A NEW SOCIAL ORDER NOW

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 118, 26 September 1941, Page 6

A NEW SOCIAL ORDER NOW

The first talk in this ABC series was delivered by G. V. Portus, Professor of Political Science and History, Adelaide University. Here are some of the things he said: HENEVER it is suggested that we ought to be busy trying to blue-print this New Order, people start up and say, "Oh, let us win the war first. Time enough for those things afterwards. We mustn’t do anything to weaken the war effort." I cordially agree, but I protest against the assumption that paying attention to post-war problems now will undermine our war effort. Renovating Society Quite the contrary. We shall strengthen our war effort by planning now to renovate the social order. For we must regard ourselves as fighting not only against Fascism, but also against the conditions that brought Fascism into being. Those conditions lie deep in the political and economic framework of our social. systems, Make no mistake. It is from the ingrained tendencies of these systems that this and the last war came. Did you ever notice that the Nazi movement was practically negligible in Germany until the economic blizzard of 1929 struck Europe? (Continued on next page)

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Did you ever notice that Hitler began to get the willing support of the rank and file in Germany precisely when he began to solve the problem of unemployment? The world conditions of 1920 threw up Mussolini, and these conditions, repeated and intensified 10 years later, threw up Hitler. And now Hitler has to be stopped at all cost, : There were no Fascists or Nazis in 1914 but there was a world war.. And when a generation of human beings finds itself embroiled in world war twice in a lifetime (as this generation has found itself) it can no longer pretend that this fact has nothing to do with its social’ and economic outfit. The root of much of our disinclination to look calmly and critically at our social institutions is fear. Fear for the old allegiances, fear for the old creeds, fear for the old groups. , , They are the things we know-nations, creeds, economic systems, political institutions. In them we have so far found security and to ask us to criticise them with a view, possibly, to discarding them is like a dreadful invitation to get out into the wilderness. We don’t like admitting that we are afraid, so we wrap up our refusal to examine the foundations of our beliefs and habits in fine phrases about the necessity for a 100 per cent. war effort. Freedom and Liberty We are constantly being told, with fervour and vagueness, that we are fighting for freedom or for democracy. The words "freedom" and "liberty " by themselves mean nothing. We want to know what we aré to be free from; what we are to be at liberty to do. Enthusiastic democrats make great play with the slogan "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity." But a society in which men were free to do as they liked would be a society in which the strong would

oppress the weak, and there would be an end of equality, social and economic. On the other hand, every step in the direction of promoting more equality in a society means that there will be a progressive interference with existing liberties. This is the substance of the complaint that many people make about Russia. Obviously liberty and equality are irreconcilable rights. We have to compromise between them. So much liberty at the expense of equality; and so much equality at the expense of liberty. I suggest we should soft-pedal a bit on these vague generalities about freedom, and should rather talk about the specific freedoms which seem to be threatened by the dark philosophy of Fascism. The Right to Livelihood Suppose that eight years ago, in 1933, the year that Hitler came to power, you had met a married man who was on the dole in Australia. And suppose you had solemnly told him that he possessed

these specific rights under the law, and many more besides, and that therefore he should be proud to be living in a country where men had such rights guaranteed to them. It is probable he would have answered sorrowfully, "Perhaps you're right Mister, but I don’t seem to have the right to earn a living." Remember that three out of every ten wage-earners in Australia were unemployed then. You may say to me, "Oh, but that was in the middle of the big depression. Why go raking that up?" I rake it up because depressions are normal recurring phenomena in the present economic order. During the 19th century they came round every 10 years or so as regularly as birthdays. And if we are to have a New Social Order in which, to quote Mr. Churchill, "wealth should not prey upon commonwealth," then one of the things we should be doing now is setting to work to inquire

whether these dreadful alternations of boom and depression cannot be ironed out of the course of trade, and uneme ployment relieved. "Within Our Grasp " The steps we should have to take to ensure the greater equality of opportunity to obtain work may have the effect of curtailing some of our cherished freedom, But even that might not be a national disaster. If it meant that at the same time we should have done something to remove the causes of war, it would be a Godsend, not a disaster. The quickest way for us to win this war would be to win the German people away from National Socialism, and many of them hate it. But to do this we must show them that we have a better plan for them and the world than Hitler has. The key to the future New Order is within our grasp if we choose to take it. And what a destiny for Australia if hers were the hand that turned the key!

"We must show the Germans we have a better plan for them .and the world than Hitler has "- says

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