PRESENT REALITIES

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 84, 6 October 1931, Page 6

PRESENT REALITIES

CULTURAL POVERTY (To the Editor.) Sir, —At a time when our social and economic system is in a rapid slate of flux, an objective examination of the realities of the situation may not altogether be deprecated. It is a common error of our thinking to base our judgments on values which through indolence or unconscious wish we believe to be unchangeable, whereas constructive thinking has actual significance only to the whole situation, in which generally, and especially at the moment, both we ourselves and the values believed to be invariable are changing. As preliminary to .such a discussion, a brief analysis of the socio-political condition is necessary. In England the opposing social forces of evolution and the preservation of established forms has been accurately realised in the two political parties known, as radical and conservative. Within recent times a. third socialistic party has disturbed the general political equilibrium. Nominally in power, although in a minority, it has not had the strength to impose its will, and we. have had the paradox of a socialistic party helping by its legislation to support a system which it was pledged to eliminate and reconstruct. In New Zealand the political situation is likewise unrelated to reality, and even more fantastic. Our Reform Party is strictly an agrarian party, and by its association with the farmers' interests ia the times of their prosperity it has crystallised into a conservative political faction. Actually at the moment its supporters are economically destitute, and we thus have the spectacle of a conservative party attempting to rehabilitate what it has helped,by its lack of foresight to ruin. Equally ill-named is the United Party, which historically was once socialistic and later liberal in policy. In its liberal days it represented business, and its existence depended on its hostility to the Keform Party, thus creating a false sociological antithesis between, town and country, which as the present situation confirms is inherently meaningless. Now these two parties, each without significant individuality, have combined into a conservative group. Opposed to them is the Labour Party, which equally with the others is not indicative of a present reality, for it seeks to impose on us a socialistic ideology developed from the older highly industrialised countries with vastly different social conditions from ours; As evidence of its inconsistency reference • may be made to the recent minority report of its economic sub-committee: this was simply a proposal for a partial readjustment of the present system, and might with slight modifications have been produced by either of the other two parties. But such is the inaccuracy of our thinking, so little reference has it to the changing situation; that this was regarded by many as a dangerous social document. In effect then these three parties have no real reference to the social groups they are supposed to represent, with the consequence that these groups, already illdefined, begin to disintegrate, thereby causing political personalities and provincial jealousies to assume a ridiculous significance. The whole political maladjustment is closely related to our general cultural poverty; in fact the two conditions are interdependent. Attainments and interests in the arts may be taken without appreciable error as a measurement of culture. With us the professional theatre, with its invigorating excitement, is nonexistent except for the occasional visit of popularly successful plays such as would be artistically the most insignificant. If the absence of a theatre is due to economic reasons (although we have spent a fabulous fortune on motor-cars), at least we might have exploited the art of the cinema. But it is found the best work is not submitted to us, for the very reason that we would not appreciate it. A drastic censorship furthermore prohibits film-dramas with emotional power, because that would disturb us. The newspapers in general make no attempt at a critical estimate, but simply give fulsome praise to the mediocre, the good, and the exceptionally bad. With regard to the art of painting, we are still living in the Victorian era, with no realisation of the trend of modern art. The fact that we are a young nation with a particularly uniform social environment might well bo advanced as a reason that we have produced as yet no literature of moment, but we might at least hope to be made aware of what is being created in other countries. Yet we possess no weekly or monthly magazines which discuss literature at all, and we are very little aware of English and American journals. Of the books we buy it is said that oneseventh are written by Edgar Wallace. At a time when the radio is becoming a .great cultural force, we find in Wellington, for-example, that the local station provides fortnightly fifteen minutes for literature, generally devoted to reading the contents of the cover-jacket and long quotations of a book often of little significance. Our newspapers make a vague pretence once a week at literary criticism, which is almost invariably unsatisfactory and unlikely to stimulate interest.

This general cultural situation is completely reflected in the child; in a house in which his parents cannot interest him, His immediate reaction oh every occasion is to escape to some more attractive environment. Thus New Zealand children, compared with European children of the same age, are mentally under-, developed. As an educationalist I. note the effect of this in the immaturity of the young men and women students coming up to the University, many of whom are not really fitted for university . studies. I find further in them a tendency not to work for its own sake, but simply the impulse to get the tasks done for the ultimate reward of social advancement in a society where advancement has been in the past i-elatively easy, and social responsibility not great. A further consequence of our lack of culture is that our young men and women of talent are always attracted to the older countries, and many of them do not return to us. This same lack of interest in work for its own sake, of which. I have just made mention, is noticeable also in our artificers and manual workers, and may be partly a symptom of the machine age in which we live. Yet I, for. my part, have that faith in the human spirit which shows itself as joy in creative work of whatever nature it may be. These symptoms of lethargy are regarded by employers as a dangerous attack on the system they represent. But this is a double instance of loose thinking, for no socialist could expect to gain a real victory by such a soul-destroying practice, and the employer is wrong in believing that such methods could ever overthrow capitalistic society.' In fact any objective observer would assure the timid amongst us that New Zealand is the last country in the world where a social revolution is possible. But there are worse possibilities, than this, and an intellectual and emotional lassitude and spiritual stagnation may be one. Economists with a vision indicate that it is not inconceivable that our might degenerate into a backward rural community. Our reaction to the events of the next decade may vitally determine our whole future history. The older generation amongst ua is showing itself incompetent to deal with the present realities, so that we must look to the vising generation, to New Zealand youth. But they will require fortitude, for, owing to their impoverished cultural heritage, their task will be formidable.—l am, etc., P. W. ROBERTSON.