Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1942-12-24
Christmas Must
Look Ahead

Excerpts from article by Dor
othy Hall Smith in the Deem
Der issue of Antioch News, pub
lished by Antioch College, Yell
low Springs, Ohio).
This year once again there is
terrible disparity between the spirit
of Christmas and the state in which
the world finds itself It will be
difficult to be merry knowing that
On Christmas day a thousand, or
ten thousand, men may be killed in
battle. No thinking man or woman
can yield this year to the festival
spirit of Christmas. This year once
again Christmas is a religious fes-
tival-a symbol of hope. To have
meaning more than ever Christmas
must look ahead.
How far must Christmas look
ahead? To the day when peace is
declared? Welcome as that day will
be, peace alone is not the goal.
There is not much to choose be-
battle and ten thousand men-or
families-dying of slow starvation.
Mutilation by wounds is bad; the
spiritual mutilation of want is also
bad. Life has problems enough, even
with sufficient to eat and wear, and
does not need to be made harder by
the imposition of poverty on a large
share of mankind. If the material
things of life stifle the spirit, so even
more may the lack of them.
Material sufficiency-not luxury
seems reasonable goal for man
kind, and should be one of the inn
mediate goals to be worked for in
the peace that is to come.
But the goal of Christmas will not
be reached even on that day when
famine and cold are conquered
nor even on the day when all the
population shall have straight backs
and sound teeth. Material sufficiency
is but the first step.
The goal of Christmas-or what
might be called the common mean
ing of Christmas to all mems the
setting free of human beings to de-
velop to their fullest capacity, mem
tally, emotionally and spiritually.
Life is, in the last analysis, a COM
modify which must be individually
consumed; neither corporation nor
state can enjoy it. Individual de-
velopment of course, in any ad-
vanced civilization implies social
controls and adjustments between
conflicting rights, and also coopera-
tive action that secures greater adj
vantages to the members of the
group than single action
What is the greatest obstacle to
progress of this kind? Innate human
incapacity and perversity? Do we
have the poor always with us because
they are born weak and stupid?
We used to mask our dislike of
change under the old slogan, "You
can't change human nature" How
ever, when the intelligence quotient
of indentical twins who have had
different environments and expert
ences can vary over twenty points,
perhaps we had better revise our
notions about the Inmate" potential
tiles OF human beings. The psyche
ologists and anthropologists are more
and more piling up the evidence that
good deal of human nature" is
really social pattern.
Social patterns-including individ-
ual behavior and attitudes be
changed. The reason they are hard
to change is that we take them so
for granted they tend to be invisible,
like the air. Yet atmosphere exerts
pressure of nearly fifteen pounds per
square inch. And any American who
is in doubt about the malleability of
social patterns needs only to look at
second-generation igrants.
Whether these are racially Italian or
Scandinavian or Greek or japanese,
in the second generation they are
culturally American.
If higher education has the respon-
sibility of conserving the best in our
culture pattern, it also has the re-
sponsibility of seeing that the rest
of it does not get fixed on our backs
like the old man of the sea.
In the old days, an individual with
a serious personal maladjustment
usually suffered from that maladjust-
ment-along with all his family and
friends@to the end of his days, un-
less lucky accident interviewed.
Today we are beginning to learn
enough about human behavior and
motivation to be able in some cases,
to help. So far in history, serious