"WE LIVE IN AN AGE."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 235, 3 October 1936, Page 2 (Supplement)

"WE LIVE IN AN AGE."

fcOVE OF OUTWARD SHOW. / (By DR. DON D. TULLIS.) With this trite observation our authors and orators grind out their weighty conclusions for the benefit of mankind. They are agreed also that the ago in which we live is peculiar. Xaturally it is, if for no other reason than that we live in it. Anyone listening to the popular music of the day will agree that we really do live in an age—and what an age! A recent song likens a lover to a toy balloon. That may be a fitting likeness, but it isn't wholly complimentary. The metaphor would more fittingly apply to the age itself, for surely we are dangerously near the level of a toy balloon civilisation. Colour is king. Red, blue, green, pink, yellow and all of the tints of the rainbow are utilised to make old things look like new and new things look like something they are not. And the more brilliant the hues, the more popular the ruse. Bright colours cover frail fabrics. The elastic is stretched to the limit, until it threatens to burst. We are all living beyond our means. If Jones stretches his credit to cover a new automobile, Smith must do the same. A bigger house, more frequent European trips, more expensive schools, more gorgeous gowns, more lavish entertainments — these are the demands of a toy balloon «ra. And the filler is gas, or thin air— something lighter than the normal atmosphere—an element that will lift tis to longed-for but perilous peaks. We have a lighter-than-air complex. If we are not flying we are flighty. Eclat, pretence and unreality are , much in evidence, but they are not j lasting. Keither is a society that is , builded upon them. A balloon looks formidable, but it is - not. Tie it with a string and it slows 1 up, cut it from its anchor and it goes ] up, prick it with a pin and it blows up. 1 The same things are true of an efferves- 1 cent civilisation. "< It is time to discard our toy balloon 1 philosophy ,of life and get down to <' factual foundations that will ensure c permanence rather than pretence. ' Yes, we live in an age, but unless we «' change it to meet the common needs of * men, the age will blow up and ourselves J -with it.—N.A.N.A. Service. !