San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-11-17
Listen, World!
Disagree?
By Elsie Robinson

Hundreds of letters each week.
Usually they begin by saying that
the writer reads this column and
likes it. Then comes the phrase
BUT THIS TINE / MUST DIS
AGREE"
Six simple words. You'd think
they'd be easy to say-easy to feel.
Then you think wrong. Ninety-nine
times out of q hundred those words
come bristling like young porcupines
Cquills all set for war.
IL takes a whole page to tell me
WHY the author disagrees with me.
Not one mere laughing sentence--but
whole page. An irritated page. a
p0ge that acts as il / had insulted
1t. Or as if it were afraid it were
insulting me. A clustering, cringing,
offensive, suspicious frightfully fidgety
page. And all because the writer
doesn't agree with me.
WHY IN THE DICKENS
SHOULD YOU AGREE WITH
AND WHY SHOULD YOU ACT
SO HOSTILE AND SUSPICIOUS
Ii ! DON'T AGREE WITH YOU?
This fear of disagreement is a
hangover of the old herd law
which declared that all members of
the herd must act alike and that il
one member insisted on acting differ
emily he was to be Stunned or killed
outright.
If the herd started north, no one
must forage to the south. II the herd
bedded down by the river, no one must
roost in a tree. There was a reason
for that, the herd was menaced by a
thousand dangers. 1t was confused
by countless strange mysteries. 1t
didn't want one Of its members set
ting up dangers and mysteries of his
own. Which, considering the times,
was sensible herd attitude.
BUT WE'RE OUTGROWING
THAT HERD LIFE.
OF course we still act herdish on
occasion. War, for example. We
grind civilization to shrcds beneath
our hoofs in time of war. We rend
it with our claws and worry it with
our fangs and gore it with our horns.
We revert TO the brute on all six
cylinders. And the old horror and
hate of DIFFERENCE rises red
eyed.
Even in times of peace, the bird
type Of mind still distrusts the nav
erick. The rabbit spirit, the weasel,
the mole and the pig, still look ask
ance at the eagle. And the eagle
must still pay for his flying by
certain amount Of loneliness.
But despite all this, the old herd
law is on its last legs. The infinite
trails of thought are open to each
one of us, and we are free to go as
We will, provided we pay the price.
No great danger waits you il you
choose a different trail from your
neighbor--or il he chooses a trail that
differs from yours.
IN FACT YOU'RE FATED TO
BE SCRAPPED If YOU DON'T
START OUT ON NEW TRAILS!
The day of the herd has passed.
The day of the individual has come.
YOU MUST THINK FOR YOUR
SELF
YOU MUST DISAGREE!
YOU MUST BE ABLE TO FACE
DISAGREEMENT AND KEEP
YOUR HEAD!
Don't disagree out of mere peevish
ness.
Think the problem over. Turn It
about. Look at it from all sides. See
how IL interlocks with other prob
lens. Then make up your mind about
it yourself. Be ready to change If
you meet better argument, but also
be ready to fight TO the last ditch for
your own view point.
But DO IT ALL WITH A
LAUGH,
Face the disagreement as game
a gallant conflict-an exciting adven-
ture. Don't act as if someone were
trying to cheat and betray you.
Throw down your disagreement as
a friendly challcnge-lont hurl it as
a bludgeOn.
Accept the other chaps disagree
ment as n privilege and stimulating
encounter.
Disagree with the gang.
Disagree with yourself.
And by all means disagree with me
Don't swallow anything ] say whole.
j don't.
Copyright. 1895. King Feature Syn. Inc