FOUNDATIONS OF DEMOCRACY

Evening Star, Issue 23690, 25 September 1940, Page 7

FOUNDATIONS OF DEMOCRACY

IMPORTANCE OF PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY ADDRESS AT OPTIMISTS’ CLUB “ Democracy, the most adventurous of all. social compacts, is fraught with dangers,” said Principal A. L. Haddon in an address at the Optimists’ Club luncheon yesterday. “No form of human organisation offers so many opportunities, no other makes such exacting demands upon the personal integrity and intelligence of its members. Not in the destruction of the democratic structure by force but in the crumbling of tlie unseen foundations the chief danger lies to-day.

“The visible foundations of the British form of democracy, such as tho Monarchy, sane government, sound commercial and industrial principles, free choice of his own way of life for the individual are not in danger if the foundations that lie deeper nro secure.

“ The preservation of democracy demands the acceptance of persona! responsibility by each member of the community,” said Mr Haddon. “There is frequently a tendency to allow a Government or- a dictator to live our lives and to do our work for us. We must stand on our own feet. This involves the duties of thought and activity for each. Ideas, quickened by emotion, are the greatest practical power in human affairs. Karl Marx proposed an alteration in the economic structure in order to change all the rest of man’s affairs. But the Marxian direct attack has given place to the teaching of Communist ideas. “ The outlook of nations has been completely reversed at times by the detuned implanting of a dominant idea iu the minds of all sections of the people. To-day there is needed an aggressive effort to implant the ideals of democracy throughout our community. Too often the British way is to take things for granted—to take it for granted that all are learning and accepting the democratic ideals, to assume that if any crisis arises we can arise to meet it in time. That has proved true iu the speedy formation of defensive war measures, but we cannot assume the same results with regard to ideas. If undemocratic thinking is allowed to push its way into the minds of youth, without a definite countermove, we have already Failed in our defence of democracy. The Hitler ascendancy in Germany is largely explained by the fact that for seven years Ids doctrines have been "onnded into the minds of Gorman youth. Those millions who were 17 when he came to power are now citizens of 21. Wo must not idly assume that the flag, proper government, sound business are secure unless the ideas on which they rest are effectively implanted in the thinking of tlm growing generation. “ Right thinking and moral choices o-re fundamental to democratic welfare.

(But morality, to be practically effective, needs to be vitalised by religion. Most of our modern pro Diems are occasioned by the fact that the organisation of democracy is outrunning its spiritual ideals. “ To arrive at a concrete conclusion. The foremost principles on which flinstian social life must be based are: (1) That each human personality is of inestimable worth and must never be treated by us as a means to an end. (2) That the strong must help the weak. (3) That men belong together in one family.”