The Catastrophe of Confusion; E. M. Root

THE CA T ASTROPHE OF CONFUSION tg G. merrittRoof EVERY error in action begins with a fallacy in philosophy. Let us trace juvenile delinquency from the roots of intellectual confusion to the fruits of social catastrophe. One can scarcely open a paper without reading of some unholy little tyke who has just shot his grandmother be cause she graciously asked him to help with the family chores. In a single issue of a paper, just a little while ago, I read of a youngster who had liquidated his father be cause his dad had asked him to mow the family lawn; and of a second boy who hanged himself because his al lowance of four dollars a week was not enough to buy him cigarettes. Now such actions, worse for the teen-agers involved than for the adults who involve them by the fallacies of their teaching, are the logically inevitable result of the prevailing social philosophy of the last three or four dec ades-the philosophy that we have a "right" to everything and a "responsibility" for nothing. As Christ knew, if Dr. Root, eminent poet and author, is professor of English at Earl ham College. This article first appeared in Christian Economics, February 4, 1958.

277 278 E. MERRILL ROOT you assume that you can reap figs from thistles, you must not be surprised to find your hands full of thorns. Let us look at some of the social axioms that help to condition youth into fallacies of philosophy and error in action. The prevalent social fallacy has been that all in dividual evil has been caused by "social conditions"; if "conditions" are changed, the evil will disappear. Ju veniles go bad because they live in "slums," because their parents are "poor," because they are "underprivileged"; if you put families in housing projects, raise their wages, give them "social security" and "economic privileges," you will automatically make Johnny a good boy. This, of course, is pure economic determinism. Moral standards, a sense of responsibility and honor, religious faith, an allegiance to a Kingdom not of this world, are not necessary and indeed futile-this social philosophy says. The seeds you sow, or the weeding you do, are un important; the only necessity is to heap fertilizer on the land .(especially synthetic chemical fertilizer), and the good grain will grow. The modern economic determinist has never seen-and does not want to see-the acorn that falls into a cupful of earth on top of a boulder, yet grows and splits the boulder and lifts its might into the century scorning oak!

You can scarcely talk to students just out of contempo rary high schools without discovering that these axioms of social conditioning and economic determinism are un critically wedged in their heads. Is it any wonder that such fallacies in philosophy lead to errors in action? Judge Samuel S. Liebowitz, a distinguished jurist of THE CATASTROPHE OF CONFUSION 279 King's County, New York, said recently that on the basis of his observations at home and abroad he considered the family the "all-important weapon" in combating juve nile delinquency. "We could build playgrounds on every corner and dot the landscape with camps," he said, "but we couldn't make an appreciable inroad on juvenile crime without family guidance." Economic Determinism Such is the fact-founded and spiritually wise diagnosis of an outstanding mind. But our sociologists and psy chologists by their questionnaires often incite doubt and even hatred between parents and children, and question the family while they uphold the Big Brother of the State.

And the fallacy that economic determination-that social and economic environment-must condition and deter mine, and that individual responsibility and vital deter mination are unimportant, is prevalent everywhere. Where is there the same realization that an increase of wealth, instead of satisfying the desires of youth, tends to increase their predatory instincts? On the contrary, ,educationalists tend not merely to ig nore but to oppose all attempts to enhance the moral and spiritual training of youth. It has been reported that by a vote of 6 to 1 last fall the school board of the village of New Hyde Park, Long Island, agreed to post in the classrooms of its elementary schools a version of the Ten Commandments. This was carefully phrased to avoid any peculiar religious instruction or to offend any faith or 280 E. MERRILL ROOT church. Yet New York State Commissioner of Education, James E. Allen, Jr., forbade this, ruling that "the display of an item which cannot be freely explained or discussed is unsound educational practice."

Thus the use, in education, of classic and world-rever enced moral and spiritual wisdom is prohibited in the State of New York! What wonder that juvenile delin quency, based upon the free teaching of economic deter minism and the prohibition of spiritual determination, grows like weeds in a garden where synthetic fertilizer is spread, and good seeds are not sown, and hoes are pro hibited. Disrespect for Private Property Take a second dogma (and fallacy) that helps to cause error in action. "Social idealists" constantly attack "pri vate property" and uphold "collective ownership." This, they say, will lead to a truly social use of resources, to co operative and gracious action, to brotherhood and happi ness. If "all" equally own and share property, individuals w'ill be happier in its use and more gracious in its pres ervation. This, of course, is based upon an ignorance of human nature. Those who wander state-owned land scat ter papers when they eat their lunch, toss lighted ciga rettes down carelessly, and in general treat the use of property as a "right" but never as a "responsibility."

Only private ownership leads to love, to care, to wise and thoughtful use. That is simply human nature. Take the flagrant example of the fact that public ownTHE CATASTROPHE OF CONFUSION 281 ership does not lead to happy use or gracious care of "collective" property. What is less "private property" than a public school? What is more idealistically devoted to the group or the community as a whole? Yet if there is no training in the rights of property-private property first of all-will even public property be safe? The an swer is sadly clear. The City of Dayton, Ohio, is a highly cultured community with some of the finest schools in the country and a very high standard of living. Yet in the City of Dayton the problem of public property, the problem of preservation of its schools, is serious. The Dayton Daily News (a quite liberal paper) for July 19, 1957, reports that teen-age vandals, the captive victims (they think) of the educational masterpieces of the finest schools, ran amok in fantastic riot, "just" (in their own words) "for the hell of it." The article says: "Just this month, a gang of boys tossed rocks through the Huffman school windows at the same time workmen were replacing panes broken in a previous stone-tossing binge.

"Youngsters like these smash 6,000 to 8,000 Dayton school building windows a year. They've been going at that rate for the last three to four years now, and the an nual replacement tab runs to $24,000.... "Vandals also do other things to schools beside break glass. Things like running a fire-hose inside Cleveland school all night and causing thousands of dollars in dam age. Like climbing on the roof and filling vent pipes with gravel. Like touching fire to a storage room at Whittier school and causing $3,000 damage. Like hurling 282 E. MERRILL ROOT ink bottles and art paint containers against walls. Like breaking into food storage areas and smearing catsup and mustard over desks and walls." Such is the way that, in one of our most civilized and cultured cities, young people act toward public property. Why do they so act? A clear reason, surely, is that once a reverence for property-private property and so public property-a sense of responsibility, and a standard of moral right were successfully taught. But the modern "social" emphasis makes a falsely antithetical contrast between "human rights" and "property rights," as if property rights are not necessarily human rights. If prop erty is scorned and attacked, how can hasty youth dis tinguish between "private" and "public" property-and what reverence or care will youth have for any property?

The senseless vandalism, "just for the hell of it," that smashes windows, fills vent pipes with sand, turns a fire hose loose in schoolrooms, or splashes ink, paint, catsup, or mustard over the walls, will be a natural result. If "property" is something to be treated as the group wills, and perhaps something evil in itself, why not use it as you will? The Social Gospel Has anyone noticed the strange paradox that indicates a fundamental falsity in our thinking? The prevailing philosophy of the last three or four decades has stressed the "social" -history is now "social studies" -education is designed to make young people "social-minded"THE CATASTROPHE OF CONFUSION 283 religion is to lead to "social justice." We have had three to four decades of an education that agrees wholly with Adolf Hitler, who said: "True idealism is nothing but subjecting the individual's interests and life to the community."

But what has been the result of this emphasis on the social? The upsurge of the most asocial or antisocial groups that we have ever known in America! The catastrophes of the modern world began with the confusions of the modern mind. Relativism, economic determinism, intellectual nihilism (i.e., the assumption that a spiritual void or nothing underlies the material phenomena of the world), collectivism as an ideal, be coming social coercion in practice, are fallacies. There fore, a society built upon the quicksands of such axioms and postulates will, with logical inevitability, collapse through debacle into ruin-like all that we build upon a lie. The absolutes of truth, right, and beauty; the energy of vital determination; the intellectual assurance that the visible universe is based upon invisible spirit; the self-reliance of the heroic individual whose little life is founded upon the great Life of God: these are realities.

Therefore, a society founded on such axioms and postu lates will, with vital certainty, stand firm on the plane tary granite of truth. But relativism, economic determinism, and intellectual nihilism have been and still are the favorite social dog mas of the day-in the "free" West even more than in communist countries; and they all, by their disintegrating and lethal effect, weaken us against, and prepare us for, 284 E. MERRILL ROOT collectivism. How can we understand and withstand even the horror called communism, when relativism, eco nomic determinism, and intellectual nihilism have sub verted our faith? The fallacies of our philosophy are most lethal for youth. Youth, generous in its idealism but immature in its realism, is easily precipitated-by its own zest and en thusiasm, or by its own dreams and desires-into confu sion in thought and calamity in action. At its best, through its idealism, it can be misled into a support of cruel men who parade ideals of peace and social justice in order to win their own sordid power over a world they made their satellite; at its worst, through its dreams and hot desires, it is misled into asocial or antisocial action because it is taught that it has a "right" to grab and get, but no "responsibility" to build and give.

The errors in action are factual, clear, and certain. Is it not time that we eradicated the fallacies in philosophy that lead to them?