Clairvoyant?
This extract is from Lumen's report on a remarkably prescient address given at the Senior School Prizegiving on March 5th, 1952; the speaker was a Mr. Percy Lord, B.Sc, M.Ed, the Deputy Education Officer for the County of Lancashire. Considering that he was speaking at a time when people still believed that our fledgling welfare state would eventually develop into an earthly paradise, Mr. Lord seems to have had quite a talent for accurate prediction...
"...there had been a commendable increase in tolerance in the
last fifty years, but unfortunately we were beginning to tolerate
what was cheap, nasty and bad, and unless it ceased, there would
be a decline in our nation. Wealth had been distributed more
evenly, but the rich had been the guardians of culture and taste,
and with their departure, the maintenance of culture and taste
rested with ordinary people, and with whom more than with the
Grammar School pupils?
Everyone believed in the welfare state, in help for the unfortunate, a Christian ideal, but there is a danger that we might expect
always to be helped rather than to help. There are some who
demand everything as a right, but accept no duties. We should
always appreciate what is done for us, be worthy of our great
trust, and go out into the world with faith in our School and
country, and in the good and beautiful, and in God.
Levelling should mean levelling up, not down. We should be
tolerant of the right things, intolerant of the wrong; anxious to help
and serve, rather than to take."
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