PRESSURE TOWARD UNIFORMITY

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26726, 9 May 1952, Page 11

PRESSURE TOWARD UNIFORMITY

“ Greatest Danger ” In Life AMERICAN EDUCATIONIST’S OPINION When Dr. H. R. Hulme, Rector of Canterbury University College, addressed graduands yesterday afternoon, he repeated remarks by the President of the University of Chicago (Dr. R. M. Hutchins) which, he said, “are so true and so powerfully spoken that I make no excuse for quoting them.” Dr Hutchins said:— “I am not worried about your economic future. I am worried about your morals. My experience and observation lead me to warn you that the greatest, the most insidious, the most paralysing danger you face is the danger Of corruption. Time will corrupt you. Your friends, your wives or husbands, your business or professional associates will corrupt you; your social, political, and financial ambitions will corrupt you. The worst thing about life is that it is demoralising. “It is demoralising because the way to get on is to be ‘safe,’ to be ‘sound,’ to be agreeable, to be inoffensive, to have no views on important matters not sanctioned by the majority, by your superiors, or by your group. We are convinced that by knowing the right people, wearing the right clothes, saying the right things, holding the right opinions, and thinking the right thoughts we shall all get on. “The pressure towards uniformity is especially intense now. It is reflected in the general resistance to all uncomfortable truths. It is reflected in the decay of the national reason. Almost the last question you can ask about any proposal nowadays is whether it is wise, just, or reasonable. The question is how much pressure there is behind it, or how strong are the vested interests against it. “If what you want is a dead level of mediocrity if what you would like is a nation or identical twins, without initiative, intelligence, or ideas, you should fear the universities. From this standpoint universities’ are subversive. They try to make their students think; they do not intend to manufacture so many imitative automatons. By helping the students to learn to think, the universities tend to make them resistant to pressure, to propaganda, or even to reward. They tend to make them dissatisfied—if there were no dissatisfaction, there would be no progress—and they are likely to make them want to do something to improve the conditions under which our people live. Foundations of Democracy ‘‘Democracy rests first on universal comprehension, to which the universities contribute through the education of teachers for the public schools, and through the discovery and communication of knowledge. Democracy rests secondly on individual leadership, not necessarily political, but intellectual and spiritual as well. To this the universities contribute through the labours of their professors and their graduates. As Thomas Jefferson saw when he established the University of Virginia, these services are always indispensable to democracy. “So I am worried about your morals. This university will not have done its whole duty to the nation if you give way before the current of contemporary life. Believe me, you are closer to the truth now than you ever will be again. Do not let “practical’ men tell you that you should surrender your ideals because they are impractical. “In the intellect—al virtues this university has tried to train you. The life you have led here should have helped you toward the rest. If, come what may, you hold them fast, you will do honour to yourselves and to the university, and you will serve your country.”