Pickering College - Voyageur Yearbook (Newmarket, Ontario Canada)

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An Address Given in Chapel May the Gizoiiciz Mctfowixx ONIGHT is the ninth of May, 1948. This date is signihcant for me for two reasons, both of which may seem to you a little far fetched, but which, in the press of trying to think of something to say to you, came to my mind rather readily. ' The first of these is simply this-that in approximately one month, many of you will be leaving this school to go into the world, after spending any- where from one, to six or seven years here. The life here has, I think, been comfortable. It has also been secure, as well as very highly organized within the school. There is in this organization and security, I think, a tendency for the life to become self-centred, and to be lived more and more only in terms of the school itself. There is a tendency to ignore the world outside, and to forget that it is not a particularly secure or comfortable or organized place, and to concentrate most of our attentions on being super-critical of every aspect of the institution in which we live, forgetting what a privileged existence it really is. We tend to be unconscious of the town here, except insofar as its main street serves our needs. We are unaware of most of its people, and the way in which they live. Now, there are attempts made in this school to keep us conscious of the external world, through chapel, and guest speakers, and so on, and these things have some results, such as the relief meal program. IVe do too, some- times leave our semi-hothouse existence, and make brief sorties into the real world, but I think these tend too often to lose their analytical value, because the world is seen more through the eyes of a group of the boys out for a big time at the Palais, than through a clear, critical vision. The picture which we get, then, of the real world, is distorted. We donlt see it as it really is. At any rate, my point is that though some attempts are made to remedy it. we do remain reasonably unaware of the world outside this school. and what its nature really is . . . Yet many of us are going into this real world. and very soon. What sort of things can we expect to find, then, and how will they affect us? I mentioned in beginning that this date 3 iiil Iay ninth has two significances for me, the first of which Ilve already talked about. The second significance is this -that it was just about three years ago today that much of the world celebrated the end of the war in Europe. This was a war which, if we can believe the posters and the catchwords and the Atlantic Charter, was fought for equality. world peace, lasting peace, freedom from want, freedom from fear and so on. Elczwf

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Intermission Conversation Piece HUGH DAVIDSON Not that! But I would like some Brahms. It should be like poetry. It does not charm me to hear Strident against my rather sensitive ears, Blasting, coursing as it scrambles madly Through the blear-filled ignorance of concert halls. In fact, not at all I Am I pleased to hear modern music. -these mad Russians! Now where was it? The other day I thought I heard a man say That not only their art, but also their music Is that of a fine upstanding race, And that American Art is backward, Bourgeois and uncultured. He was one of these unfortunate men who write Anthologies And Apologies on modern music- Oh yes, the symphony- No my dear, I know that many people consider him a purist, And though he is a great friend of yours I really cannot bear to hear it again. Oh, but no! I'm not a pedantic- But stuff like that makes me sick, You know, this . . . modern music. is the Day ENRIQUE AGUAYO EAH, quite a day it is. A day that differs from others only in so far as we are living it. Yesterday is in the past-5 tomorrow is in the future. We have no conception of what tomorrow will be like, and we think we know what yes- terday was like. The important thing is that we live at this moment, and living this moment we burn a little more off our life. This shall continue until our end, and our end will come with the end of the universe. Yeah, this is the day, the hour, the minute, the second that palpitates by without halting, without falter- ing, always forward, and never past or future, but present always. Ten

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Yet the first thing we must notice about the world today is that few of these things seem to exist. Indeed they look as far away as ever. The second thing is that it seems very doubtful that the nations of the world really want any of these things for which they were supposed to have fought-certainly I find it very diflicult to believe that any of them want these things badly enough to sacrifice one iota of their self-interest for them. Indeed, the pattern which is forming day by day now, would seem to differ very little from the pattern which followed the first world war. If this is true, we can reasonably assume that in a matter of some months or years, we shall have another war on our hands. To me this i-s a rather terrifying thought. I am not particularly concerned by the fact that the atom bomb would be used in this war and that it is extremely destructive. Indeed, I believe that if the human race can allow another war now, then it is high time for the race to exterminate itself, and not much will be lost. But the idea that another war can even be contemplated so soon, and more, that there is ultimately so little to choose between the opposing forces in that war, is, to me, quite terrible . . . However, this is the kind of world into which we are going-ruled by mutual mistrust, hatreds, and jealousies, all of which are rather petty. Why is it, though, that this should be? Why should this be the kind of society which, aware of it or unaware of it, we have inherited? To answer this question I think we must look for a moment at the moral state of our society. Let's examine briefly this morality, or the lack of it. I'm not asking you to consider the trifling, so-called moral issues of the number of illegitimate children born in a given year, or the excessive amount of liquor consumed last month. These things are simply results, I think, of something far greater, of one fundamental moral lack in our society-a lack of what I will call, for want of a better name, generosity or love, or if you like, of an overabundance of selfishness. Almost since societyls inception, man has concerned himself with getting power for himself. At one time, this power was measured by the number of cattle he possessed, later by the amount of land he owned, and for the last two hundred years, power has been synonymous with money, and man has been primarily concerned with getting more and more money. This is, of course, essentially a ruthless business which leads finally to the 'every man for himself' and the 'survival of the fittest' attitudes, not to mention starvation, greed, ex- ploitation. In other words it creates a selfish society in which most men spend most of their time in thinking solely of themselves, and in trying to acquire for themselves more and more money and more and more things. Money, then, has become the main motivating feature of society, the thing without which nothing can be done and the measuring rod of success and failure. It has, in Twelve