ARE WE CIVILISED?

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14691, 27 May 1911, Page 1 (Supplement)

ARE WE CIVILISED?

BY W.M.N.

From the persistent way in which this question crops up from time to time, and the real, anxious, heart-searching it causes, it would seem there is some doubt about the matter. It is a question, primarily, of ideas; of artistic, moral, and spiritual standards, not of social, or political, or material achievement. And if it be granted that we have already made some substantial progress, even on these highest levels, the most important and pressing inquiry we can now make isAre we at present proceeding on right lines? Is the degree of civilisation we have attained in process of being advanced or degraded by our presentday aims and objects'/

For profound transformations are going on; characteristic differences between nations and between the various classes of each nation, as regards life, education, and even dress, are tending to disappear; more and more nations and classes are mingling together, under the pressure of democracy on one hand and material progress on the other. The process of social levelling and tho disappearance of human inequalities is apparent from tho material, intellectual, and moral points "Of view. And though certain superficial advantages may arise therefrom, grave dangers are involved, all the more serious because less clearly evident. For # this process of social levelling may entail a state of universal mediocrity, and that means the destruction of our civilization.

Observe the Sunday crowds in any great city: the diversity of costume which once served to distinguish various occupations is almost completely effaced; all classes are clothed _ in garments of one type, and all originality, character, and contrast are lost.

Indoors there is little difference. in the furniture; the same showy seats vulgarise alike the houses of the citizen and the professor; nothing is stamped, with the individuality of the occupant, as in days gone by. In the matter of amusements, differences between classes have finally disappeared, and all public entertainments, whether theatrical, musical, or sporting, are for the crowd, whose presence is indispensable for financial success. •The compulsory education of all classes in the same subjects, and the opening of the Universities, have rendered the possession of knowledge 110 longer a mark of superiority, and education lias thus ceased to be a help in the daily struggle for existence. To be educated, on present lines, or oven to have acquired wide general knowledge in the schools, is a very small advantage in the gaining of a livelihood. It is bad to know too many things; it is better to concentrate on one only, for specialisation is the one thing needful to deal effectively with the extension of knowledge and the demands of the economic struggle. The old culture —tho " humanities," "litera) humaniores " — give way to the practical necessities of the hour; to have studied poetry and rhetoric will not equip a lad for battle in a community which cares nothing for such subjects; and Greek and Latin would have been suppressed long since (deplorable, yet true) if the authorities had guided, instead of followed, the modern trend of things. And so, as education spreads, culture diminishes. A man of culture is one who is well-informed on many subjects and not ignorant of any: one who is keen to note all expression of human intelligence or feeling, with a mind open to see its bearings and appreciate the point of view. And to produce such men was the object of English education. , That ideal is still at work, seeking to evolve statesmen and a brilliant few rather than practical men it does not produce tho engineer, the savant, the specialist; but the good all-round" man, distinguished for vigorous intellect as well as physical development. But tho time-spirit is against him. The cultivated man is disappearing, and as the specialist pursues his one-pointed aim the level of general knowledge falls lower and lower from sheer, want of opportunity. Thus the levelling process works in the intellectual domain, and substitutes uniform instruction, freely given to all, in place of a culture reserved for a minority. Morally, too, we are living the same sort of lives; in practice if not in theory. We all hold that life has no end beyond itself; that it is an end in itself, and not a means to anything above or beyond it. Everybody claims to have an opinion upon every subject; opinions run wild in the streets, and get plentifully soiled in the dirt, and this is what has. happened to the human ideal. For tho common object of the crowd never goes beyond the limit of satisfactions which can bo bought for money; for success, all means are justified, and success is the sole measure of value. Under its most brutal form success by monetary gain is the exclusive object of endeavour. The modern ideal has lost its humanity and become utilitarian. _ Not a new mode of feeling, for mediocrity, is eternal; but it is tho first time in history that utilitarianism has become a universal dominant dogma. It rules nations as well as individuals; it fights for markets, not territories ; it encourages the rivalries of nations. The collective ideal is precisely the same as the individual idealget rich quickly. "Rem, recto si possis, scd non, rem."

That is whv the United States and Germany are held to be the first nations of the world ; England now only holds second place, while France lias admitted her decadence. For the United States and Germany are the nations that are making money, and in the society of nations they j are parvenus; it is just that fact tlu#t wins j for them universal admiration. In our collective life all the elements of greatness which alone can maintain the level of civilisation and give value to intellectual and artistic work are being neglected. In our individual life nobody troubles to fight for a place for Art, or beauty, or even a refined happiness. We have yet to loarn that the gratification of material wants will not bring happiness to anv really civilised man. In material respects, then, we must realise that the levelling of society is being brought about by the ascent of the masses to better conditions; in moral and intellectual respects, however, it is effected by the lowering of the cultivated, to the level of tho crowd, to the joy and (did they but know it) to the bane of the democracy. As the result of all this social superiority of any kind must disappear; no governing class can abase itself with impunity, and an aristocracy of wealth only is doomed. That might not bo very retrrettablo if tho ensuing swamp of equality did not swallow up Art and Culture, which are civilisation itself. That process, it may be feared, has already begun in the decay of general culture from specialisation "and democratic pressure. Thought, literature, and art have all to come under the same yoke; elegance and refinement are marks of degeneracy, and even the " intellectuals " are to bo discredited !

What must inevitably be the result of such a levelling down? Sordid ugliness, vulgarity, and universal mediocrity. And yet one would fain hope that the raising of the condition of the masses might be possible without the degradation of the cultured. Let wealth disappear, by all means, if distress and poverty go with it. But there must always bo an aristocracy, for without that class civilisation must bo of an inferior type—that of ants and bees, not of human beings. The more complex: and perfect the faculties of man the more individul ised they must bo; to suppress inequalities is to revert to tho lower. .But it must be an aristocracy of talent and character, an aristocracy of feeling and of manners, as much ps an aristocracy of intellect. Tho latter already exists, hut it lacks cohesion and does not fight to avoid submergence in tho democratic flood. It must unite with the work of writers and artiste, who, are men of culture and not mere specialists, to found a combination against universal mediocrity. And for the elements of feeling and manners all the best women must associate to defend the rights of culture, which answer to the deepest needs of her nature..