WHITHER MANKIND?

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 243, 13 September 1932, Page 5

WHITHER MANKIND?

AN INTERROGATORY OUTLOOK

AV.E.A. LECTURE

“Mankind’s position to-day is like that of a Japanese village of which I was told by the prophet Tenko Nishida,” stated Mr J. A. Brailsford, 8.A., in his address on “Whither Mankind?” to the Palmerston North W.E.A. last evening. “The Emperor made a gift to the village of a beautiful forest-clad slope. The inhabitants proceeded to quarrel about the sharing of the timber, and at the time of my conversation with Nishida they had been quarrelling for years, and no one had got anything.” Thirty years ago, added Mr Brailsford. the world had every confidence in tiie industrial system and the solidarity of wealth, in the permanence of the gold standard and the steady sureness of democracy. Now even the sanctity of contracts had gone, even people who formerly believed in democracy had gone over to despotism and Fascism, he contended. To-day there was a big query and there was an interrogatory outlook, which was admittedly more wholesome than the assurance of a generation ago on the ground of self-righteousness. The fortitude of sufferers could now be seen, the courage of those who were called to sacrifice, the generous help, the beauty of friendliness, the noblest efforts put forth for human betterment without thought of individual gain. The recognition of the value of humble men and women was one of the most distinctive features of modern social progress. The power of despots had been curtailed. In thought and in practice people recognised that nobility of character was what counted, not rank or birth. The trouble today was that, having abandoned the old ideas of aristocracy, people had not yet learned to look for the aristocracy of character, so that they were very largely at the beck and call of false appeals and were governed by forces that they did not see or comprehend. Hence, in Mr Brailsford’s opinion, was the root of the disasters of to-day. In every age men had had to face a dilemma, and in every age men and women of courage had been found ready to give all that truth might prevail, the speaker added. As people reasoned together about the new facts of life and the new powers of mankind and their right uses, the way gradually became clearer. Given a reasoned conviction, there would not be lacking the faithful devotees, ready to “be up and doing, with a heart for any fate.” Paradise would not come by our passively waiting for progress. Paradise must be stormed. Man had responsibility. We had the supfiort of great scientists in that beief, and who among us had not felt the urge to attune our lives to the universal life and thus to play our part in far nobler worlds? Our part might be of the humblest. Wo could only hope that, by trying for a time to see the wider and longer vision, we might be enabled to come back to the practical needs of our time with new assurance of choice, new and greater power.