Evening star., 1930-12-03
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

| the worlds best loved slogans are mere
generalities.
The younger and more inexperienced
person is, the surer he is to fall for
generalizing. Nor is this to be wondered
at. The older hand knows-for he has
had experience-that few men possess
the facilities Tor proving what they say.
To make sweeping generalities is easy
simply because no one can prove that
what one says is wrong. It works both
ways. If 1t is difficult to prove that
| your generality is so, it Is even harder
to prove that 1t Is not so.
Politics and legislation are q fertile
f1eld Tor generalities. Whole campaigns
are based on statements which later
prove to be little more than words.
If to err is human, so is making
generalities. It is dificult-nay, impos-
sihle-to resist the impulse to make a
generality. for all of us are truth
seekers, in the last analysis.
And the earnest, impaSSioned man
who may be wrong, but who thinks he
Is stating the truth, deserves our re-
spect. It is perhaps true land we hope
this Is not mere generality that
some of the greatest achievements
among men have resulted from gener-
altties which are suspiciously incapable
of proof.
Well, what difference does it make.
after all? Results are what count, in
many instances, and happily for man.
kind it little matters whether they are
arrived at through the truth or through
mistaken assumption of truth.
There is a Greater Truth, after all,
in most matters in which man is in
terested. Oftentimes this escapes the
most earnest advocates, to be discovered
by humble seeker.
Sometimes the loudest shouter Is
found to be the farthest off the track,
whereas the man who says nothing but
who saws wood" arrives at the exact
truth long in advance of his fellows.
*K X y
The generality, the broad assumption,
usually fools no one, because even the
least critical hearer discounts it.
We are canny crew, We human be-
ingS, and hundreds and hundreds Of
years have taught us not to believe all
that we hear or read.
Whole sections of us, as reasoning
creatures, work on the opposition plan
that is, we instinctively question every
thing we hear and tend to oppose it.
This is why the word "criticize"
comes to have a universal meaning Of
finding fault.
I'm not criticizing you" some one
says, when all the time that is what
he is doing. He means that he is not
finding fault just to be finding fault.
But the latter is exactly what is nee
eSsary in a world such as ours, where
geueralities often fly the flag of Truth,
and make claims which should be left
to God Almighty.
The critic is he who knows the fail
I ure of gsneralities, and is not afraid to
point them out. He, in his turn, may
be mistaken, but at least he has caused
the thoughtless to stop, look and listen.
The critic has high function to per-
form. AS all men who endeavor to
stem the unthinking tide Of thoughtless
thought-which must be carefully diff
ferentiated from thoughtful thought
he runs a risk.
But life itself is a risk-tnat Is why
it is so interesting. perhaps. He who
| risks all sometimes gains all, except
when he loses all. The critic must take
his chances, along with the rest of US.
He helps to keep the generality in its
proper place, which Is the seat of the
| interesting but improved.