RECONSTRUCTION

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 31, 6 February 1943, Page 4

RECONSTRUCTION

It is admitted by many that the regeneration of the individual is imperative if we are to survive, but the obstacle to our reconstruction is our inertia; we can be aroused from our apathy if we make a supreme effort and demand that a practicable theory, divorced from greed and selfglorification, be put into operation. The basic cause of war to-day is the apparently unsolvable problem of unemployment, war brings work for all, and men seem to prefer death to stagnation, but science has made of death an . evil art, and. organic structures have become of considerable more importance than life, beauty, truthfulness, charity and tenderness We must restore these qualities to their rightful kingdom if we passionately wish to establish a New Order based on peace. We must distinguish between primary and secondary qualities, and recognise that the supremacy of matter willhave to be challenged, that the machine is the mere tool that it really should be, not the thundering god of war, and the destroyer of itf maker. We must release man from the dictatorship of materialism and give him a humanitarian creed to take its place; worship of matter is a fitful dream that should give way before intellectual and ethical standards. L. BOND.