"FREEDOM ALONE IS NOT ENOUGH"

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 43, 20 February 1942, Page 4

"FREEDOM ALONE IS NOT ENOUGH"

Freedom of thought and action is our aim, "but freedom alone is hot enough," said his Excellency the Governor-General in commending the work and ideals of the Scout and Guide movements. If freedom were not disciplined by the realisation of our responsibilities to the community as a whole, it quickly degenerated into licence and decadence.

To be worth while, that discipline must not be imposed by a dictator — it must be self-imposed, said his Excellency. To cultivate that selfdiscipline, we must teach our children that they have a duty to their neighbours. That is one of the elementary principles of Christianity. It is the ideal on which Scouting has been built, the ideal of responsibility and service.

There are, indeed, two forms of freedom, one greatly superior to dictatorship, the other inferior. The primitive savage who knows no law, not even tribal law, has freedom. He follows his own unfettered and undisciplined inclinations, as far as he can in conflict with his neighbours. But his is not the true freedom of civilisation. It takes no account of right, only of might. True freedom is different from this, and superior to dictatorship, only because it is based upon recognition of the rights of others and of the individual's responsibility to those around him. The quality of our freedom and our worthiness of it are now being tested. In so far as we interpret "freedom as the right to please ourselves selfishly, to disregard the common good and the common danger, and to evade or obstruct general orders for the public welfare, we show ourselves incapable of understanding and operating real freedom, For orderly defence and the highest public good, laws are necessary, but they are not in limitation of real freedom if the citizen, having had his part in creating the machinery by which they are made, willingly respects them. The responsible citizen, too, considers first the obligations of his free citizenship. He does not ask first: "What is the Government doing about this?" but, "What can I do?" When he has made the utmost individual effort, he asks and is ready to co-operate in what the Government designs for the public protection. Above all, he recognises his duty to help his neighbours, to support and encourage them—in short, to maintain public morale. "Fifth column" activity is built upon nothing more or less than bad citizenship, fear that springs from selfishness, and the false freedom that knows no self-discipline.