Salient: An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria University, Wellington Vol. 24, No. 6. 1961.
Mr Middleton Tells A (Dirty?) Story
Mr Middleton Tells A (Dirty?) Story
"We all do it; we all have done it; therefore we should do it in the future." This he claimed was the attitude of those who do not want to adopt new ideas and new changes.
To ilustrate his point, he cited the case of a noble savage who would not eat his fellow men. It was a compact little story. Progress! Progress! Man must progress! he hammered into his audience. And to progress, we must remove our conventional ideas.
On the question of morals, Mr Middleton pointed out that while we have a right to mess-up our lives, we have no right to ruin those who will come after us. (He was speaking on the assumption that artificial insemination will in fact better our living.) "Ladies and gentlemen, have you ever thought that your birth was an accident?" A hushed interval followed this query. Someone recovered himself in time to yell out: "Yours was a mistake"
Finally, he stated that "Man is eternally curious." Sounding like something extracted from a psychology text, he went on: "We must adjust ourselves to our environment; to new situations." We cannot possibly resist change.