Random Reflections.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 41, 15 December 1911, Page 9

Random Reflections.

By KIAROSKURO.

Itfetie-ibeund Socialists. There is, or should be, only one kind of Socialism. Adjectival Socialism is objectionable —almost as objeotional as the man who makes a fad of Socialism. Now, no man should make a fad of Socialism. He should have more respect for Socialism than to treat it as the prohibitionist treats his noJicense doctrine, or the suffragette treats her "vote's for women" evangel. Socialism is a science, and should be regarded with dignity and respect. iJut *ome comrades allow their Socialism to etink in the nostrils of non-Soo'alists by ill-considered and ill-timed propaganda. Others there are who think Socialism and nothing but Socialism, urotil they become wild-eyed, hramwarped ranters, and lose all their sense of humor and' proportion. Brother., these things not so to be. Socialism is a ivood thing, but there are other good things in the world, fhere ai;e Nature and Art, and the "wild joys of living." Don't exercise one side of your brain ; brother, and allow tlie other to become atrophied. Socialism will demand men and women of good all-round development, , mentally aoid physically —not the impossible comTade who believes he should hate his J brother man unless he repeats after !him: "There .is no true gospel but Socialism, and Karl ' Marx is its prophet." Tine Average Man. i The average man is much talked ftlxmt these days. He is the common denominator of humanity, the raw j material of the world. Politicians talk of him as "th© backbone of the country, the" great mass of .right-thinking people, the free and enlightened voter," and so on. But the average , man. when he is not merely a figure ci speech, is a hopeless atom of human- | jrby. There is nothing inspiring about him ; he eats, drinks, sleeps and reproduces himself exactly as his father ,}id. —never dreaming that there is a Jaw of Change in the Universe. It was not an average man who discovered the wse of fire-j or invented the steam engine, or the linotype, or the principles of Socialism. Average men are the common clay of humanity—useful, but much too numerous. Our present way of life helps to lower the average of humanity. The men of talent, the exceptional men, the unaverage men, tend to grow fewer and fewer. There is a vicious law of uniformity running tlwough social Life to-day. Few men Slave the courage to change their religion, or the spelling of their names, or defy the fashions and conventions of the day. They are content to be what their fathers have been—average men; figures of speech, instead of thinking human beings. The Elusive Truth. It is as well to admit, brother, that we can never know the Truth. True v/Q can get glimpses of the Truth, fragments which have been dug out of the rude quarries of Nature's raw material. But your religion, your eocial creed, what you believe, in short, ifc only at best a little bit of the Truth. Behind all ascertained facts there are deeper facts; behind all known truths there axe deeper truths; there are ■wfheels within wheels and systems within systems. And that is a Truth that is too great for us, brother. We fthould not be dogmatic or pride oureelve<i on adherence to iwinciple—our

principle may be false. The fact iliat we make our own gods and idols and bow down to them does not warrant us in calling our brother a heretic because- jbe does not worship our God. No god the mind of man can conceive is as great as the great First Cause, whatever it be. And the mind of man is incapable of seeing and knowing the Truth. The like the social ■system, is based on division of Labor, and the workers in Truth's workshop can only hope to .perfect themselves in one branch of Labor; they -can never become masters of all the laws that regulate this marvellous planet and the forms of life that exist upon it. All the isms of man are at the best but forms of truth. —not Truth itself It will take us all eternity to discover truth. Is not that a reason why we should have eternity to live in ?

The Division of Labor. -Adam Smith first pointed out the importance of the division of labor. It is true that the. division of labor has made modern Society possible. It ha.s much to answer for, brother. Suppose; instead of making the worker a mere machine, we re-organised Society so that all men but those stamped by Nature with genius or exceptional talent, could have at least two occupations, one that would develop him physically and 6ne that would train his mental powers. A few hours' hard labor devoted to wealth-production would be a good thing for men now condemned to sedentary, -unhealthy work. The division of labor has made one man a navyy —a huge, brawny being with only the rudiments of a mind, and another a olerk —a caricature of humanity in cuffs and collars. Strike the average between tie two, aaid the result would be a better man, who would be more useful to himself and to Society. Socialism will restore the balance of human development which has been destroyed by pushing the division of labor to extremes. _ A harmony betwixt mental and physical development should be an ideal to be aimed at. It is (impossible under the present system. Virtue and Vice. I It is possible to be righteous over I much, brother. In the middle ages I Chastity was placed on a pedestal and worshipped. Monasticism and ascetisrn (ran riot. Holy men were known by thedr peculiar and unpleasant odor. The religious of those days were mostly "holy vermin," as Ingersoll said. There is a very 'thin line dividing vice and virtue. "The faculties of man which, rightly exercised, result in the greatest happiness, preverted, icause the most intense misery. Abstention is oten as wrong as excess. True virtue is to be found in Aristotle's mean between the two extremes. No human faculty is vicious but only as it is exercised. Much of the so-called virtues of Society are vices of the most odious kind. Nature is a better teacher than convention, but ignorance of her laws will not go unpunished. Neither will the laws of Nature allow themselves to be overridden by the puny laws of man or the conventions of Society. The Wowser. "Wowser" is a word I got into the habit of writing without inverted commas during a sojourn in New South Wales. I have long lqoked for a good definition of it, brother. My # own definition is: one who makes a vice of virtue. And I rejoiced, on looking through the "Red page of the "Bulletin," to find this: an advocate of : everything dry, of temperance and a)} the virtues, who expresses iiis opinions

in such a manner that the good lie advocates appears as offensive as Kβ' is himself. That is from "Oil tlie Wallaby Through Victoria," by E. M. Clowes, an Englishwoman, whose book lsrull of praise for the men and women of Australia. I give thanks for' her and her book, which I shall read at the first opportunity. But there.-is' a tendency in these Colonies to. be too free an the use of this useful' word; ■ It as often applied to people who believe m clean, wholesome living, and 'working for the same. On tlie subject of gambling, for instance, I am an arraiit wowser. I would make gambling of any sort or kind a crime punishable only by hard labor. Some horsetrallans would call that-wowserism, but'l call it Socialism. That i<s a- distant' tio.n with, a difference, brother.