STRESS OF LIFE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22191, 19 August 1935, Page 6

STRESS OF LIFE

COMPARATIVE CONDITIONS / GUIDANCE OF HISTORY CONTRASTS WITH THE PAST The strain of life and its complexes, a subject brought under public discussion by a statement by a London specialist on diseases of the nerve us system, was approached from a I 13« angle yesterday by a layman, who relies a good deal upon the lessons of history " We certairily are rushing for diversions of all-kinds," ho said, " in thd hope of gaining short respites from Ih«i pressure of reality. A common assumption probably is that never before lias the stress of life been so oppressive. But is that so? " Was there not oppressive stress no; so many decades, ago when harsh li.ws caused the transportation of people for what are now considered to tte miior offences? A little earlier there was the stress imposed by a penal system which sent people to the gallows fcr what were merely political differercts of opinion. Within the penjd of what might be called enlightened civilisation there wore in England maiming branding and other barbarities winch shock tho twentieth century conscience evdn when brought to mind by carvin£,s upon Egyptian temples. "Pepvu tellsi wounded sailors from the fleet lying; unsuccoured around tie Admiralty Ofhco in London. We, h.-uo read of Scottish troops repatriated f:o:n tho Continent and set adrift at sorre 7 southern port of England to hnd tieir way home on foot without food or money. » (3ondil;ions of the Pasit "Such facts, it may be said, proclaim the standards of the social conscience of the times —and these times are not prehistoric, no matter how much ve like to try to pretend to ourselves ;h it thev were. But were such stand iris universally acceptable ? "They arei long past but not no, distant as to/ be beyond comparative consideration now when life and t)ie individual are under survey. If it were 60 it would be impossible to understand with any degree of intelligence the mentality of so many celebrities of reality and fiction. " My point 13 clear. In the comparatively * recent times of cruelty and oppression mmy of the British peofle must certainly have suffered severe mental stress. For one who, as a malefactor, was exposed to harsh punishment there were one hundred laivabiding folk who were either under a constant sense of anxiety or who at heart were rebellious against a system that to their minds was too sever* 1. Our Unknown Ancestors " Did they 7 therefore experience njrvous stress. Medicine is not able to say. But is it not highly probable tl at through all tho days of revolution by evolution there has been a large bedy of sensitive strivers for common betterment upon whom . the strain lef; its mark in nervous disorder, as well as upon the afflicted and those of uneasy conscience. Can it be imagined that our ancestors were of such tougher fi ire that they could throw off all perso ial effects of the /stress of their conditions and rise renewed in every way after a surfeit of food and drink? "The chase and the table ant. die theatre in / former days probably brought the relief which is now lound in scores of the diversions of tc-clay. -The social conscience doubtless 'vas not so sharjp-edged. But it seems improbable that nerve strain was any bss. May I submit the supposition that the main difference between to-day and the yesterdays I speak of, is that medicine had not arrived to describe it 3 "ask in detail. I'fancy that this generation pays itself a compliment if it boljoves that, individual by individual, it. is very much more sensitive to nor mis reactions than the generations of the past few hundred years. Education has inevitably cielivered. from mental bondage an increasing proportion. lam at the sume time the conditions of life have been vastly ameliorated. The one may not have balanced the other, but it is still a question "if 'nerves' to-day should be worse than those of pester-