SEARCH FOR TRUTH

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 16 October 1942, Page 1

SEARCH FOR TRUTH

NECESSITY FOR DEMOCRACY ITS SPIRIT THROUGH THE AGES ROTARY CLUB ADDRESS A suggestion that a desire for knowledge. a general grasping after truth fo< its own sake was one of the first -ten in tho formation of a working demos racy, was made by Mr L Robert, oi when addressing the Nelson RotarClub yesterday on 'Sidelight* on D« mocracy Through the Age.-. After describing Rome’s transition , from a republic to an empire and poin - ing out the harmful effects. Mr Robert son said that the people had been led astray by the specious falsehood that autocracy was a short cut to efficient-:. , There were no short cuts in human de velopment. he added. It would appear iof conduct rather than a form of Go. - ernnient. It must stand or fall according las the individuals comprising the Stale lived up to their responsibilities or otherwise. The speaker suggested that autocracy aimed, by enclosing fault.' units m a rigid framework, to ?et up : an imposing and lasting structure. De : mocracy attempted by a more thorough. ! but necessarily slower process.- to improve the units which went to make in the structure. Eventually the civilisation of Rome fell before a more virile ' though less orderly type. "THE DARK AGES” The expression “The Dark Ages” probably arose through a lack of knowledge but investigation showed virile nations, ready and eager for the up- | ward drive of the Renaissance. About i this time there was evidence that long | searching after truth was beginning to j show results.. A little later a club or I coterie of eminent men held weekly | meetings, with momentous results—no : less in fact than the formation of one iof the most powerful and learned so eieties in the world, the Royal Society. It was possibly a cynical comment on the accepted reading of history that i this and other literal movements took | place during the reign of kings w hom all had been taught to regard as sym- ! bols of tyranny. The permanence of democracy must ultimately rest on the qualities of the individual, and unless or until the higher qualities m mankind were de veloped democracy could not function. Society could exist without freedom, but it could not exist without orde*.. Disillusioned people see in tutelage the only alternative to anarchy. Diclatoi ship might vest in an individual or a group. And if the latter, how thin whs the boundary between tutelage and freedom? Where was the bounding line between those forms of government which were desirable and those which were undesirable’.' It seems that the first steps in a solution must consist in a diligent search for abstract truth. AIM OF EDUCATION Education must be either liberal or propagandist. Totalitarianism placed the State paramount. It emphasised not the rights but the duties of the individual Germany was the first country to establish universal and free education, for in the era following the Napoleonic wars she realised that a standardised education alone could unite her member States and achieve unity. Other countries had followed suit. But in very many cases the State had furnished the goal as well es the means of education, causing a tendency to discipline rather than development. Education in these cases was for the preservation ol a type rather than the development of the individual or race. And the driving force to attain this end had unfortunately. wdth the possible exception of the English-speaking peoples, been fear. Now fear was one of the most powerful disruptive forces known to man. Fear wrote some of the blackest pages in our own history. It underlay the excesses of the French Revolution. It drove the Russian people to some of the most hideous atrocities ever known to humanity. Fear, when it was fully grown, brought forth war. Fear was largely based on ignorance. Had democracy an answer? That was a crucial question, but unless it could be answered the outlook was indeed dark. He believed that as a nation we de sired to extend our knowledge, and he suggested that a desire for knowledge, a general grasping of truth for its own sake, was one of the first steps in the formation of a working democracy. “For democracy does encourage the formation of judgment after careful discrimination. It allows clear thinking, and the development of individual talent. The spirit of research is vital, hopeful, friendly., It Ls a spirit which should permeate all our faculties. It knows not fear. The explorer, the chemist, the physician, the research worker in whatever field, carries out his investigation in the spirit which says, Though he slay me, yet will I follow.’ Such a spirit postulates and guarantees the continu'd improvement of the race.” he concluded.