IRRATIONAL CONVICTIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18380, 21 April 1923, Page 1 (Supplement)

IRRATIONAL CONVICTIONS.

BY KOTABE.

ECCENTRICITIES OF BELIEF.

There is no such thing as pure reason. A man cannot isolate any part of Himself, and divide it from the rest of .his personality in a water-tight compartment the whole man thinks, not merely a cold clear-cut intellect working in a vacuum, cut- off from every other part of himseii. What we are determines at every moment what wo think, what we believe. In every thought, the whole personality flames to a focus. We aro to look for tho roots of belief, then, not in an intellectual process, but in the depths of personality. Thought moves nothing. The number of people that care to think through any problem to its logical issue is always strictly limited. The convictions of most people are simply prejudices, irrational as most prejudices are, but moulding ?and forming character and conduct for all that. , No man has ever been known to lay down his life in defence of the proposition that the angles of a triangle together equal two right angles, or that in a right-angled triangle the square on the hypothenuse equals the sum of the squares on the sides- He accepts that as absolute 'truth, but he will not die for it. But where his feelings are involved, we recognise at once the change of atmosphere. Without logical or mathematical proof, here he takes his stand, and here he will stay, though the heavens should fall. The most irrational thing in the universe is war. It solves no problems; it usually spells financial and moral ruin. The most enfeebled intellect can produce a hundred unanswerable reasons against it. But where national or class pride is involved, reason flies out of the window. And so it will be, probably to the end 01 time. .' : -■:;/; ;-.-'..,, ,'Conscientious Objectors.

Especially is a man ready to give his life for his convictions when he has lifted them out of the common ruck of everyday . affairs and stamped them with the Divine approval' and sanction. Let him believe he is the instrument through which God's will is declared or realised, and nothing will shift him; He may. stand alone, his judgment against the world. But if for him the Divine voice Has spoken, then he has no choice. You may think him blind, the victim of illusion. Often his certainty that God is speaking to him is merely a form of egotism, almost of diseased self-esteem. But he will honour his conscience as his King,' and for him there is only one path. And here we face a situation of curious difficulty. What he considers the clear command of God, and what all must recognise as the one path of duty for him, may be shot through with irrationality. It may seem ridiculous and preposterous to every one else. It may involve principles that the State cannot admit except at the gravest peril to its own stability. It may strike at the very heart of that social contract which is the basis of all modern societies. The man must still be true to his conscience, however unenlightened it may be. The State likewise mupt take steps to protect itself. That is the problem of the conscientious objector. Granted that he, if he be sincere, must stand by what he believes to be right. But the State has rights that overrule the rights of the individual. There can be no State without that primary assumption. To-day we find in , some quarters a most .'unworthy view of the superiority of the individual's conscience to the collective conscience.;expressed in the will of the .whole community. In time of national danger, the, State must make all preparations to defend itself. That is one of the chief reasons of its existence; men group themselves, partly at least, for protection. It is then assumed, and rightly assumed, that all the resources of the State, in manhood and in money, must be at the State's disposal to meet the menace from without. As Lincoln saw 60 years ago, it is a much finer thing to take it for granted that every man is ready to fill his place in the fighting" line, than to leave this matter, suddenly become the supreme interest of the State, to-the nobler individuals who are willing to volunteer their \ servicesTo each man and to each woman their special part, and to the strong and fit men the duty of placing their bodies a living wall between the enemy and their homes. That is the privilege of their youth and manhood. But this man •thinks the divine voice forbids him to i fis;ht. The State must insist that he play his part; he must obey his conscience and refuse to bear arms. And the State must punish him as a menace to its safety, perhaps to its very existence. It would bo committing suicide were it to tolerate a course of action in a few individuals which' if made of universal application would tumble the carefully-built structure of society into ruins. One need waste no sympathy on conscientious' objectors. They must take their stand, and they j must suffer for it. That was the regular course in the olden times. Then the conscientious objector gladly suffered for his conscience. To-day, the same gentleman simply claims exemption from duties laid upon others. Ho will accept the privileges the State confers without accepting the responsibilities and duties. He will shout to heaven against the injustice that punishes him. Instead of suffering for conscience, he wants to go free of irksome duties for conscience sake. We can honour and admire the man who is prepared to stand by his conscience even Ito the prison cell or the scaffold ; but what are we to think of the creature who finds his conscience an easy way out of duties that others have to perform in blood and tears One of the queerest abortions of the modern world is the conscientious objector who wants to claim special privileges and exemptions for conscience , sake. He dishonours' himself and his God. - The Denouncer. ; Many convictions, however, never rise to the level of direct manifestations of the Divine will. But they may be held with tremendous vehemence- In fact, we usually find that the less sure a man is of his beliefs, the, more loudly he trumpets them abroad. There are people who are always trying to convince themselves by loud and blustering speech. We have always with us the guide of public morals who finds his constituency among those frail intelligences that get their highest pleasure in hearing others denounced, and \in smugly considering how many are taking the path that leads to the everlasting bonfire. It lowers one's faith in human nature to find there are so many of that type in Auckland. It is surprising that a community like ours, sane and nonemotional for the most part, should offer a rich field for the shrill denouncer of other people. The thing is common enough in America, and it is the overflow from America that we get here. But this too will pass. For no man is vehement against his fellows if he is quite sure of. himself. A crescendo of abuse always marks a doubt; the loud talker is .usually trying to persuade himself first of all. Sheep and Goats. x There has been a noble attempt made in Auckland to separate the sheep from the goats. The sheep are being herded .-into their pen, a small Simon-pure company; outside these ranges what Shylook would call' a perfect wilderness of goats. Once men attached supreme significance to their faith in God. No one is admitted to the sheepfo'ld unless he is prepared to say: "I believe in the devil. ' This -is the latest and queerest manifestation of devil-worship. It reminds one irresistibly of Cruickshanks in Barrie's "Little Minister." "Maybe you've ower keen an interest in the devil, Tammas, but, ony wey, if its heaven for climate, ; it's hell for company/* .; •