NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23620, 2 April 1940, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS

NATIONALISM A STAGE To condemn nationalism as the cause of our present discontents is just as absurd as to exalt the nation into the permanent ~linit of human society, possessing absolute and eternal values of its own. The nation is the political unit, and nationalism the group symbol, of the present stage of civilisation. says a study of "Nationalism" published by the Royal Institute of International Affairs. Meanwhile, those concerned with the conduct of international affairs in the present epoch can only take the nation as a fact (without assuming that it will be eternal) and work to harmonise the divergent points of view of different nations and to diminish the extent and frequency of resort to violences in the relations between them. KNOWING AT FIRST-HAND

Characterising the present age as one of loud speakers and loose thinkers addicted to cheap substitutes for intelligence, Dr. James MolFatt, the translator of the Bible into modern English, said in a. recent address: "The truly-educated mind is never content to live on echoes. No second-hand acquaintance with any art or science yields a lasting power. There must he a first-hand grip of principles and realities. Nothing can be so ineffective and wearisome as knowing a little about a lot of things. Nothing is so fruitful and satisfying as knowing one or two things at first hand. To live on the second rate is to lose the springs of sanity and hope and courage. A platitude is not a'worn-out truth; it is a truth that is not being worn at all; it is ft piece of dress reserved for State occasions instead of being girded on for the day's heroic or commonplace duty in facing the dark spirits of the hour."

HOLDING THE BANNER HIGH "To* root out this evil Nazi thing, to prevent its pollution from spreading to other innocent but weak nations and even to our own homes, to bring the healing touch of liberty to Poland and Czechoslovakia and to Germany itself, is as noble a cause as any to which free men have over dedicated thenlives and fortunes," said the Liberal leader, Sir Archibald Sinclair, in addressing students upon his installation as Rector of Glasgow University. "Let us then hold our banner high, and not stain it with any taint of hatred or self-seeking. In fighting Herr Hitler's foul conspiracy against the principles and decencies of Western civilisation none can doubt the justice of our cause. But destiny will require some thing more —will, energy, sacrifices in its defence. For it is a gigantic and hazardous enterprise to which we are committed. Our Scottish forbears, faced by more terrible odds than now confront us, resolved in the Parliament of Aberbrothock to continue the war for freedom 'which no good man loses save with his life.' You, their descendants, must not and will not fad in service to a cause even greater than that for which they fought so valiantly and well—the cause of freedom not for one nation only, but of freedom for every nation limited by the like freedom of all." GREATEST MARXIST FALLACY , "If the environment were the sole cause and the sufficient explanation of pride, envy and all uncharitableness, you might expect to find these evils in the slums and among the unemployed, but not in garden cities or among those who pay super-tax! But do you ? Certainly not," said Dr. J. S. Whale in a recent address. "This is the greatest fallacy of Marxism. It believes that the root of human evil lies in the social environment, because it refuses to face the perennial source of evil in the human heart. To argue that the social and economic setting of my life causes my selfishness, greed and lust for power, would be to take away all my responsibility as a moral being. It would rid me of a grievous sense of guilt, but it would mean that I am no more than a lump of putty. Pure determinism of this kind is pure nonsense. It is equally true, of course,, that thorough-going indeterminism is nonsense too —I mean the theory that every individual is completely free to will what is good and noble whenever he likes. Such a theory ignores the legacy of heredity and the pressure of environment; it suggests that the individual lives in a vacuum whereas the only life ho has ever known or can know is social life; there is no other kind of human life. His acts of will match yours and mine, and our lives interlock to form an organic unity." UP TO THE ELDERS

Power lies in the hands of the fiftyplus, writes the Rev. . Frank R. Hancock in the Christian.Pacifist. And the tragedy is that, when tho initiative falls to us, at fifty, we nre spiritually incapable of going forward to possess what is still the Land of Promise. We older men and women hold at last the key positions in Business, State and Church. Our seniors are dying or retiring. The levers at long last are coming into our hands — those levers that wo have so long .waited for, that we might- use them to better purpose. For 40 years we have striven, and criticised, and waited. And now, think of it! The? premier, positions, and all the power for the next 20 years, are in our hands' —tho hands of the fifty-plus! It is God's opportunity—in us—at last! It is a false hope, this deferring of tho Kingdom always to the next generation, which, like to-morrow, never comes. "We looked with confidence to them," says Dr. Raven, "to bring to birth ft new way of living." There have been tens of thousands of generations. What new property is it with which our immediate successors have been miraculously endowed, that they will succeed where we and all our ancestors have failed? No, there is only one solution. Some generation—not of youth —but of Elders, has got to be saved —somehow. Why not a great effort now to save Dr. Raven's and mine? It is the only one in which we can ever bo effective —the only one of which Ave can make sure. Youth can never rebuild this sub-Christian world, because Youth never has Power. Can we Elders dp it.fi