Pickering College - Voyageur Yearbook (Newmarket, Ontario Canada)

Page 24 text:

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

Page 23 text:

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

Page 25 text:

reality, in a society which staunchly affirms that it is a Christian society, re- placed religion, and money has become man's God. As well as being ruthless, the pursuit of wealth is also a thing which allows no time for love of anything other than wealth. And this is the worst feature of it. It makes of men hollow shells who can appreciate nothing. They can have no love of beauty, art, ideas, culture, and most important of all, theif fellow man, because the business of making money becomes and must become so all- engrossing. I realize that all these things which I have just mentioned are abstract terms which regularly get the hell kicked out of them, but despite their abstract quality, they are, I think, things without which no one can have a life with any meaning. The man who looks at a sunset, and feels no thrill or sense of awe or humbleness, but sees it merely as a large blob, all of the colour of gold pieces, has little, I maintain, which makes his life worthwhile. Yet men whose lives are solely concerned with the acquisition of things, almost of neces- sity have no time to regard a sunset or a piece of music or a work of art as anything else, if indeed they have time to regard them at all. There may be exceptions but they are few and far between. The point I am trying to make is this-that the main concern of man today is getting things for himself, and that this is essentially a selfish individual business which rules out most of the things that are fine on the planet. This in turn means that a whole selfish society is created in which each man watches out only for his own interests, no matter who is hurt in the process. In such a society it is, of course, inevitable that all kinds of conflicts arise between men, and translated to an international scale, these result in major wars .... This then, is the kind of world into which we are going-a selfish world, hang- ing because of its very nature, always on the verge of war, in which we must look out for ourselves from the word 'go' or get trampled. Now this is not the sort of conditioning which we have had in this school. Here, we help each other to a fair extent. If you're out of a cigarette and someone else has lots, you ex- pect him to give you one, or he's a shmoe, and he usually comes through, I think. And this is the major pattern of life in this school. You have had. all in all, with varying degrees of success, a fair training in helping the other 'guy' out. You have sat in these seats for some twenty odd chapels at least, and read off glowing phrases like 'transmitting this city better than it was transmittedf or 'the good life shared by all', or 'the second mile', or 'Ending our welfare in the general good', and so on. And now you're going into the world. I wonder how much some of these things will mean to you after a few years in the world. I wonder how many of you will still be concerned with going that second mile or sharing the good life. I also wonder how many of you will simply, as soon as you leave the school, slip into the selfish way of society. and rush into the rat-race for the big pot of gold: and then, once every couple of years. sitting Th fr! mfr: