PRETENSIONS OF THE STATE.
Quite apart from the crimes and perfidies and cruelties which have been committed lately by the Germans under the plea that the State is supermoral, there are two considerations which show how absurd it is, writes Dr. W. iL Inge, in the “Evening Standard.” xS our own State the only one which enjoys the privilege of being above right and wrong? It would be difficult to maintain this. But if two of these glorious beings come into conflict, what is to happen ? Are they to exterminate each other using any weapons, however cohtr&ry to the usages of civilised nations, to destroy each other? If there is no supernational law of justice and humanity, no absolute standard of right and wrong which applies to States as well as to individuals, we are back in the jungle, in the state of things predicted in one of the old Norse Eddas:
Wind time! Wolf time! There shall come a year
When no man on earth his brother man shall spare. The other objection is equally decisive. Wiliy should the national State he the only corporation which is exempt from the code of morals? There is no special sacredness about the State.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AG19401101.2.18.3
Bibliographic details
Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 18, 1 November 1940, Page 4
Word Count
202PRETENSIONS OF THE STATE. Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 18, 1 November 1940, Page 4
Using This Item
Ashburton Guardian Ltd is the copyright owner for the Ashburton Guardian. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Ashburton Guardian Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.