Evening star., 1932-11-22
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL

A national habit of mind, inimical TO
human progress and happy living, has
grown up in America of recent years.
This Is the tendency, on the part OF
all too many persons, to assume calmly
that the way they think upon any
given question Is the only way Of think
ing upon that question.
They are right, and every one who
disagrees with them is, Of course, not
only wrong, but absolutely wrong, and
not only positively wrong, but wrong
with malice aforethought.
Hence such persons, IN amazing
numbers. tend to express their con-
tempt for any difference of opinion in
belligerent tones which ought to mean
a fist fight.
Just how any human being. in such
a world as this can imagine that he is
necessarily right, and that therefore
all who do not agree with him are
necessarily wrong, is mystery to
every fair minded person.
He VINO has studied the history of
mankind to some purpose realizes that
correctness of opinion is thing of
which no man can have monopoly.
Being right" is something on a par
with being moral, what is right one
year may be wrong" the next, just
as what one decade regards as bad
may be viewed with indifference 10
years from now.
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One may be highly suspicious Of the
man who becomes "peeved" If you dis
agree with him.
If he calls you names, in an un-
garded moment. be sure he Is afraid
that he is wrong after all.
20 of NFNn ~
know-it-all persons as to feel, in the
bottom of his own heart, that perhaps
he is not as correct as he claims to be.
II he we're sure of himself, truly there
would be no need at all for the descent
to the personalities and ill-humored
language which so often marks the con-
verSational tactics of such man.
What marks him most, however, Is
not his words, or his tactics, as the
state of mind which puts him into such
a mood, and permits him to use such
words and tactics.
The insensate pride which goeth be-
fore destruction is his. The naughty
spirit which precedes a fall he pos
sesses, although he may not realize it
until later.
The old Greeks had name for 1t,
among the many names they had for
LIllIRS. IL llIldlly SOJ dIUuIlQ W lcIlcSlSy
and we commonly think Of 1t today as
retribution.
But where there is one spectacular
retribution. seen of all men there are
thousands known only to the few, and
many sensed only by the one person
concerned
In that instructive drama, called
job" which comes down to us in our
Bible, one of the characters sitting with
the fallen man speaks with the exact
words, and in the exact manner, of
any one of these thousands of positive
men and women who are SO sure that
their opinion-about anything-is cor
rect and any opposite opinion is, there
fore, wrong.
A younger man. who has listened
quietly to the mouthings of the other,
finally speaks
mo doubt" he says, 'ye are the peo-
pie. and wisdom will die with you. but
I. too. have few thoughts on this
matter"
In those few words he spoke then,
as he speaks eternally, not in defense
of his own opinion, SO much as to sat
irize. and thus put in their place all
these positive-opinion people of the ages
and the nations.
y 4
Arrogance of opinion-this mental
attitude of which we speaks nothing
more than that, as it can be nothing
less.
1t Is the state of mind which permits