THE OTHER VIEW.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 82, 7 April 1925, Page 10

THE OTHER VIEW.

PEOPLE WHO WON'T SEE IT. Why is jt that some people who have 11 the virtues are nevertheless so anguir that one cannot easily get on with hem? writes John Blunt in the "Daily Jail." We all know such people. We respect hem, but we avoid them. They possess he sterling qualities, but they do not lossess -the graces. They seem to have ione of that saving sense of humour vhich makes a man perceive that life is lecessarily composed of all sorts of different people holding all sorts of different views. They are, in brief, quite vithout the power of give and take. We may deeply .admire the character )f such people, for they are frequently inbending in their sense of duty, but ye cannot feel affection for them. Their -igid attitude makes us feel uncomfortible and their blindness to any point of riew but their own makes us disinclined I ;o argue with them. However excellent they are, they remain inevitably outside Dur lives. Fanatics, of course, are always angular, or they would not be fanatics. They =cc only one thing, but they see it intensely. The fanatic goes on his way upheld by a great vision, heedless what other people think or say, but unfortunately it is not only fanatics who are cursed with angular temperaments. Plenty of quite ordinary people who | would like to be not only admired but i loved are also so cursed. Despise Politeness. Yes, plenty. One cannot get on with | them, however hard one tries, because : they have never really mastered the art j of trying to grasp sympathetically the ! other point of view, and they do not j know how to make themselves pleasant, j They jar upon one because there is no . genuine conversation possible with them ) unless one entirely agrees with them. People of this type sometimes despite politeness as being a form of affecta- I tion, but that itself is proof of their,: angularity. Politeness is a social duty. : not a social fraud. It is the recognised j convention by which civilised people try i to keep in touch with one another and j help to make life more agreeable. If a i man is so angular that he simply cannot make himself pleasant he is much to be pitied, because he is missing a great deal. Rude, boorish people are their own worse enemies, however genuine they | may be at heart. Society can do without them, but in the long run they cannot do without society. They are apt to grow more and more morose as j their failure to make good becomes more and more evident. Ability and sincerity, unaccompanied by the capacity to agree j with other people, carry one. as a rule, but very little along the road leading to success. Inherently Unsocial. ! The angular person has never discovered that "manners mnketh man." I He may be humble in himself —many ' angular ppoplc are not at all conceited in the ordinary way—but he is inner- | ently unsocial. He cannot mix readily j with his follow : mp.n. for he lacks that I natural tnct which enables a man to ; put another man at his ease. NWith an j angular companion one always fears one j may put one's foot in it by coming up j nsainst a pet preiudice. and thus one . always fe-ols uncomfortable and strained, j If people would only realise how rela- j tive all wisdom is and how much even : the most learned or brilliant man has j still to learn, there would be less ansu- ! lnrity and less dogmatism. For, indeed, it is nuite possible to be sincere without being angular. Many broadminded people are perfectly sincere: they do not despise the views of others however much they may disagree with them. On the contrary, their aim is to discover sympathetically !why other people hold the views they do.'