THE VOICE OF UNDER THIRTY-MI
[This, the concluding article of this series, is by an Oxford graduate, a Doctor of Philosophy, aged 27. It will be followed next week by " Over Eighty on Under Thirty," by H. IV. Ncvinson] IWAS talking recently with a friend -of the condition of rural England. It was a depressing story. Dwindling population, a village of greybeards, bad housing, corporate spirit dying out and an empty Church. The same day I saw a crowd of angry and frightened Londoners hustling, and being hustled by, the police at a political demonstration. Neither of these two pictures, perhaps, is entirely typical of conditions in countryside and town in Britain, but they stand out in my mind, and cause me great misgivings.
My fear for the England to which, as an " Under Thirty " I am heir, is not a fear of war or dictatorship, but of slow disintegration by the negative forces which are at work in the heart of the country. My friend's story of the English village, and the riot in London, are evidences of these forces. But they are not the real danger. They are the symptoms. They show the tragic failure of my generation to create, to have rich constructive convictions—in a word, to be positive. For behind the symptoms in the country, and the restlessness of my generation, lies a negative attitude towards life. Our convictions express themselves negatively. We do not know what we are for, but we know what we are against. And there it ends. We are anti-war without knowing how to create peace. We are anti-dictatorship without being able to breathe fresh life into democracy. Many of us are reaching that refined state of disillusionment at which all enthusiasm— unless it be for Soviet Russia—is considered fanaticism, and at which to be impartial one has to find fault, and to be a critic one must always blame. That way lies bitterness, and the disintegration of home and nation.
Besides the negativity of youth, there is also our selfish- ness, which springs from the same root. For the philosophy of " getting " upon which my generation is concentrating all its hopes, is a barren and negative thing compared with the rich positivity of a philosophy of life based on " giving." The demand for rights which is nearing flood force in this generation, as witness the struggles of Capital and Labour in America, has captured the imaginations of many of the young men who fill the Left Wing organisations in our Universities and elsewhere. It has given them a spurious sense of solidarity and of purpose in life—spurious, because to demand rights continually from life, whether for oneself )r for others, means to create. in the long run only bitterness and dissatisfaction, and to substitute class-warfare and war between " interests "for war between the nations. A philo- sophy of rights needs to be embedded in and balanced by a sense of responsibility if it is to become a constructive force in the world. As I heard a Trades Union official say recently, " I have realised that my demand for better conditions and wages for the men is only valid if I recognise the responsibility which that demand lays upon me of provid- ing the employers with good workers in return for the good conditions."
This philosophy of " give " and of responsibility suffers today in comparison with the militant efforts of the philo- sophy of " get " because it has not been presented in such a way as to grip the imaginations of youth. Yet the vehicle for such a presentation lies right to hand. That vehicle is a positive patriotism. It is the idea whose time has come.
Youth today is hungry for a positive patriotism, for a philosophy of nation and citizenship. But here we face an immediate problem. Patriotism is debunked, finished, dead, out of date, what you will—but definitely debunked. That is part of the barrenness of the average young man and woman's existence today. They have no vivid, colourful framework of the community into which they can build their lives. This is where the extremists of today build on the moral defeats of yesterday. The selfishness of one generation breeds the resentment and violence of its successor. The moral indulgence of the fathers leads to the decadence and decay'of the sons. So it is with the nation. The patriotism of the jingoist has bred in our generation the militant pacifism of the sentimentalist. Patriotism has been so debunked that we have nothing left—baby and bathwater have both gone. That has left a generation open to the sinister persuasion that party and class are all that matter, and those forces which are interested in cutting the root that holds the youth of today to the nation of tomorrow, are doing their work well in Britain.
What is then this positive patriotism ? How can I serve my country in an age in which everyone insists that the only end of life is to serve myself, and serve myself as liberally and as often as possible ? The first great task which this positive patriotism must and will accomplish is the substi- tution on a world scale, through the initiative of first one State, then another, of the philosophy of " give " for the philosophy of " get." This may seem an enormous, superhuman task. But Edison succeeded in bringing an undreamt of illumination and radiance into material life in a very few years, because conditions were right for it. The world is ready today for a new illumination of the mind end spirit, and this positive patriotism is a spiritual thing having its roots in a Christian world order. Only a great faith in God can build a great community. Communism would build a world order on a philosophy of " get " and of class antagonism ; it preaches a material ideal, attractive only in anticipation, and increasingly less satisfying in attainment. The positive patriotism, based on " give," and on personal and national responsibility, gains strength as it approaches its goal, because its fruits are so manifold and satisfying to the whole nature of the individual and the community. The first nation to be captured wholly by this positive patriotism will be a benefactor such as the world has never known. As a recent leading article in The Spectator says, " If somehow two nations, particularly two antagonistic nations, could be persuaded that each was seeking not alone its own good but the other's good as well, and would prove its goodwill in such tangible forms as tariff revision, the face of the world would rapidly be changed."
" If somehow . ." That is the question—how are we to bring about this longed-for state of things ? The battle for the nation's soul, for the world's future, is joined in our generation. The tragedy is that too few people realise the disciplined action that is necessary if this battle is to be won. It demands a strategy and a bold conviction to counter and defeat the brilliantly successful strategy of the negative forces in every country today. Much can be learnt from these forces. They foster all that is disaffected and that divides ; they encourage decay and the dissipation of the nation's energies. The positive forces must build on all that unites—on marriage, family and home, on loyalty to country and to all convictions and activity that build bridges between class and class and between nation and nation. But this is not enough. The positive forces must work fast with the masses of individuals composing the public opinion of nations. They must be swung from following the false gods of materialism to the living faith of a nation dedicated to the service of the family of nations. Such a nation will be at peace within herself, and a peacemaker in the international family.
This is no Utopian dream. A national responsibility expressing itself for neighbouring countries is beginning to make itself felt. Anyone who is informed about the activity of the Oxford Group knows of many significant examples. The time is ripe, and this positive patriotism can spread like a prairie fire if it receives adequate co-operation from statesmen and the organs of public opinion. In finding its place in God's ,positive Plan for the world, youth, naturally the most positive of all forces, will find its vocation and the nations their destiny.
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