Heritage of Democracy is in Danger

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 341, 30 April 1928, Page 10

Heritage of Democracy is in Danger

Individualism in the Modern World LEAN OR PUSH? Sir Ernest Benn, author of "The Confessions of a Capitalist,” js con tributing a series of articles on “Individualism in the Modern World” to the London “Daily Telegraph.” In one these he says: We are such poor guardians of the democratic institutions secured for us at the cost of immense effort and sacrifice by our forefathers that the chief use we make of the power to govern ourselves is, day by day, to pass larger and larger slices of that power over to an ever-increasing and ever more oppressive bureaucracy. If the matter were not so serious, there would be a funny side to it, a side not only foolish, but really funny. Think of society as a crowd standing on the pavement of Fleet Street looking at the Lord Mayor’s Show. One bright individual hits upon the idea of getting a soap box and standing on it. Thus he can see bett€:r than the rest of the crowd. That is a good and sensible notion from his point of view. But presently everybody gets a soap-box—and each box is labelled “work or maintenance,” “right to live,” “insurance,” “grant in aid,” “subsidy,” “safeguard,” “tariff,” “dole,” “pension,” or “guarantee,” and the only result is that the whole crowd of which society is composed, instead of standing upon the firm foundation of Mother Earth, is balancing upon a flimsy basis of soap-boxes which must in time collapse. Our “Soap-Box Policy” We pour out the national income to carry out what I may call the soapbox policy until we arrive at an expenditure of £3a week a family—that being the sum that week by week comes out of the public purse. What, then, is the remedy? How can we restore purity to democratic government and free the individual from bureaucratic oppression? I be-

lieve that it is time to think matters over again, to examine carefully rhe policy of Individualism, ih© policy which once put Britain and the British in a position rather higher than that of any other country or any oiher j people during the time that it was in operation. Reference has been made to the disquieting fact that Britain has now to accept a second position from the point of view of the subsistence of the people. The United States of America is a stronghold of Individualism, in the economic sphere: and \meric i has produced a standard of living tar ahead of anything that we nave been able to do in Britain. That differ ence needs to be brought out by inviting a broad comparison of Britain and America. John Bull and Uncle Sam Imagine those two old gentlemen. John Bull and Uncle Sam. each addressing his worker son. What they are saying to-day is, I think, something like this: John Bull: You are a good follow, do the best you can; don't kill yourself at it. You were not made for work: a happy life is what you came here for. If you find things too hard for you, there is an insurance fund and a dole and an old-age pension at your service. If at all times our arrangements for your well-being and comfort do not in every way meet with your approval, you can rely on the Government, or the universities, or the trade unions, or some other highly intellectual body of oersons to devise new means for your perfect comfort. So much for John Bull. What is Uncle Sam’s advice? Uncle Sam: You are a man you are as good as any other man. anything w r hich any other man can to you can do if you will try. Life is not a bed of roses: it is a struggle with the forces of Nature. The world depends upon work, effort, and endeavour oil your part, and on the part of everybody else. If you succeed you help to lift others up; if von fail you help to push others down. So get out and get on. and be quick about .t. and. above all, remember that you are an American citizen and that America is destined to lead mankind. Examination must lead to the conclusion that the whole force of public opinion in Britain is directed to teaching our people to lean, whereas on the other side of the Atlantic the whole force of public opinion is directed to encouraging the people to push. That

is. in a single sentence, the difference ' between the Individualist and the Col lectivist conceptions of the State, and from our point of view it is a very dangerous difference. We plead for a return to the Indi vidualist point of view. We should concentrate our thoughts on men and women as individuals, realising tna: each one of them represents a piece of God’s best work, and that the task \ before us is to give them a chanrf to do their own best work in the world.