Ethical balance
Sir: It was rather sad to read an article in the Spectator about 'The New Public Schoolboy' written by the headmaster of a great school who still links idealism with the great causes of the Third World, Conservation and Pacifism. How long will people continue to equate these and apparently fail to put into the other balance a reasonable income level and earning a living?
I should have thought that it is just this kind of thinking which causes young people to believe that it is more worthy to join the social service department and allocate houses, than to join Wimpey's and build them; that it is more worthy to give handouts from other people's taxation than it is to create incomes by working in industry and commerce.
Of course idealism is a crucial factor in the achievement of anything that is good and great. It is good to see, however, that in spite of this a new approach to the idealism necessary to create wealth or worth is beginning to grow in schools. But headmasters of my generation still deep down seem to believe that more goodness is associated with giving things away — that are other people's — than in creating.
John Garnett 'Director The Industrial Society, 3 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1
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