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Today and Tomorrow

The Americans have a saying that what the University thinks today the nation thinks tomorrow. In New Zealand what the University thinks is of comparative unimportance, not because what we think is unimportant but because it makes so little mark on public opinion.

The American saying is probably trite, but if it is not true either the University students of yesterday have little influence on what the nation thinks, or they have changed their opinions. In New Zealand both these factors operate. The men influencing public opinion at the present time are not those who have received extensive academic education; indeed, many of them boast that they have never been to a University. This is not a reflection on these men, nor on the people who accept them, but it is a reflection, and a grave one, on former University students. Still graver is the pitiful truth that those few University men who are in a position to influence public thought seem to have lost every vestige of idealism, which, in this generation, is a discredited attribute of the very young and the very poor.

Too many University students study for a profession and never look beyond it. They qualify as lawyers, accountants, doctors, architects and so on, and as such they probably fulfil their functions admirably, but they bring no deeper knowledge to bear on the political and social opinions of the world in general than the man who has never seen the inside of a University. This is less true of those who study Arts than of any other faculty, and there are three professions, entered through the Arts course, which have tremendous possibilities.

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They are the teaching profession, journalism, and the church. But the very possibilities of these are their downfall. The organisations that lie behind them are afraid of the power that they can give to the individual, and the teacher's hands are tied by the State, the journalist's by the proprietors of the paper, and the clergyman's by the church. And so, what the University thinks does not matter, for after he leaves college the University student will either be given no opportunity to influence public opinion or he will be given opportunities that are carefully supervised. The idea that any of them might create opportunities for themselves does not cause any concern, for those who have done so in the past have been the exception, and it is only when this becomes the rule that the point of view of an institution is a thing to reckon with.

That the University does think must be apparent to anyone who has any connection with it. During the past year, the outlook of Victoria College has been made very plain through the medium of "Salient," and even before "Salient" emerged from the chrysalis of "Smad" the trend of opinion could have been discovered in debates and extravaganzas.

The political outlook of Victoria College, as revealed through these mediums, is strongly steeped in pacifism and socialism. The University wants peace—not a peace which means merely that we ourselves are not involved in war, but a universal peace with every country in the world working towards an international political ideal; not the peace of politicians, which seems to be "prosperity and security for my country, and God help the rest of the world," but a peace based on the great socialistic ideal of the strong helping the weak and the rich helping the poor. It is a splendid outlook, an idealistic outlook, and if we work towards it we shall injure the capitalist. But the capitalist is not worrying about it. He will pat you on the shoulder and say, "You are young, my boy, you will change your views in a few years." He changed his own views when he was in his early thirties. Why? Was it because age and experience revealed unto him virtues in capitalism, which we in our youth and innocence have overlooked; or was it perhaps because he had acquired a little property, a little standing in the community, a little place in the sun, which he was hanging on to as fiercely as his false teeth would allow him?

It is because of men such as he that socialism has not been the success that its idealism warrants. Socialism depends on strength helping weakness, and it needs support not from those who need the help, but from those who are going to do the helping. We, in a few years, shall be in that category, and if, when that time comes, every student in the college has the unselfishness and the moral courage to hold the same political ideals that he holds today, then what we think is a potential force in the community. Nor in that day will thinking be enough. We must emerge from academic self—sufficiency and act on what we believe. As long as thinking people, who have all they need of page 7 this world's goods, continue to take the line of least resistance, the world will continue to rush headlong into chaos. The future will bring knowledge and experience with which to temper our outlook, but there is, about the ideals we hold, a fundamental truth, a vitality and a lack of bias which we must guard jealously from the destructive hand of time and money.

New Zealand is one of the most highly socialised countries in the world, but it owes little, either of legislation or public thought, to the University. It is a highly socialised country, but it is drifting haphazardly towards an ideal, making mistakes that harm both the country and the cause. For the future all things are possible. What will be achieved we do not know, but whether or not the University plays some part in the achieving depends on us; and if the University plays no part in this, then it is not fulfilling its function in the community, and we, as University students, are grossly abusing our opportunities and privileges.