Dearborn independent. [volume], October 15, 1921, Page 5, Image 5

About Dearborn independent. [volume] (Dearborn, Mich.) 1901-1927

Image provided by: Central Michigan University, Clark Historical Library

                
tE
MIS DUttOOQ, HHDSIPlSMDlENir
THE human race is not a brotherhood as yet. It may become
so at some future time, but it is not so now. For one thing
there is no sentiment of brotherhood throughout the world
For another thing, there is a very strong and well-established senti
ment of stranger-hood, which education, civilization, contact and
understanding have been powerless to diminish.
We so commonly accept as possible facts, the things that we
wish to be true, that it was once our habit to say that if the people,
of the world only understood each other, the reign of perfect amity
would arrive. But there is no lack of suggestion that, in some
cases, the better some of the peoples understand each other, the
more they dislike each other.
It is not so very different in individual matters: we accept the
majority of people because we do not know them ; the majority of
those we avoid are the ones whom we know.
If it be true that there are in the world two or more opposite
and antagonistic elements which can never be reconciled without
doing violence to the very nature of
things, then it follows that until the su
perior element arrives at mastery and
the inferior element is disposed of, such
a thing as unity is not to be thought of.
Our present times are times of break
up. Many people stand aghast at the
opening seams which appear throughout
society. There are rips and fissures where
apparently all was cemented into a solid
whole. "What docs it all mean?" the
people cry in their anxiety. It simply
means that where we thought there was
unity, there was no unity at all it was
all veneer ; society has been "kidding"
itself into believing that it could ignore
the profounder principles and secure a
superficial sort of unity by the process of
back-slapping and glad-handing and gen
eral meaningless chatter about human
unity.
A suspicion of this is always with
mankind. "Let sleeping dogs lie." is a
common proverb, but it does not describe
a secure state of things. If security de
pends upon our keeping certain dogs
asleep, then it is not security. For sleep
ing dogs will wake, and then security will
be gone. If dogs awake are dangerous,
the only possible security is in taming
them so that asleep or awake they may
be friendly, else remove them from any
possibility of doing harm.
Anyway, no matter what may appeal
to us in the form of theory, the tact is
present and indisputable, that there is in
k.. vL-nrUl n new consciousness of differ-
lliv , w w ----- - i
ernes between groups, and that this con
sciousness is most felt and is most mani-
fested in countries winch most protest democracy. It is a popular
manifestation. that is. it appears among the peop e grou ,ng up
out of them, not imposed upon them trom above or from without
It must be very clear to anyone who thinks about it that the
It must dc y previous situation
present situation could not nac arisen u
1 i ;t tn he That is if everything hart
hid been what we supposed it to Dc. l nu u, j
nan oeen wum . . ,. j d s were
been as lovely as we supposed it to be, it tne i
reallv not dangerous, then what has happened with in ast e
could not have occurred. Tin re were sores
were differences left unsettled, there were rival claims left uncle
I d u(l there never will be peace until the sore, are healed and
n the dlffereno s are settled and until the rival claims are finalh
and rightly adjudged. h
i .u, 9 .tatemcnt reeking wnn
is nvrc
. i i- u rW1ar.it ion of the mei
objective of destiny-only the fit does survive.
rT1HERE is not less unity in
M the world; there is only the
discovery that what we called
unity was mere pretense. We
pretended that certain differ'
ences did not matter; we are
learning that they do matter.
We were trying to bring in
brotherhood by putting out
loyalty to principle; we have
found it would not work. There
are deep and irreconcilable
differences which will never be
healed until the inferior disap
pears in favor of the superior.
Society is now going back to its
component groups; men are
lining up with their own side;
and when we get our various
positions clearly defined, we
shall be better able to work and
live together. But it is not
Unity, it is only camouflage
that is disappearing now.
cthod of history and the
The main difference in human thinking arises with reference to
what constitutes the fitness of the tit. One side says that might makes
right, and the other side says that right makes might. One side say,
that the brute will reign, the other side says that the angel will reign.
To common sight it looks as if power would win, and money, and
influence, and force, and majorities. That is the way tk-h-minded
men figure it. But faith-minded men see it differently and more
truly. They see that there is an essential element of superiority
without which money, majorities, force, influence and prestige are
failures already. The flesh-minded men are always saying that the
swiftest wins the race and the strongest wins the battle. But his
tory is sufficiently long for us to confirm the truthfulness of the
faith-minded man's declaration that "the race is not to the swift,
nor the battle to the strong."
But we must not be misled by this term "the survival of the
fittest" into the delusion that the fit survives by struggle. Not so.
If there is a "struggle for life" it is on the part of those elements
which arc already passing away; they
struggle to retain their place. The su
perior elements of life do not have to
struggle to maintain their place nor to
retain their superiority. Not at all ; their
whole strength is to be what they are ; "he
that believeth shall not make haste;"
struggle belongs to the defeated.
All of which has a side light on tol
erance. Some people do not like the
word. Xevertheless it stands for a real
elemental fact in our civilization. Toler
ance is possible only to the superior; the
lower elements are always intolerant. The
nearer right a man is, the more tolerant
he is ; his tolerance is in ratio to his im
mersion in error. Good grows and multi
plies of itself and crowds wrong to the
corners; it is wrong that struggles and
fights ; the good does not have to.
What is occurring in the world today
is this : under a false notion that vital
differences could be patched up by a
specious attempt at "good fellowship," the
world has gone along for many years
trying to pretend that nothing mattered
much so long as nothing interfered with
our fun or our pursuit of money. It has
been mostly pretense, a rosy cloud of
words without meaning.
Well, reality has overtaken us again,
as it always will. There are strains of
blood that will not mix, there are great
group ideas and ideals that will never
agree, there are great contrary claims that
will never be reconciled. We have been
pretending that it doesn't matter, but
life is teaching us that it does matter;
the differences are rolled back upon the
consciousness of humanity once more, to be dealt with more wisely
than we dealt with it during the miscalled "era of good feeling,"
which was only an era of camouflage.
A great deal of mushy sentimentalism has gone by the board.
Some people, mistaking the matter, say that it is "idealism" that
has disappeared. No. only sentimentalism. Sentimentalism is
mushy, and soft, and polite, and likes a nice book in a cozy corner.
Idealism is willing to fight, ami be unpopular, and rouse nasty
language and get its head cracked, if need be, for the honor of
an idea.
In the meantime, let every man be true to his own position, if
he is honestly convinced it is the true one. And let us give room
and liberty for everyone to profess his own loyalty. The world
is breaking up into its component parts. Every man must line up
with the group to which his inmost soul gives its vote. It is a
time of taking sides, and a man must take his own side. After
ward, when once again the position is made clear, we may find a
better plan of working and living together in spite of our dif
ferences, and yet without denying them.
i
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