Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

SMAD. An Organ of Student Opinion. 1935. Volume 6. Number 13.

Controversy

Controversy.

Rarely does a paper given by a student open up such a wide field of controversy as that read to the Free Discussions Club last week by Ian Campbell. In claiming that the two alternatives before the world were Communism and Catholicism, he gibed at the vast mass of intellectuals who oscillate between these extremes with a sceptical pessimism that is gnawing and futile. Here is a challenge that should be taken up, for the vast number have obviously satisfied their consciences with the adoption of a middle course. Yet in the discussion that followed there was but very slight challenge to the statement that between them these two doctrines provided the one and only solution to world troubles. There was a dangerous unanimity of theoretical opinion which contrasted very strongly with the more pragmatic attitude of most intellectuals. The great majority of those present were neither Communists nor Catholics, yet they implied an acquiescence in the benefit of one of these courses. The apparent opposition of Communism and Catholicism or their similarity as compared with more pragmatic activity offers a wide field for fresh controversy—fresh controversy that is badly needed at the present. Indeed, in our quietude we seem to justify Lord Salisbury's complaint to the House of Lords: "My Lords, we are too much of one opinion."