Men Becoming Minders of Machines

Radio Record, Volume VII, Issue 7, 25 August 1933, Page 46

Men Becoming Minders of Machines

In Their Leisure Hours Seek Relaxation inEasiest Ways- "Confusion Outstanding Trait."

B® of the greatest problems confronting society to-day is the manner in which increased leisure hours are employed. With the mechanisation of industry and agriculture, men and. women are increasingly becoming minders of.machines, Their whole mental powers are centred, for eight hours _of each working day, upon the speed of the machine and its mechanism, This kind of employment does not induce to mental effort or encourage the creative impulse, but it rather acts as a kind of anaesthetic to the mental processes. ‘Consequently when the worker is free to-choose how his time should be occupied, he-is, in most cases, unable to call into play his innate mental powers or creative instincts. He therefore seeks for relaxation in the most easy and exciting ways, . s & * TPHIS use of leisure hours simply incites the passions while the intellectual powers are starved for want of ‘nourishment. The progress or improvement of social life is thereby impeded because the need for improvement is not realised in the minds of the majority of the people. The primary need of any community to-day is a stimulant which would encourage an appreciation of the pleasures and joys that arise from mental activity or intellectual effort. ; ¢ 2 [sy the past.these creative powers were called into being largely to over‘eome the material needs of the human ‘being. That is, man could not live without applying strength and thought to his natural environment, "Individually and collectively," stated Dorothy Camfield Fisher, ‘men have always degenerated and gone to pieces when the old needs for material effort were takea away and no other spurs to activity were substituted for them." Turning a faucet instead of walking half a mile to a river to dip up a pailful of water, and carry it back step by step to our homes-this is the sort of change that has always pushed untrained, uneducated human beings, living mostly on the physical plane into invalidism. moral and physical. = e e \IM® after time, some portion of the . human race, having worked itself dnto a situation in which the material obstacles to be overcome were lessened or removed, has failed to perceive the thronging obstacles that beget the inner life, and has gone to pieces, or reverted to old primitive conditions in whicb men could survive without training We have come to a situation in-which only’ trained and educated human beings will be able to live healthful lives Af OHN- DEWEY, the great American _ thinker, stated quite recently, "The intellectual function of trouble is‘to lead men to think. -The depres sion is-n small price to pay if it in‘duces’ us. to think about the cause of the disorder. confusion and insecurity

which are the outstanding traits of our social life" By these words John Dewey has indicated a stimulus which should incite men and women to use their intellectual powers. The facilities for the exercise of these powers are provided by the Adult Education Movement in every country The W.H.A. in this country has placed a wide curriculum before the public, and the particular mental interests of any person are catered for, me % x O encourage the study of Psychology " or the processes that build up the mental life of the individual the lecin) --]

tures broadcast this month from the Canterbury centre deal with this sub ject. % * * "THE following is a brief summary of the lectures to be given on Friday, August 25, and Friday, September 1:EMOTIONAL MAL-ADJUSTMENTS Friday. August 25. Conflict: Mind made up of a number of sentiments and complexes more or

less individualised-may not harmonise with one another, e.g., Conflict. -with reality-demands of real life too painful for neurotic person to meet; objection to authority; conflict between instincts and emotions or sentiments. Moral Conflicts: Between a pair of instinctive impulses, opposed and equally matched. How is the conflict resolved? (1) If no reserve force behind either impulse, the stronger wins; (2) If one is strengthened by powerful sentiment, it wins; (83) No solutionpushed below surface and is a danger to mental life. To fly from temptation is as bad as to yield to it. Face ‘the issue. Modern age lends itself to conflict-innumerous odds and ends of moral and religious systems. . Fundamental Conflicts in Growingup: (1) Developing from self-centred creature to social being; (2). Present pleasure v. future happiness; (3) Being honest with oneself. SOME LARGE-SCALE EMOTIONAL MAL-ADJUSTMENTS. Friday, September 1. Dissociation: A process which experience undergoes when suppressed. The suppressed experience acquires independent activity of its own-con-sciousness cut off from ordinary waking consciousness. Forms in Normal Persons: Dreams, Suppressed abhorrent ideas come to surface in dreams (often modified even here)-Safety valve for undesirable things we have suppressed to the unconscious mind. Abnormal Types: (a) Somnambulisms: One type: Repressed ideas take hold of the person and make him ACT during his sleep, eg., sleep walking scene in "Macbeth." Lady Macbeth can’t completely suppress the memory of her crime and she is forced in sleep to give reign to it. Other type: occurs during waking life-stop ordinary duties, go through certain performance. then take up ordinary duties. where left off. (b) Fugue: Disconnection from environment not so complete as in (a), Person compelled by submerged idea, but reacts to environment in which he finds himself. Hence appears quite natural to observer, e.¢., case of clergyman who for two months became a storekeeper with a. different name and quite in ignorance of his previous life and occupation.. Then suddenly became the cleric again and wondered why he was in a shop-knew nothing about business.. It is an unconscious device to enable these: neuroties to flee from reality, and then to justify this desertion of duty by denying quite truthfully all memory of the escapade.