THE NATION-STATE
Sir-The BBC talk by Mr. Middleton Murry (Listener, May 24), is stale news indeed. It admits in fact that the whole rambling lecture was delivered because "individualism has got to be eradicated." That great idea was a quarter-of-a-cen. tury old when Mussolini and Hitler began carrying it into practice. Socialism got hold of the world, and the miserable individuals began to turn into worms, half-a-century before Mr. M.M.
discovered the astonishing fact that today "one’s centre of gravity is outside oneself." Now Mr. M.M., tells us that the Human Mind, or rather the Mind of the Nation-State, has to jump. The athletics ate necessary because a Mr Adams said so in 1905, and because you and I and all the individuals are not real, are but illusions, and have no power. Only as mefhbers of a Nation. State can they expect to share (7) the
| wars." The coercive socialist organisation obtained plenary power, imposed Planned conomy, kilied competition, and made away with all the individual abilities to act independently. It cut off also all the information. y The initiative in men is no longer tolerated by his Nation-State, and capons a la Middleton Murry are carefully substituted for democratic cocks. The rights and magnae cartae have got to be rooted out in order that Karl Marx’s stupid argument about " the complex of social relations’\ would better pénetrate unopposed, the tabula rasa of listeners’ atten.
tions. It is a pity that Mr. M.M. forgot to mention that the obsolete NationState he talks about is the Nation-State of Hitler’s Germany, which we, incidentally, just happened to destroy. It was there that "the individual person was :
| kind of illusion" and "the reality was the Nation-State." It was there that the National Socialism made all the "mental revolutions" Mr. M.M. recommends. And it was certainly there that the Mind of the Socialist Nation-State had got to jump. Into the Bottomless Pit it duly jumped, once and for ever, as the individualists so very sincerely hope.
A.S.
T.
(Mareretu)_
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19460614.2.15.1
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 364, 14 June 1946, Page 5
Word count
Tapeke kupu
336THE NATION-STATE New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 364, 14 June 1946, Page 5
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Material in this publication is protected by copyright.
Are Media Limited has granted permission to the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa to develop and maintain this content online. You can search, browse, print and download for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Are Media Limited for any other use.
Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
Log in