AMBITION

Evening Star, Issue 20312, 22 October 1929, Page 16

AMBITION

RIGHT AND WRONG KINDS Ambition is indeed an illimitable and engrossing subject. Volumes could bo written, nay entire libraries overstocked with actual instances occurring since the world began in which ambition has made, or broken, men and nations, writes “L.W.,” in the ‘New Age *' magazine. The term connotes an inner urge, a compelling, motivating power that will not bo denied, but seeks to rend asunder the limitations imposed by environment (or circumstance) and forges ahead, blazing the way either to glorious victory or ignominious defeat. Hannibal, Cicsar, Alexander, Napoleon—all ambitious men and acknowledged strategists, but what practical good did they accomplish? What constructive lesson did they impart to a credulous world? Were they not actuated by a spurious ambition, based upon personal aggrandisement? Was it not such a perverted sense of ambition that prompted Judas to betray the Man of Galileo? Did not tho secret longings of the "noblest Roman of them all ” render him an easy prey to the intrigues of the cunning Cassius, resulting in the tragic removal _ of that great impediment— Coesar? Was hot General Horatio Gates actuated bv a vain and unjustified ambition when he made every effort to supersede General George Washington as commander-in-chief of the Continental armies? Here, then, is clear proof that the type of ambition that smacks of personal ego, greed for rank, power, and wealth, conquest and revenge, is nothing more or less than an abortive and sinister evil that runs its fateful course through the lives of men and the affairs of nations, finally falling in a miserable heap, its foundation collapsing upon the shifting sands of dishonesty, deceit, and unworthy motives. True ambition is a virtue to bo prized. Through it men have risen from comparative obscurity, have overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles. and have left their names indelibly inscribed in the pages of history. The wonderful scientific world in which we live to-day is the fruit of ambition rightly applied. Our incomparable government is a material manifestation of the ambitions of its courageous founders. Our excellent public school system represents the wisdom and * foresight of those consecrated educators—men and women—ever awake to the duties of their high calling. So wo find that in every department of human life ambition, actuated by pure and understanding motives, is daily contributing towards a better world. Pseudo-ambition, in reality a flimsy mask seeking to cover the hideous features of envy, vanity, dishonesty, and other allied dark sisters of the night, is about its predatory work of seeking to undermine our people’s confidence in their Government, subtly instilling in the human consciousness disregard for the laws of the country, attempting to hamper and curtail the public school system, encouraging tho flooding of this country by unassiimlable aliens, conducting murderous gang warfares in th streets of the principal Amenc.ai cities in open defiance of law and order, etc. Those are no idle conjectures. The grim situation of wrong ambition gone mad is here and now. It cannot be ignored. Right ambition brought the American nation into being, sustained it through the stirring days of its early history, and will preserve it to the end “that this nation, under God,” shall ever continue to radiate the light of Liberty that has made it the glorious exemplar of modern civilisation.