The Salvaging of CivilizationWells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Philosophy
The Salvaging of Civilization
Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Civilization, Modern -- 20th century; Education
Let me instance my own case. I am a man of Protestant origins and with a
Protestant habit of mind. But it is a matter of great regret to me that
there is no good Roman Catholic propaganda available for my sons in
their college life. I would like to have the old Mother Church giving my
boys an account of herself and of the part she has played in the history
of the world, telling them what she stands for and claims to be, giving
her own account of the Mass. These things are interwoven with our past;
they are part of us. I do not like them to go into a church and stare
like foreigners and strangers at the altar.
And side by side with that Catholic propaganda I would like them to hear
an interpretation of religious origins and church history by some
non-catholic or sceptical ethnologist. He, too, should be free to tell
his story and drive his conclusions home.
But you will find most colleges and most college societies bar religious
instruction and discussion. What do they think they are training? Some
sort of genteel recluse--or men and women?
So, too, with the discussion of Bolshevism. I do not know how things are
in America but in England there has been a ridiculous attempt to
suppress Bolshevik propaganda. I have seen a lot of Bolshevik propaganda
and it is not very convincing stuff. But by suppressing it, by police
seizures of books and papers and the like, it has been invested with a
quality of romantic mystery and enormous significance. Our boys and
girls, especially the brighter and more imaginative, naturally enough
think it must be tremendous stuff to agitate the authorities in this
fashion.
At our universities, moreover, the more loutish types of student have
been incited to attack and smash up the youths suspected of such
reading. This gives it the glamour of high intellectual quality.
The result is that every youngster in the British colleges with a spark
of mental enterprise and self-respect is anxious to be convinced of
Bolshevik doctrine. He believes in Lenin--because he has been prevented
from reading him. Sober collectivists like myself haven't a chance with
him.
But you see my conception of the college course? Its backbone should be
the study of biology and its substance should be the threshing out of
the burning questions of our day.
You may object to this that I am proposing the final rejection of that
discipline in classical philosophy which is still claimed as the highest
form of college education in the world----the sort of course that the
men take in what is called _Greats_ at Oxford. You will accuse me of
wanting to bury and forget Aristotle and Plato, Heraclitus and
Lucretius, and so forth and so on.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account