MUDDLING THROUGH

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 47, Issue 2669, 13 September 1937, Page 5

MUDDLING THROUGH

BRITAIN’S NATIONAL ATTITUDE

DO THE ENGLISH THINK AHEAD?

“Lots of people, including many Englishmen, observing that the Englishman will not think ahead, imagine that he will not or cannot think at all. That is a great mistake. He may be in this matter lazy, but he is not stupid. He may be unintellectual, but he is not unintelligent—very far from it. On. the contrary, when he does begin to think, he thinks to exetremely good purpose.

“It is quite true that his thinking tends to be limited in range. He is not much concerned with principles or with remote antecedents or consequences. His interest stops when he has solved the problem in hand. But up to that point his thinking is extremely efficient, and he is indeed one of the most intelligent creatures on the face of the earth.

“The really important thing about England is not that she muddles, but that she muddles through. She does not like long-distance policies; that she is willing to say or do something now which is quite the opposite of what she said or did five years ago. “Theoretical consistency is no interest at all; and if she sees, as she usually does, what ought to be done here and now, she is willing to do it with very little regard to its relation to previous acts or declarations.”— From a broadcast talk, “Men and Matters,” by Principal Sir Hector’ J. W. Hetherington, LL.D., of Glasgow University.