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The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 5, 1916. THE PROGRESS OF SOCIETY.

What the outcome of the war will be is discussed from many standpoints in I the English newspapers. The Commercial Record says that amongst all serious, thinking people, it is generally that one result will be a marked change in Britain’s political life, so soon as the nation will be in a position to remodel the internal machinery. Tlip formula by which such .supposition is constructed appears that society is, or ought to be, in a state of continuous progress. That is to say, in .whatever respects we differ from our forefathers of two hundred years ago, our descendants two hundred years hence will differ from ns. It would appear easy to suggest any number of cases in which a particular intellectual or social change seemed to be destined to the conquest of the whole earth. Dynasties and doctrines have periods of development, culmination, and decay; and if one selects any part of the ascending period, the simple formula would, of course, imply that' they were destined to unlimited triumph. Arguing on these lines the Record proceeds: “People who attempt to look forward generally forget this obvious teaching of past experience. They assume, for example, as an ultimate and indisputable fact, that we shall continue to become more and more democratic. We do not mean to assert to the contrary, but it is really hard to see on what grounds this doctrine can he confidently maintained. Why should there not come a period at which the democratic forces will, in the vernacular, be played out, and society be reconstructed on some new principle? We seem already in some respects to have got to the bottom of the hill, and it is difficult to sec how we can go much further. When the social surface has been reduced to one deadlevel, is it not probable that a new order of distinctions will begin to make themselves manifest, and that that reconstruction of which we hear so much and see so little will at last become palpable? A new process of crystallisation should follow the complete decomposition; and it would he much more interesting if the creators of fresh Utopias could throw some light upon the new order of things which is to emerge from chaos at some future period, instead of simply tol-

lowing out tho tendencies of the day to what is supposed to he their logical conclusions. There is, alter all, a singular want of imagination about certain persons’ mode of attempting to penetrate the future. As c rule, the information given upon most points is inclined To he very vague, little or nothing being said, for example. as to the predominant form of philosophical or artistic theories which will survive in the struggle for existence.”

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/STEP19160105.2.5

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 25, 5 January 1916, Page 4

Word count
Tapeke kupu
476

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 5, 1916. THE PROGRESS OF SOCIETY. Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 25, 5 January 1916, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 5, 1916. THE PROGRESS OF SOCIETY. Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 25, 5 January 1916, Page 4

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