TE AWAMUTU COURIER. Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, 17th JANUARY, 1940. THE FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY.

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 60, Issue 4232, 17 January 1940, Page 6

TE AWAMUTU COURIER. Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, 17th JANUARY, 1940. THE FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY.

IN popular acceptance democracy passes as freedom with a minimum if not an absence of personal responsibility. Generally, in recent years particularly, the trend has been toward a disavowal of responsibility, and the individual citizen has been encouraged to turn more and more to Governments for the maintenance of the social order. It is refreshing to note what the chancellor, Mr J. A. Hanan, had to say on the subject at the .opening of the Senate of the University of New Zealand last week, because in what he says there really is a recall to very fundamental obligations of citizenship:

* Our heritage of liberties and equal justice for all was won through centuries of sacrifice by men who were unwilling to be serfs,” Mr Hanan said. “ These priceless assets which we have been taking for granted have anew become a cause to fight for. If our polity is to survive it must prove itself as efficient under stress and strain as any authoritarian regime. That means for all of us a quickened interest in public affairs. We must realise that all the individual advantages we prize can be maintained only by giving prior place and thought to. the public good.”

The citizen cannot take all and give nothing in return. Even if it be conceded that there needs must be self-interest in much that surrounds the daily round of duty, there is, nevertheless, a community aspect which can never be forgotten. It means that modern society has developed to a stage in which collective interests must be blended harmoniously. This cannot mean that the individual can shift the burden of responsibility from himself for he is the community in the final reckoning. Either the responsibility is direct or it is indirect. Mr Hanan links the individual with democracy in an unmistakable way when he says: “ The slow, patient, discursive methods of democracy may seem to suffer in comparison with the swift decisive action of totalitarian States. But who among us would be willing to live where might is right, where justice is a cynical mockery, where the concentration camp, the Gestapo, and the Ogpu are the symbols of a tyranny designed to crush the souls of men into dumb submission ? ” Clearly, since the State is the citizen collectively the individual must either be directed and disciplined as in the dictator countries or he must think and act for himself as in the democracies which, of course, means that he must think and act intelligently if his democracy is to survive. Mr Hanan turns largely to the Christian churches., “In these days of changeful impulses, of groping and plundering,” he says, “ intellectual light and leading are greatly needed.’’ He relies largely upon the spiritual light to meet the disillusions and the bewilderment of our day and generation. “ Graver issues are to the fore," he says. “ The ‘ good life ’ is arraigned as illustrative folly. The self-denying virtues that were as the perfume of great souls are being ruled out of place on a planet where the evolutionary struggle is still rampant in the human species. In the doubts that have clouded the aims and sanctions of conduct, a swing back to hedonism, to sheer pleasuring, is manifest. Can the Church, with a United access of enthusiasm for its redemptive mission, meet the challenge and endeavour to brave the slackened morals of a gaily drifting generation ? ” But hot even the Church can restore a balance unless and until the citizen awakens to a fuller understanding and a better appreciation of individual values and responsibilities. Deep down in it all is the principle of democracy, of self-determination. By no means can this mean a careless freedbm. Instead, it compels a fuller understanding and a deeper grasp of the things that really matter. The right to our democracy may be preserved on the battle-fields of Europe, but democracy itself is of our own ;

shaping. spiritual aspect is, as Mr Hanan says, a keynote, but beyond that there is much of human import. Very certainly the habit of relying on the community, which really means depending on “ the other fellow,” has gone too far. It has tended to substantially curtail the liberties of the individual, and has created a condition under which his activities become regimented. Indeed, it becomes an encroachment on the freedom which is part and parcel of democracy, and is, in principle, a step toward State totalitarianism. Mr Hanan declares that on the more difficult issues of present-day politics the electors in general are at a loss. That is because they do not apply themselves to serious thought about them, and especially to the duty of testing policies and acts of government to see whether they are in accord with British traditional principles of liberty and justice. Hence it is, as the chancellor remarks, that “ theories that offer a quick attainment of Utopia are especially apt to be embraced as the true evangel; they are quite liable to be hopefully translated into legislation, and even the disastrous results coming soon or late can hardly dislodge men’s delusive beliefs.” The truth of this has been revealed in the foolish belief that less work and increased spending would by some miracle produce enduring prosperity. That folly is now revealed, and there should now be a better appreciation of value —-'moral standards, self-responsibility, of personal service. There needs also to. be a quickened interest in public affairs, a deepei’ understanding of practical policies, and a better exercise of the popular franchise. The rights to democracy will be preserved on the battle-field, but we ourselves, ancl we alone, will reap the rewards of democratic liberty.