DR LEACH’S INCITEMENTS

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31784, 14 September 1968, Page 4

DR LEACH’S INCITEMENTS

A Runaway World? By Edmund Leach. Oxford. 98 pp.

In a postscript calculated to confound critics, Dr Leach admits that in these 1967 Reith Lectures “I occasionally trailed my coat just to get a reaction.” “Reaction" is how-

ever a rather mild term for the agitation the talks provoked, and Dr Leach takes this as an assurance of their merit: “If these lectures are so trivial, why give them such an inordinate amount of gratituitous publicity?” To which it may be fairly replied that the Reith Lectures are highly esteemed by the general public to the extent that they are sometimes taken as an authoritative statement of academic attitudes, and in this context triviality is a severe charge. But to what extent are the lectures actually trivial?

Broadly speaking, Dr Leach concerns himself chiefly with definition and opinion, types of statement which are usually evaluated in accordance with the value placed on the person who makes them: all a critic can do is disagree. The charge of triviality can be countered by claiming that he was faced with a non-academic audience accustomed to associating high emotional overtones with morals, rights and religion, and laboured definitions are necessary so that these subjects may be discussed

with some degree of objectivity. But if this is Dr Leach’s alm, he does not go about it very well. The first lecture begins, “Men have become like gods.” After this provocative start, he demonstrates at length what he means, and qualifies it slightly. His plan of audienee manipulation is very bold, and he can only blame himself if it misfires and his hearers become alienated. Dr Leach's general intention seems to be to console those who fear that the world is collapsing into chaos; we feel upset and alone because the world is rapidly changing, and does not conform with the categories which our obsolete educational system has instilled in us. He emphasises that we are connected with our surroundings and that the cult of scientific detachment is no longer realistic. Education should concentrate on relations rather than facts, creativity rather than categorising. Old

people should not pretend to know more than the young, and be prepared to vacate their positions of authority. While some fears are irrational (such as fear of machines), the fear of having no connection is not, as the individual has little control over how politicians and scientists use their god-like power. These lectures have been twice broadcast by the N.Z.B.C. and most interested people will have heard them; it may be doubted whether it is wise to publish an exact transcript of the radio version (including all the repetitions and irrelevancies necessary to that form) —surely the text would have profited by careful reorganisation and editing. This is a book full of faults, and every reader will be annoyed by different things. But Dr Leach is not to be blamed for this: it is in fact one of his primary aims to irritate readers Into reconsidering the fundamentals of our society.