(The Open Road, No. 2, March 1969, p. 4)
The proverb has it that ‘It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.’ It is one which all of us would do well to remember. The years since the end of the Vatican Council have seen a tremendous interchange of ideas. There is sometimes, though, a tendency towards a form of mental laziness which contents itself with criticising the past while making little or no effort to think for the future.
Paradoxically, people who have this tendency quite often come to resemble the images on which they vent their iconoclastic fury. While condemning others for, Let us say, taking an overly static view of life, they themselves remain static, and try to compensate for a lack of imagination by an abundance of invective. They wish to have their ghost and bury it.
It is reasonable that the world should look primarily to the young as a source of new ideas. Its search is not always rewarded. An example of this was seen in France in May of last year. Many of the young students who criticised General De Gaulle so heartily had this in common with him that they demanded power without saying what they would do with it when they got it. They spoke of changing the old society, but were strangely silent when asked what kind of new society they wanted.
It is our responsibility and our opportunity as students to think frankly, fearlessly and faithfully about the future, the formation of which is very largely in our hands. And to communicate our thoughts to others.