Men Are That They Might Have Joy: Let It Be Wholesome

Men Are That They Might Have Joy Let It Be Wholesome By E. L. Roberts, Director of Physical and Social Education, B. Y. U. Imagine a savage, deprived of his primitive superstitions, but possessing all the other human elements of original man, suddenly placed in a modern, highly complex community. What confusion would come in his mind ! ■ Place him in a factory — all would be bewilderment. Place him in a col- lege— all would be perplexity. Lead him into the streets of a busy city — fear and confusion would overtake him! Talk to him about ideals in business, politics, government and his face would be a blank. Of every phase of life in which modern man is making a living, the poor savage would stand in awe; possessing, as he does, nothing with which he could interpret the strange activities around him. Next take the original man out into those activities which represent the civilized man's leisure and not his re- actions. Go fishing with him. take him for a hunt, a hike, or a climb; his eyes brighten with recognition. Escort him to a football game; he feels his blood tingle with something com- mon. Push him into the "movies;" at first confused, he soon enjoys the battles, fights, and sensuous scenes. At- tend with him the low type of vaude- ville; out of the confusion he gathers "throaty" singing, suggestive costum- ing, acrobatic stunts, gesture and move- ments, most of which he understands. Lead your hopeful pupil next into a vulgar modern rag-time party. He knows. He grasps it. The savage rhythm, the barbaric movements, the salacious positions, all appeal to him. He almost feels as if he were at home in a wild sex dance. At prize fights, cock fights, horse races, dog fights, our primitive is soon war-whooping with glee. Draw him to the club for an eve- ning of drinking, carousing, and loud joking, and lo, the chasm between him and civilized man is almost bridged. The new-found brothers brawl and sprawl in common blood relationship. Why this difference between the two fields of human activity? The answer is clear. In the field of "food-getting," the pressure has been so keen, the law of survival so exacting, that there has been an almost infinite push towards progress. As a result there has come such a change in the habits of civilized man that grave concern is felt lest the human body, adjusted to an entirely different type of life, should suffer to the point of race deterioration. The leisure activities have, however, been less modified. They remain more on the primitive level. Indeed, many of the serious food-getting occupations have survived as recreative activities. Many of these are the most wholesome and relaxing of pleasure pursuits; as, for example, hunting, fishing, and camping. The reason these are rest- ful is that old, fundamental reactions are associated with pleasure. Original situations are linked up with original responses without the strain of modi- fication or readjustment. To release these old responses is to get rest, re- laxation, and real pleasure. If primitive recreative activities were all wholesome, the problem we are dis- cussing would not exist. But there are numerous expressions of original ten- dencies that are debasing. These, too. give joy and are restful for the mo- ment. But the price in moral degen- eracy is too high. Society must ulti- mately suffer from the results. We have millions of men and women who, on the one hand, measure up to very high civilized standards in their work, but who. on the other, are reversions

Feb.. 19 29 MEN ARE THAT THE MIGHT HAVE JOY 325 and even perverts during many of their pleasure moments. Captains of in- dustry, political giants, intellectual geniuses are often failures and bank- rupts in the field of enjoyment. Every care was exercised in the youth of these men and women that they should not form habits of in- efficiency, carelessness, and inaccuracy in their work and study; but little or no intelligent effort was put forth to see that their 'recreative possibilities were made rich and full, and that they did not form habits of pleasure select- ing which were upon a savage plane. Their work and study were carefully directed towards a definite goal, while their leisure was allowed to drift. Millions and millions of dollars are expended yearly in training man, from almost the cradle up, to make a living. All his original instincts are directed and modified to fit the de- mands of civilized life. Primitive rhythms of activity are changed, re- sponses to situations redirected, every- thing done to mold the young "ani- mal" into an economic, honest, ef- ficient, money-making, goods-gather- ing citizen. The man thus trained well knows what to do during his working hours. But leisure is a different matter. When the daily work is over, what then? It is pitiful to watch crowds of young people wondering around upon the Sabbath, or even upon a holiday, or during any other rather long period of vacation. "What shall we do?" This is the almost universal question. "Somebody start something." It is even more true of older people under certain conditions. Any protracted period of relaxation usually becomes monotonous and work is again resorted to as the only way to drive away ennui. At this time the most natural thing to do, unless training prevents it, is the primitive thing. It gives original pleasure. It intoxicates with the liquor of our ancestral pleasures. Knowing human nature to be thus constituted, "sellers of pleasure" arise in every community with the purpose of coining the desire for relaxation for their own financial betterment. They know what people, especially young people, want or seem to want; but they do not know why. neither do they care why. They would laugh at the suggestion that they ought to be a part of the great evolution process, that they should help educate and train for better enjoyment. Instead, they study the art of creat- ing enticing situations — situations that will "short circuit" original instincts. Liquor releases the brute-like man of the past, by deadening all decent and higher sensitiveness: this poison they sell without conscience. The mad rag dance short-circuits the sex instinct. The lewd vaudeville suggestion opens the savage jaw of man with sensual laughter. They justify this on the grounds that people like it, and there is no doubt about this, they do. Low drama, low scenes in the movies, and a thousand other means are used to anaesthetize the better man. And the unfortunate thing about these "settings" is that they do furnish a form of rest and relaxation, but only to the vulgar and socially ignorant. People of this type are sometimes re- freshed and more ready for the grind of daily work after an evening spent in such recreation. In the absence of better relaxation, this type may almost be justified for people that are grown and are more or less "set." They de- mand recreation of some sort and this form may almost be justified on the grounds that the vulgar and socially ignorant cannot really rest and enjoy the higher type. The better enjoyment is to them a bore, a weariness. But how deadly dangerous it is for the young people who are getting their habits of enjoyment fixed! It estab- lishes in them the habit of enjoying social food seasoned with garlic and strong condiments. They become in-

326 IMPROVEMENT ERA Feb.. 1929 capable of detecting the finer and more delicate social flavors. And, besides, these suggestive "settings" may and do cause a reversion and degeneration, even in people who have learned to enjoy better things. For, after all, the "setting" is the principal thing. We of course have power to select, but this power is in inverse ratio to the power of the original "setting." Scratch the civil- ized man hard enough and you are bound to find the savage underneath. You may have to dig deep into the highly cultured or the profoundly re- ligious. But arrange a situation de- signed to bring out the original man and he is most likely to appear. To demonstrate this, I once requested two peace-loving, religious, university professors with years of culture and re- finement to put on the boxing gloves for a little physical exercise. They did so. I then made secret arrange- ments with a half dozen young gymnasium students to watch the ex- ercise and to comment freely but care- fully among themselves upon the skill and gameness of the boxers. The ex- ercise, which started as a friendly bout under perfect control, ended in a fierce fight with both teachers bleeding and pounding each other in real ancestral fashion. The "setting" released "the brute man of the past." A shower bath brought back the culture and there were apologies. Who was to blame? Certainly not the professors. They always bad the power of choice and certainly they had the training that would seem to guarantee a gentle- manly choice. But the power of the situation was too much for them. The :heering and encouragement of the by- standers appealed to their instinct for approval. Jealousy, the fighting in- stinct, all were "short-circuited." Society through its education, train- ing and laws is constantly active in preventing "settings" which short-cir- cuit primitive instincts in the business of making a livelihood. It has as yet done very little towards preventing these same kinds of situations in the leisure pursuits. This we are all be- ginning to realize and effort is being put forth to arouse society to the seriousness of the problem of leisure. It is to be hoped that in the not far- distant future, training for leisure will receive as much consideration as train- ing for work. The child entering school will be given his lesson in play and recreation as regularly as he is given his other studies. Wrong habits of social enjoyment will be methodic- ally eradicated. The adolescent boy and girl in the high school will be educated for the higher and more wholesome forms of enjoyment. Their natures will be carefully studied by ex- perts, their original tendencies will be understood. With this understanding as a guide, "teachers of leisure" will direct the activities of young people so that they will form habits of proper pleasure getting. Even in the universities, recreation will in the future not be looked upon as a side activity, something to be tol- erated, but will be seriously provided for and taught as an opportunity for education. Training for the selection of leisure pursuits will be as dignified as that for any other part of schooling. To make a life will be looked upon as even more important than to make a living, and education for this field of human activity will form a part of the very texture of the university cur- riculum. At present I believe that in the high schools and colleges the department of physical education should take under its charge most of the more active and physical forms of recreation. It should add social education to its gymnastics and athletics. It should provide op- portunity for dancing, play, sports, hikes, outings, parties, etc. It should initiate wholesome vaudevilles, circuses, and motion-picture shows. These things should be directed with the end in view of developing an ap-

Feb., 1929 MEN ARE THAT THE MIGHT HAVE JOY 327 petite for harmless and proper forms of ture shows should be far more rigor- relaxation. Every effort should be ously censored. Each community made to keep the activities interesting, should have the right to censor. The so that they are really enjoyable. If censoring, however, should be made this is not done there will be no re- by sane students of human nature and laxation. human relaxation needs, and not by To make it possible for such ac- intolerant fanatics, tivities to succeed, society must, by law When these things are done there and the enforcement of law, make it win be a deaner k a happier peo. impossible for commercialized amuse- aQ(J healthkr le Work will ments to appeal to the lower and older f . " ■ 5 a: ■ .. , y u ••■„,. be more intensive and more efficient, impulses of man by arranging set- „,, , . , .... tings" which will short-circuit these Jhe leisufe ,hours Wlll be sPent in old instincts. There should be no haPPy> wholesome and at the same public pleasures of a degenerating time restful and relaxing amusements. order. Public dances should be com- We shall have fewer bankrupts, both pelled to maintain standards of de- in the field of work and in the field of cency. Vaudevilles should be cleansed play. Mankind will be able to make of their vulgar phases. Motion-pic- a life as well as a living. Love Pacifies and Elevates A Latter-day Saint missionary was speaking on eternal family relation- ship. Those listening seemed to be interested. Suddenly a man interrupted with a show of anger, "You seem to think that we all actually believe what you say." The speaker answered, "Are you a minister, brother?" The response was, "Yes." Then the "Mormon" missionary followed with these words: "As a minister you desire to bring souls unto Christ, but you can never do so in anger. The Gospel message is love. The angels sang, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.' " (Luke 2:14). The congregation seemed to join in with the missionary, and even the minister saw his mistake. In parting he came up and shook hands with the speaker and good-will prevailed. Truly, "A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger." (Proverbs 15:1.) A speaker influenced by the Holy Ghost does not get angry. He is calm. He possesses a joy of the spirit that all feel. Spirit speaks to spirit and the hearers never forget the message. The Savior's final instruction before his intense suffering was, "These things I command you, that ye love one another." (John 15:17). His was a perfect love. In our homes, in our daily actions, we should pray and strive for love. "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey: whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness." (Romans 6:16). None of us can afford to obey evil influences by exercising force and anger. President Joseph F. Smith said, "You can drive a boy, but you will drive him to hell. The only way you can successfully rear children is through the power of love." Through the irresistible power of loving service, his life was an eminent success. Love is the greatest power in the world, love is from God, and, to go back into our Father's presence, we must love him and love his children — Joseph S. Peery.