THE SOCIAL SENSE

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 3614, 18 November 1924, Page 2

THE SOCIAL SENSE

t s OLD STANDARDS AND IDEALS GONE ed sm ts. Modern society lias departed with swift |y, and emphatic strides from the standards ke and ideals of an earlier day (says a writer ty hi the Melbourne ‘Age’j. But while there will be few to deny the departure, nd there is a diversity of opinion as to the 5w direction in which we are hastening, le- Some bewail the rapidity with which, like ire th e Gadarene swine, society is rushing ie- down a steep place into the sea, there to ch be miserably drowned in its own vices, ad Others, on the contrary, pat it on its iu- collective back and tell it what a fine ks fellow it is for having shaken off the ch fetters of a more conventional generation, m. The philosopher, after the manner of his he kind, takes up his quiet station somein where between the two schools of thought, it- and surveys the merits and defects of each ed with a contemplative eye. As The contrasts are sharp enough. The vn social centre of former days was the home; n;- the 4 hostess spared no efforts to make her ri- guests happy, .and children were trained us from their nursery days to a sense of 00 their duty to the stranger within their ks gates. .The daughter of the house knew a- that the laws of courtesy called upon, her to shed the light of her sweetest smiles on the shy, the dull, the uninteresting members of a party. The son ■ realised with a' sinking heart that his mother would be shocked if he failed to dance with the girls whom no one else would look at, and to offer graceful little attentions to snuffy dowagers. The host, it must be admitted, had then, as now, a variety of ways of wriggling out of unpleasant duties, but, once pinned down in his place at his own table, or decoyed into his wife’s drawing room, he carried out his part valiantly enough. The keyn note of the whole social structure was a *' mutual recognition of the duty of enf tertained and entertained that each should contribute of his or her best graciously 11 and willingly. l ” The social life of the past generation • was much more intimate than that of e modern times. Groups were smaller; the 1 motor car had not annihilated time and space to the extent to which those bars riers to the meeting of acquaintances have s now been conquered. The ordinary social '> unit consisted of a group of people who y knew one another tolerably well, who had a considerable community of interest, and ' who were personally concerned in one an--1 other’s lives. Conversation among people s so placed was not difficult, but where dif- ■ Acuities existed it was a point of honor 3 that they should lie overcome. Hideous • pauses in the flow ; ? talk, which left the t ! company stranded, as it were, like gasp--1 | ing fish on arid sand, were felt to be a 1 I disgrace alike to hostess and guest. The i j intellectual standard may or may not have i | been higher than it is at present, but po--1 | liteness made amends for other lacks, and r j the drawing room buzzed with a chatter ? I which, though it seldom touched the t j depths or soared to the heights, at least • j kept on a steady pinion, while an occa- . I sional excursionist into the realms of ’ ! thought was always sure of a deferential i j hearing. i | These traditions are as dead as Queen i | Anne. Social life as constituted even so ; ' short a time as twenty years ago has ' j faded into the limbo of forgotten things I i with an almost incredible completeness. ! | Home life is no more, and with its passi j ing has vanished also the nice instinct of • i hospitality, whose centre was the homo. I Instead of welcoming her guests in her i ! own house, the hostess of "to-day prefers 1 ( to feed them in a restaurant, or, if they eat at her own table, they are probably j catered for by outside specialists. Once 1 the business of receiving is over the ' guests are' left to their own devices, or , their amusement is entrusted to paid proI fessionals. The bore of either sex has 1 a short shrift at the hands of the daughj ter of the house, and its sons have not I the faintest intention of putting them- ; selves out for anyone who does not hapi pen to please their exigeant taste. Girls j choose their own friends and entertain | them without the slightest deference to | parental prejudices, while at the same time j their attitude to the women of their j mother’s generation is often one of blank | indifference. I Conversation has undergone a corre--1 spending change. There is so little com- : munity of personal interest that it must j perforce rely on the most fleeting genei ralities. It is often crude, sometimes brilliant, and nearly always impersonal. Tossed back and forward with a light and airy touch, it flits from theatre to sport, from sport to the latest dancing craze, and so on through the bright circle ■of gay and impersonal comradeship. It is an unpardonable crime to degenerate into seriousness. I The essential flaw in modern social life is its selfishness, the calm intentness with I which it pursues its own aims, its bland j disregard of those who do not happen to conform to its ever-varying standards. But is there, after all, any need to be anxious concerning it? Is it not, like other modern tendencies, largely the product of the hectic and hideous years of wav, from which returning normality will save us in time? Woman is instinctively a social creature, and the social sense is so strong in her that she may be trusted to sail the ship of society ultimately into smooth seas, even though she may have I to steer her course through an occasional period of dirty weather. The social machinery of our day has its faults: but it has its merits, too. The hostess of the past drove her team with too tight a rein. She entertained her guests according to her own theories of what they would find amusing or interesting. and often they suffered to the verge of desperation. The casual methods now in vogue have at least a negative advantage. If the amusement provided fails to amuse you, there is no objection to your yawning frankly in its face. If you are disposed to sit in a corner and glower because no one is taking any interest in you, you may console yourself with the thought that it is better to be neglected than compelled to sit up and take unwilling notice. And already there are signs that the reaction from wav and post-war abnormalities is beginning. The ideals of the young girl of eighteen are noticeably different from those of the woman five or six years her senior. She is the product of a saner outlook and a longer perspective, and in incrasing numbers she is showing that the forces which made her elder sister anti-home, antimotherhood —in short, anti-social —are already losing their grip. When she comes to her own as the hostess »f the immediate future we may hope for a social system that will combine the best qualities of its two immediate progenitors.