Salient: An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 12, No. 2, March 16th, 1949.

. . . misinformation

. . . misinformation

Our education system does a fair job in turning out people whose main interest in the newspaper is in the races, the comic strips and the latest murder. Neither our schools nor our newspapers are interested in educating the people to a realisation of the faults in our society. Both are instruments Of an anarchic society. Instead of being fact-finding and probing into social probelms, the press is leading the people further into the bog into which society has been pushed by capitalism.

All important as they are to a full development of the individual, the cultural things of life are deadened by education for a capitalist society. The popular third-rate fiction, the films, and our other leisure activities are degrading in their influence on the mind. In fact most of our cultural and leisure activities save us the trouble of thinking about society and help to make us satisfied with the fact that even in a wealthy country like Now Zealand we are not a quarter developed. Anyway, under capitalism, the average man spends all his energies making a living, and is therefore unable to develop himself on the cultural side even if the opportunities were available.

We are told that another war is imminent, and the U.S.S.R. is getting all the blame: but as Mr. Combs pointed out, war is inherent in capitalism. Until capitalism is destroyed the real causes of war will remain and wars will continue to occur.