SOCIALISM & SACRIFICE

Hokitika Guardian, 9 May 1925, Page 4

SOCIALISM & SACRIFICE

AX ESSAY. (|iy \V. 'l'. Morpeth. Esq.. Hokitika.) Probably mo subject has exercised the public mind during the last lilts 01 siMv veal's so much as that developmint of modei'M thought called soeitil,>ni. It may hi' said, paradoxically enough, that no one knows and every one knows just what socialism means. That is to say. the term is not precisely iplined, hut each one interprets it lor himself according to his own personal predilections, and guided hv his

own conception id a perleet condition

ol' soeietv. In the assertion and vindication ol the rights ”1 the vast and

more or less inarticulate majority of the controlled against the powerful controlling torces ol capitalism, (om.merualism. and vested interests, an enormous amount of energy has heon expended. Many scenes have heen enacted, some of them inspiring, some terrible. In the cause of humanity men and women have lived and died. \ oltitnes have heen written, kings have p.-l i dled, thrones have fallen. and the

ordered eun-tituliuti.s of empires have perished in lhe dust. Hut all hough

S!|!:.vt;| 111 in j rtjJlfM-svIOllS JHV IIOIIA tlllh? to lime made upon one side, and corresponding aitilis von on the other, yet sooner or later i In- old order < ntv more t merge*and again asserts itseli. Not so very long ago, many people were convinced Unit life was to le i hanged and the world saved l,y scvoil .ism. and the socialistic idea spread everywhere. Friends alnl tainihes distit"seil il. -.indents studied it. writers criticised it. and political parti.", were divided on its merits. The more enthusiastic adherents oi socialism belirved that it was the great hope of humanity and that by it- agency httinan 1 i 1,■ was to lie Iransformed and the luimau race tralisligured. It only needed a sufficient numher el People to agree and unite, and the thing was done. The miracle would happen Hut there was no miracle, and there neter will He any miratle. lake the constellation Perseus, the roseate visions glowed la ightlv for a tine, untied rapidly, and then lliekerod and died. 1 1 :i true that in the alembic ol social I'm ecs tiie realities of a generous and n.'We eiitiiu-in-in were resolved to their ultimate element,. and it is these realities Unit constitute the foundation of the policy of the English l.ahor Party to-day. Hut the older socialism of the spectacular kind, the socialism that aimed at a divi-nm of property, the socialism. lluit was to reorganise society !.y the elimination i f self and runelion i'i a diumun ! pivot of equality and 1 io!lterl'.iod. is in these days, to all intents and purposes, as dead as (.'tin'll Anne anti as Hal a., a pitm lured

lyre. Ti e i;tide; K ing motive in socialism perhaps, when all is said and done, the most powerful human motive the world has known, is l lie advamenient and elevation of the social stale ol humanity, the aneeliorati nol social ; auditions, and the 11 :: ri lien I ion of gover imi'iit - the vocal expression, as it were, mil nuiterial in orperation into human affairs, of those deep spiritual aspirations which are mysteriously interwoven with our mimics. Ilia meiit and tl.e silent moulders of human destiny. Now there is no dili’erenre of opinion so far as the nhie, i |<> he attr.ineil is roiiceri'.co, hut all the difference in tbe : world as to i!m means of attainment. 1 Nolal'io . ,t• i•. arc on record of mom | niov.'il he a uahle outhusiion’., having ; "T.'aliy strip.: ad themselves ol their : po; le.isi ns am! given all to the poor. ; M ny mdda rtf.:l'liiei'. have l-ceit in the Si"! I, nil I i: t cams < lour. I rum a ,-.l inly : of tie ir eiforts. that they have lieeii j o.ii'.ina'il I ImL ilia I'.reli enemy ol litiniI an happiness is the pov.'oi Ini niotiva of j solf-inl crest, and that the first slop io ■ ha tal:'u in th" reorganisation of suo--1 iel.v i- to i.r ulnaie the motive. 1 !'ol, >; Dwell. Ihe lonilder oi Fnglisli so.-i.il: - ; a. established a a miu'liniy of savaral hmulred members at New Harmony, in Indiana. America. The memhers were housed in one large I building in the form of a square. The j various fa.ii!lie.-, had private apartm‘ills, hut meals were taken in public ill large hi tokens. After the age of 1 til roe, the ihiidren wale io he brought jup hy the i onumunitv. l.ahor was I supervised hy duly ipmliliad parsons, and the nrolits of id! an n i tdi Ua! a aii'a.iii-

atod. ami in two years’ time ih” while j iiuderfaking coihpmcd. Kiciii time to lime similar cx| .'laments have been ‘ made. .Most l.avc failed, and in the rej maimler sums, has been partial am! j incomplete. | The failure of these efforts to eradij rate ami destroy the principle oi self- | Interest need cause no prise, v, lmlj ever disappointment tliev may have occasioned Lo their promoters. As litim- ! unity is constituted, self-interest is | -eircly i in- primary motive. the : 1 11 - I powerful incentive in the struggle lor j existence. Whatever Modifications of j the naked primp!;- may l.e. and arc. ultimately produced by the developmeiit ol a higher ethical consciousness end cultivation of the sense of beauty, there would he no progress worth the nan"’ either in iudiiidual or race. if the principle of selt-iutercsl were stilled red smothered. The spirit of emulation and compelition is humid up with ’sell-interest, and sell-interest is one wire the struggle to live. What else hit< emulation and competition animates ihe child at play, the hoy at school, I he lad in his office, the soldier, sailor, doctor, lawyer, or engineer in his prolession. Ihe merchant in hi- calling and the scholar at his desk!- Deprive all tl’.o '■ who work that they may live, of the lure ol achievement, the incentive to advancement, and what progress would he made:- Would not the experience of Xew Harmony ultimately become the tragic experience of the

j But. it will lie asked, what will ho tli” ethical progress of mail. and what is to lie the destiny of the inarticulate ) I majority we have referred to. if selfish 5 j iiiuhit ion it 1 ill soll-aggramlisomeiit tiro ij j io he restrained:- l.et us consider. 'j In its annual journey round the sun. ’j two mighty opposing fortes maintain jj the earth upon which we live in what l j ts calletl a condition of stable equilii I 1 1 riurn.. Th”se are called centripetal and 1 j centrifugal force. The tendency of the I first named is to draw otir planet to | the sun, that of the other pi cause ii | to fly off at a tangent at right angles j to the radius of its orbit. Suspend I centripetal force, and the earth would i instantly dart, off into uttermost space. | Suspend oontriiugal loree. ami it would 1 fly straight to the sun. blit by the | harmonious blending of these two stuj peudoiis forms of energy, the earth lias I swung for thousands of years in a j majestic rhythm around its solar centre, I balanced with u mathematical precision which justly excites our proloumlost wonder, awe ami admiration. Xow if we turn our attention elsewhere we find an expression of this, so to speak I primary duality, this combination of opj positos. union of opposing or apparently onposin r and opposite things or j forces, wherever wo look, so that we are compelled to recognise in this duality, or polarity, a fundamental order, law or condition of existence and an all-embracing natural phenomenon, i What is called vitreous electricity, for < instance, may he produced in certain i substances, such as glass, precious 1 stones, hair of animals, and wool, while i resinous electricity is excited : in amber, gum-lac. silk ami other sub- t stances. Xow a body with vitreous el- < eetritv attracts all bodies with resinu- t t

oils electricity and repels all bodies with vi l ret tint eleetrieity, while a body with resinous eleetrieity nttrncts all bodies with vitreous electricity, and repels all bodies with resinous eleetrieity. This discovery was made by Dufay early in the eighteenth century and was later elaborated by Franklin in his theory of

positive and negative eleetrieity. This idea of “ polarity " : this law ol contrasts and opposities. is admirably developed hy Samuel i.aing in chapters H and IX of his fascinating work "A Modern Zoroa.strian” in which the author shows that polarity exists in both the- organic and inorganic worlds. The magnet, lie says, “is a special manifestation of the more general principles of polarity, by which energy when it passes from the passive, or neutralised into the active state, does so under the condition of develop

ing opposite and conllieting energies; no action without a reaction, no positive without a negative.’’ lie shows the polarity of plant and animal, the plant breathing in carbonic dioxide and exhaling oxygen, and the animal inhaling the oxygon in the :ir and breathing out carbonic dioxide, and

in an n't tractive manner peculiarly bis own, this gilled writer investigates and establishes the various ) ol- ;• jitii-s of life, sex, matter, heredity and variation. In chapter VI lie ipioie Herbert Spenter as follows: - ".\s from antagonist physical torces as from antagonist emotions in each loan. :> from the antagonist social tend "it i.-- man's emotions create. H ere ai.'.avs results not a medium stale, hnl. a rhythm between opposite states. The one lone or tendency is not continuously counterbalanced by the other force or tendency, but present!'.- I.v reaction there conic- a pro pomlciame of the other.'' The more obvious and familiar dualities are all around us. The earth i n which we live (im.xils of laud and water. The human family and the animal kingdom cons.st ol male and female. Man has two hands. two arms, two leg, and feet, two ears, eves, and nostrils. In our blood the red and whit" corpuscles are in cease-

less eonlli. t. Day passes into night, light to darkness. We are asleep or awake. We have rich and poor, p.-otid and humble, the wise and the foolish, winter and .summer, heat and cold, s' irit and matter, ebb and Mow. illation and ret. love and bate, life and death.

gtiice the law rr condition el dual ity obtains in the celestial and ter r> Trial worlds, in organic and inor-

ganic matter, in our physical bi.dtc: and mental state, is it mil reasonable

to assume that it should be incorporated into onr family, social and publie. and national lives. With a!

nature lor our guide, it would be strange indeed il it were otherwise, and we are inductively hound to ad mil Hi' assumption, while deductive, proof ol it-- validity is furnished by the failure of such ex|n trimcnls as Hubert Owen's at New Harmony, and liv the failure of every attempt to exclude from uiir lives the operation of one of nature's lawn. Taking lor granted then, that tlur principle of duality should exist in a properly constituted social system and assuming that il is established that the principle or motive nt selfinterest is essential to human progress. it remains Imt to enquire wind is the principle complementary to selfinterest. The answer J-s clear. 'lie (■.■ ml le!ii"!,i:'i'v I'rill iple can he non: Horn --it acme:' and v. c have here if ibis chain <>f reasonin'! which il has been our endeavour la iraei' amounts to anything a standard liasjs or guide of conduct in all our S.. ial. public, national ami iulernuiiou T relati, n-. A judicious blening of those two a; pa rout ly o'.no-ing noli',"-, sell-ini crest and scltloliee. will provide alike tor relit ideal and national progress and i.dvnic . ii. a ml for t hat higher el hi "a i ami spiritual development which minis!, " , to til" ,-en. e ol i i-aaty and d"-'rr for perfect ion which i a lie res in buman initiire. the gratification of which alone producer abiding Impolite- m While acts of Kfl l'-saeri lice have ever exercised and will continue to excite our highest admiration, it cannot be said that sacrifice a principle admit tail as a \ i i vile or public duly, but until il is admitted the world will know no peace, but will 'oniimi'-

to I.c in a condition of endless turmoil. ! t hiiil. ii i.- Il.iij.imin Kidd "ho says that lha t until n v. liicli lias le: rir.nl the lesson ol the w ill to sh nliic. will have world dominion. World dominion as an aim and lor its own

,akc. is a vain delusion, and any nation that seeks it. come it assuredly will nci. To some nation, however, some day, it will conic, hut not as an a'i.ici cinent, rather as an inheritance. A glorious inlieri i a nee. it is true, hut one charged with the heavy burden ipul respoii'sihility of establishing and

maintaining pome, instil <* and riglit-cou.-ncss on earth, am! for that great and glorious work that particular nation will lie the Divinely chosen and aj pointed instrument. May it not lie that the will to sacrifice is the real message of Calvary ? The question may well he pondered by thoughtful men and women, and w pen wo consider the condition of chnas in the world to-day. surely there is some warrant for it. With

the experience of the age before our eyes, and with the warrant of ihe Divine Passion and its culmination on

the Cress, is it not time to that sacr : - fiee as a duty and principle should he admitted into our lives and he given an honored place in our homo.'!, schools, and universities, in our pub-

lic life, in our parliaments, in our national (ounsels and international politics:- Priceless, indeed as the in(lnonce of the Church has been in the

servin' of humanity, a means of grave and a pioneer and forerunner of civilisation, patient, long-suffering. enduring much, is it possible that modern indifference anti empty pews are due to the omission of some essential principle in it, teachings, and that the remedy may ho found in a more urgent and vital demand on personal duty:-' The self-regarding instincts may he safely left to look after themselves. Man is compounded of matter and spirit, and it means no sublime j sacrifice, no glorious avatar to fashion and mould our material and self-re-garding instincts and impulses. Herbert Spencer lays it down that a coinpromise between egotism, and altruism the religion of amity and the religion of enmity, is the ideal state. Tt is a far cry to perfection, hut the first step is to shape our course, and ascertain as best we may the direction of the route along which we propose to travel. Sufficient has been said to indicate what I believe to he inevitable and indispensable condition to social reorganisation and reconstruction. That j condition is the union of the will to sacrifice with the most thorough process of sell-determination and developnenf of the self-regarding interests. Ptil the recognition that the sane and tractieal adjustments of these two oxrciue- is a paramount public duty, hilly after years, nay generations >f effort, "ill the harmonious tend- , ‘niies he approximately compassed. )nre this great duty is recognised. ; lowever, a beginning "ill have been nade. and its performance, halting j ml difficult and discouraging ns at i .rst it will he. will become imper- 1 eptihly easier of accomplisment as i he years go by. and as time and ex- ;

perienre vindicate and justify it. Old diftit liltieix and perplexities will pass away. New values will appear and new solutions of eld problems will he found.

It will be many, many generations before the social organism will function in perfect harmony, if indeed it ever will, but there is not reason why it should not approximate to Unit ideal state. If the nations of this war-ravaged earth would combine with that end in view the uTm could Ik: accomplished in two or three generations, and mankind could then look forward to a day when a now awakening and a new peace, touched and transfigured with a Divine radiance. will he the noble heritage of the Human race.