nearer bankruptcy every year. Don't persist in that folly. If your old religion broke down yesterday, get a newer and a better one for tomorrow. (3.306)
Here we get more of Undershaft's life philosophy, which is utilitarian as ever—in his view, if a morality doesn't suit your needs, you gotta chuck it. Obviously, this view is hard for Barbara to swallow, since she had gone all in on the picture of morality and religion that the Salvation Army presented to her . . . she definitely needs more convincing.