PARASITISM

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 3, 14 December 1910, Page 1

PARASITISM

WHAT SOCIALISM DOES FOR THE “ WEARY WILLIE.”

The avowed object of the Socialists is to place all people on a level —the foolish and the clever, the lazy, the incompetent, and the industrious, the thrifty and the squanderer. A new race is to spring up and be encouraged, says the “ Daily Express,” when the Socialists attain their ideal —a race of Parasites.

That the community has responsibilities towards its individual members we cheerfully admit, but there must be a limit. The spirit of the age demands that the infirm and the indigent shall be succoured, and rightly so. But Socialism demands that the community shall relieve the parent of his responsibilities towards his offspring, and here we join issue. To turn the State into a universal foundling hospital is not progress—it is parasitism. Let Socialists disguise their real objective as they may, this is the collectivist ideal towards which their steps are directed.

It is an idea that appeals with enormous force to the degenerate, the idle, and the loafing, those classes of the community which prefer shirk to work and loafing to labour. Shallow thinkers contend that Socialism is not gaining ground, and they base their contention on the political representation of these agitators in Parliament. But Socialism is not a political movement —it is a disease, and its virus is in the blood of the nation. All classes are tainted with it; the Churches are noL innocent of it, and political leaders mistake its feverish symptoms for those of healthy national development.

Mere EDvy. Politicians, priests, and phrasemongers would do well to direct their eyes to the root cause of Socialism. It is not “divine discontent ” —the discontent of the man who has grit and wants to get on in life; it is the envious snarl of the parasitic decadent. Our policy is breeding him and feeding him in ever-increasing numbers, and his burden grows heavier and heavier for thrifty industry. The middle classes are groaning under an intolerable load of rates and taxes, and the exodus of the physically and mentally fit from these islands was never so great as now. Surely there must be something rotten in the State which penalises thrift and industry in order that degenerate idlers may be freed of care and the thought of to-mor-row.

The remedy lies in a return to sanity in the national council : we

want sense, not sentiment —more hygiene and .less hysteria. Roses and green fly will not flourish to-gether-—you can have either the one or the other, whichever you prefer. : A child can be trained to join the ranks of the aphides or’ the roses, and that is the work before us. He should be taught that self-help and thrift are’ virtues, and that sponging ; and loafing are a crime against the : community. He should be taught r discipline, self-esteem, clear think--1 ing and courtesy -- *’ the rest comes ' by nature.”

Hereris work for our statesmen and public teachers —work that will remake our people, and set them once more on the upward path of true progress. For as the child is the father of the man. the parent trained under such conditions will be self-reliant, sturdily independent, and desirous of working out his own future without municipal meddling and State cockering. Self-Reliance. His education in the Spartan school of stern self-reliance will teach him to steer the Scylla a the sentimental is i s ’oyer drppTiobia _ PerifeWd; is-

fifths of the prevalent misery is due to the individual’s own action, .the remaining fifth must, and always will, be coped with by the community. Many ascribe much of the present destitution and suffering to overpopulation ; but this is a fallacy. We are not over-populated ; in fact,, quite the contrary. It is the qual- - ity, not, the quantity, that is at J fault. fl Although I am sufficient of aiM economist to discern that TarifM Reform will prove an incalculable boon to our people, I am also ciently a socioligist to realise that its benefits should be coupled with self-reform. Here is the great work for the true social reformers ; let them see to it that the -work is begun while j there is yet time. J The heart of the nation is sti|fl sound. The rise of the Boy proves it. We want a great teachefl and preacher like Roosevelt txfl shake up the dry bones and to the dormant spirit of national ; liness and independence. withal he must preach no class * vileges—there must be equality opportunity for all—the way for the humble, clever must be swept clear of all obstacles® For good or ill, our country embarked on the troubled sea of democracy; it will be well or ill as the nation receives wise or baneful guidance. Opportunism preaches the policy of sops to Cerberus, and thinks to buy off Demos by dole--. Never was policy more fatal or futile, for, in the genuine spirit of parasitism the appetite for doles grows by what it feeds "" Insistent Problem. Let opportunists note that there-,,..., is no way out. The problem will have to be faced, and every day that it is waved aside makes it more difficult to handle. The slum-dweller must be trained to loathe his surroundings, not to accept them as his normal lot. Thus will be hastened the day of the Socialist “millennium” (for Socialism is articulate parasitism) ; the national credit will be exhausted, when capital will have fled these shores for ever, when enterprise will be dead and competition; crucified, the day when the remain® of a once glorious nation will havesunk in slothful slumber into the; arms of the Socialist siren. Thus will be inaugurated thet. blessed era of universal sponging-— When the workers cease from working. And the Weary Willies rest.