THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is Incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY “Public Service” MONDAY, JULY 31, 1950 THE BLACK MIND

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 60, Issue 4311, 31 July 1950, Page 4

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is Incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY “Public Service” MONDAY, JULY 31, 1950 THE BLACK MIND

The order given by the Government of Czechoslovakia that the Salvation Army be disbanded on the ground of its being a “subversive organisation” cannot but bring concern to people of the Christian Faith. They will rightly regard it as political ideology gone mad and it is but another instance of the inevitable attack on the churches in all collectivist countries. What becomes so difficult in this modern age is to find a basis for intelligent discussion. What we call black, others call white, what we call democratic is branded as fascist, and what to us is obviously a dictatorship ruling by the method of terror is called true democracy. The! fact is that objective truth has ceased to exist. What is now happening in Czechoslovakia reveals an outlook that makes one despair for the future. Few realise that it is Karl Marx who is the cause of the trouble. When Marx appeared on the political horizon just 100 years ago, those who had adopted the ideas of Adam Smith, had proved conclusively the worthlessness of the whole idea of planning and the argument in favour of free enterprise had been settled. | It was to the task of findihg a way out of the difficulty in which the socialists found themselves that Marx turned his attention. Herein was the genius of Marx for he laid it down that there was no such thing as objective truth or logic which stood for all people in all ages. The matter of thetruth or the belief of any individual was simply determined by the position he occupied in the community. Thus the existing ideas about logic and truth were those of a capitalist society and were therefore' false whereas real truth and real logic Would only be such.as prevailed in a proletarian community. Marx’s method was the work of a genius and, though hopelessely false, it has left a terrible disease in the minds of men and, tragic though it is, the horrible cancer seems to be spreading.