THE "PLAN" MANIA

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20986, 14 October 1933, Page 9

THE "PLAN" MANIA

TO lUK EDIT OH (F rilß PRESS Sir,—For low-brows like me, despised and rejected by those clever people who pride themselves on their omniscience, their profound wisdom, there are unmistakable compensations in this distressful world. Perhaps one of the greatest and best of these is a sense of humour, a quality of mind that finds no place in the make-up of the high-brows, those very ponderous pundits—and poseurs. And so we balance their contempt for us by our laughter at them. For my own humble self they are an unending delight. I love to see them so gravely incubating their schemes; I love to hear them expounding them; I love to hear them contradicting each other, and oh! how I love most of all to hear them assure the whole world, including worms like me, that their "plan" of salvation is the only efficacious one to salve and save humanity. It is delicious to hear them roll that blessed word "plan" over their tongues like a luscious morsel, as the old lady found abounding comfort in "that biessed word, 'Mesopotamia.' " Just because we are so ignorant, I suppose, we find infinite amusement in the legion of planners and their precious "plans"—but they do take themselves seriously. t

If those grave and mighty men could divest themselves of their assumed profundity for a little and descend to our lower level of common sense they might be able to see much of the absurdity and nonsense of their posturing as political Messiahs. Perhaps, too, they might be able to understand that the word "plan" has not, per se, any sacrosanct qualities, and is not an open sesame to any earthly paradise. If one could say so without offence to the touchy mandarins, one might suggest to them that their beloved "plans" are no more than phrases of as much and as little value as election slogans, and doomed like those slogans to have their little day and cease to be. What virtue is there to-day in the slogan with which the Reform party went roaring to victory a few years ago?—" More Business in Government and less Government in Business." Now and then our humour gives out and these planners and their plans become an utter weariness of the flesh, and we arise and curse them. But humour soon returns and we begin to enjoy them again, for they are funny. It does not appear to matter much what plan you adopt or manufacture, but if you are to hold rank with the intelligentsia you must produce or support a plan of some sort and speak the weird jargon of the planners. There are many plans from which to choose. There are the Big Four—the Soviet plan, the Fascist plan, the Hitler plan, and the Roosevelt plan. And there are scores and scores of lesser plans. Indeed in our own city here it is probable we could produce 20 home-made plans at a clay's notice, with 20 very grave and earnest political evangelists to expound them. Again I say it is funny. And not the least part of the funny business is the serene disregard with which the practical world of common men (like me) look upon and hear the clattering busybodies. Being of very common clay, we are not fired by the enthusiasm of our superior brothers, who„ are of course made of superior clay. We believe that for all this noisy cackle about plans the world will plug' on phlegmatically pretty much in the way it has always done. The stresses of recent years will have to be relieved by alterations, additions, subtractions to the old system, so that slowly but surely in the seemingly haphazard failure of fate, an order will be evolved adapted to the circumstances and requirements of the changed and changing world. But I would wager that fate will be even more disrespectful of "plans" and planners than I am. This is not a protest. It is not even a suggestion that the planners should cease from troubling, for they are adding greatly to the gaiety of the nations. Certainly a new order is evolving before our eyes, and at a far speedier rate than we have known in our lifetime; but the help in such a process by the planners is just about as great and valuable as that of flies on a wheel, which buzzing and bursting with their own importance, imagine they make the wheel go round. I hope the planners will not take this in bad part. I am really grateful to them for the daily amusement they provide, and want them to carry on,—Yours, etc., CYNICUS. October 12, 1933.