Conscianxious.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17994, 12 April 1930, Page 13 (Supplement)

Conscianxious.

(By “Darius.”)

“ Between what matters and what seems to matter how shall the world we know judge wisely?" I TRUST there may he no mistake made in setting out the title of this article nor in the understanding of it. For the coining of the term I cannot claim the distinction. It is given to few men to add a new' word to the human vocabulary; nor was the word coined by a dialectician. It. was used in error for ‘ conscientious,’ but described so aptly and so fully the person to w'hom it w r as applied that I at once realised the crying need for it, while wondering at the frequency with which, out of the mouths of foolish ones, the gemword issues with flashing inevitability. These words, so outwardly alike and closely related, are really of opposite meaning. One man will act according to a code of conscience that has no apprehension as to the moral codes of others. Another sees his duty through a conscience anxiously concerned about the judgments of his fellows, and with undue deference to those judgments. He wishes to appease his own conscience by having a public endorsement, and to leave the responsibility there Drsvring to ths Jack. Without too lengthy preamble, let it be said that these thoughts occur in consideration of a certain member of Parliament resigning his seat as a challenge to another — a political tourney a la mort, or as a matter of conscianxiousness, under the impression that he has obtained votes to secure his return through political sentiments expressed and allegiance promised, which he could not continue to honestly express in the one case, and to continue in the other. Quite honestly an oversensitive member of Parliament may magnify both the importance of his conscientious objections and the concern of his constituents about them into something that really matters personally. Then again, and those who are ‘bowlers will understand, a bowl goes outward from the hand when at speed, and it is influenced mostly by bias when it is slowing down and coming in. That may go at what it suggests. A person who imagines that either a government or a member of the party in power can make good all election pledges is surely ever-sanguine. Probably candidates of enlarged ego are vjuite honest in (he pledges and promises. Were they not optimists in the first place they would not be candidates in the second place. As to disaffection being a sufficient reason for going to the country for another verdict—there are grave doubts. No Grave Issues. This is not a time of marked political issues and divisions. Further, no member can reconstruct the conditions, revive the prejudices, re-awaken the fears and hopes, and re-arouse the emotions that beat in invisible surges around the hustings of a general election. Supposing a wrong has been done unintentionally, it is impossible to right it by an appeal to the country, for, in the first place, the contest may lack the character of a duel, and assume the form of a political melee. It is not a matter for making decision between Paul and Apollus. There are no grave political issues at stake. Parliament is almost entirely ah administrative body, and the demand of the people is to have something done —what, exactly, no cne seems prepared to outline. Prosperous times cannot be brought about politically, and even a good government may be thrown out before it has had an opportunity to make good- There are three parties of almost equal strength in Parliament. If one member, returned by the United Party, finds he can no longer \ast his vote to keep it in office, how comes

What Matters, What Seems to Matter.

it that its inveterate enemy, Labour, votes with it on a no-confidence motion? It is governed neither by conscientious nor conscianxious scruples, but by policy—which is politics. When it considers the favourable mom-ent has come to strike, the stroke will be swiftly delivered. Many a member has changed or modified his views after an experience of Parl- ■ lament and parties, without much perturbation, in fact, many have crossed the floor deliberately without fear and without reproach. The appeal to the country upon disillusion has a sinister suggestion of the “ recall,” which is a bad form of political serfdom, or subservience, at least. Is a member playing fair when he goes to the country disavowing a leader he was returned to support, to loose all the rancours of politics again? May he not obtain a verdict which may be unduly portentous or unduly trivial, and do it all under the honest belief that he is obtaining a local and not a general decision. A by-election so brought about involves not his own interests but those of the Dominion. Yesterday and To-morrow. God forbid that I should harshly judge or be unduly censorious of either public or private character, yet one may speak for a wider audience than the member for a locality, and give a considered judgment also concerning the things that matter, and the things that only seem to matter. At the last, one may, like counsel, state a case for the jury’s consideration. There are those who occupy Holy office who make personal reservations with regard to creeds, but that does not help as they are not there by election, but by calling- I sun not even sure that a strong, capable, far-seeing man should resign even if his constituents clamour for his resignation, for he might well stand fast in the sure assumption that the fickle crowd would turn and applaud him in due time, and praise him because he had caused no internal war after the tumult and the shouting of the general campaign. , Strong men change their opinions because all to-morrow’s are different from all yesterdays. That does not signify past government was not suited to the past, but that present ideals may not be tomorrow’s. The Falling Feather. We snould take our politics and our politicians as rather non-personal problems. The politician is not sufficiently pre-historic In ancestry to be typical and free from variation. No doubt he is peculiarly sensible to environment, and, for self-protection he may acquire, in the course of generations, an insect-like power of camouflage, necessary for self-preservation, and the preservation of the species. There is, however, a phase of human emotion in regard to politics, which he should study deeply, and without which he will not succeed, and that can only be indicated by the inadequate term, mass-psychology

A man may imagine himself impelled by a simple and personal determination to do right when he is under the masshypnosis. He should be master of that power and not subject to It. There are always cumulative cerebral vibrations that affect sections of the public. We may see in certain deflections —as we note the course of the air-currents by watching a feather wafted downward from a bird in its flight, how the political breeze is trending. In the case of Mr Jenkins the action may merely be, and probably is, a reflex of the mass-mind to which he is giving pub-licity-expression. Quite impersonally we shall await the issue, which may be definite or indefinite, trivial or momentous, as we do not know what any to-morrow may bring forth.