TALKS ON RUSSIA
J. MALTON
MURRAY
Sir -G.H.D.’s diatribe in your issue of September 3 reveals the doctrinaire mind that is characteristic of those who blindly accept authoritarian attitudes and refuse to allow their minds freedom of action. This is shown in the suggestion that the NZBS knowingly permits itself to be used as a medium for partisan propaganda, and the reference to "liberal" stupidity. I recently came across Lord Acton’s definition of a "liberal" -he is an authority who should impress G.H.D. After saying that by liberty he means "that every man should be protected in doing what he believes his duty, against the influence of authority and majorities, custom and opinion,’ he goes on: "A liberal who thinks his thought out to the end without flinching is forced to certain conclusions which colour to the root every phase and scene of universal history. He believes in upward progress, _ because it is only recent times that have striven deliberately and with zeal according to knowledge, for the increase of security and freedom. He is not only tolerant of error in religion, but is specially indulgent to the less dogmatic forms of Christianity, to the sects which have restricted the churches. He is austere in judging the past, imputing not error and ignorance only, but guilt and crime to those who in the dark succession of ages have resisted and re= tarded the growth of liberty, which he identifies with the cause of morality, and the condition of the reign of the conscience." If the NZBS is under the kiadens of this kind of "liberal stupidity," long may it continue to be so.
(Oamaru).
(Abridged
Ed.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19540917.2.12.2
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 791, 17 September 1954, Page 5
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276TALKS ON RUSSIA New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 791, 17 September 1954, Page 5
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