child

)

| just

HAT is the Communist at-

titude to problems of mor-
ality?

This is not an easy question

to answer, if for no other reason

_ than that the whole subject of

| Morality is very broad and. far-
Tanging,

i Is there a common, universal,
Verall standard or concept of

_ Morality on which all Commu-
| Mists agree?

| On most of the broader issues
| le On such questions, for
eae as our attitude to peace
ee War, race hatred and dis-
Shae _ On; poverty and disease;
Political and economic free-

°m of peoples; civil rights.

When. it comes to questions
e eyrsonal morality, however—
: - attitude to such matters as
ae ®, sex, marriage, family life,
“tépted standards of behavior
fenit Problem stands a bit dif-
Bi €ntly. While there are many
wie of personal morality on
Cn all Communists agree,
€te are also many differences.

ee codes and standards of
aa behavior vary in dif-
ate nt parts of the world. They

© change with the times.
ae differences and changes
3 affect the attitudes of Com-
_ “Unists and Socialists.

ear leaders of the Socialist
the Ommunist movements of
ene Past, including Marx and
| which, put forward moral codes
build they in their time felt
Gites of Communism should
Hine gene the human qualities
nen + ould be instilled in young
i; Pie in the process of trying
Create: the new socialist man.

ean of these moral guide-

é ae me Still valid and are ac-
today o such by Communists
| sich et,. when it comes to
| ana problems aS sex, marriage
>. establigh it is difficult to
hat i 8uidelines. or norms

ta
tine everywhere and for all

ee background, education,
Gihepe geography and many
Reon ‘actors have a bearing on
eB €s attitudes to problems of

Sonal morality. This applies

al ‘ f :
Nets to Cornmunists and Socia-

ee Views on these questions,
t Eacie ios differ vastly from
whil of my 80-year-old father,

€ my children’s views differ
aS vastly from mine.

fan know that not all of my
= Ww Communists agree with

© on
Marital
relations
Wome

Sex, adultry, divorce,
hips between men and
N or between parents and
= ren, nudist camps, “go-go”
Cing and a host of others.

d be universally accep- ©

Such matters as pre-_

COMMUNISTS

AND

PERSONAL
MORALITY

By JOHN BOYD

There are even greater differ-

“ences on these problems. among
Communists of different coun- _
‘tries, even as there are among

the people of different countries.
The views of. Communists in the

Soviet Union or China on prob-—
‘lems of love, sex and marriage

differ very much from the Com-
munists in France, or Britain, or
the United States. Nor is it only
between Communists in the so-
cialist and capitalist countries;
attitudes.in Bulgaria and Cuba,
for example, are quite different.

It is said that the nuclear age
and the technological revolution,
which have really barely begun,
will bring more changes in our
political, economic and social
life in the next two or three de-

cades than have all the inven-

Morality and moral attitudes
are topics of considerable debate
today. How Communists see this
Problem was discussed by Tribune
editor John Boyd in a public lec-
ture delivered in Toronto recen-
tly. This article is an excerpt from.

that lecture.

tions and scientific advances
since the Industrial Revolution.
Both of these major develop-

ments will also bring profound ~
’ changes in our moral standards

and concepts, indeed, have al-
ready begun to do so.

But there is one other impor-

tant development that will have |

an equally revolutionary effect
on our lives in the years to
come, especially on our moral
values and on. human relation-
ships—the discovery of the oral
contraceptive, or The Pill.

We have not yet really felt
the effects of this discovery. I
predict it will compel all people
to change their attitudes and
concepts on sex, marriage, the
family and a whole range of re-
lated questions of morality.

- Recently a Toronto newspaper
approached a number of people
on the street with the question:
“Should single girls be allowed

to obtain birth control pills?” -

It got a lot of different answers:
some said “yes”, some “no”,
some made all kinds of qualifi-

’ cations. ©

There really should be no hesi-
tation about the answer. I see

‘the Pill as another big step to-

ward the emancipation of wo-
men. It puts the single woman
on the same footing in sexual
matters as the single man, To-
day a teen-age boy can be as
free in his sexual life as he likes,
as long as he is reasonably dis-

creet; but the girl has to be.

“chaste” whether she wants to
or not, because she knows she
may become pregnant.

With the advent of the Pill,
pre-marital sex will have to be
argued against on other moral
grounds, if any, than the fear of
pregnancy. : :

There is yet another aspect of
the attitude of Communists to
personal morality that has an
important bearing on their role
in the struggle for socialism.

Some people in the left-wing
movement feel that their own
personal lives and attitudes are
their own private affair—no-
body’s business but their own,
so to speak. This may be all
right in theory but it doesn’t
work out quite that way in real
life. :

We do not work and fight for
peace and socialism in a vacuum.

We work with people. But let us _

remember that we have to start
from where the people are.

Most people conform to the
generally accepted standards of
behavior and morality. We may
not like it, but that’s the way it

is. Individuals who are non-

conformists, who stand out
from the crowd, are looked on
at one end of the scale as “beat-
niks”’, “kooks” and ‘‘oddballs,”’
at the other end as “squares”,
“fogeys”, “eggheads”’, “‘long-
hairs”, etc,

Such individuals, if they want
to communicate with the rest of

July 8, 1966—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 5

the population, have two strikes

‘against them. I do not think,
- therefore, that Communists, So-

cialists or left-wingers generally,
ought to stand too far out from
the rest of the community in
anything except their ideas.

-. A Marxist should not: be a

“square” but neither does he
have to be. a “kook” in dress or
deportment to show his rebel-
lion against present-day society.
He can show it by what he says
and does.

It is quite difficult, of course,
for Communists and Socialists
in our present-day society to
follow fully all the precepts of
a higher communist morality as
we understand it. Hypocrisy,

. double-dealing and individualism

are part of our way of life and
we are all tainted with it. As
John Lewis puts it. in his bro-
chure, Socialism and the Indivi-
dual, “we discover the difficulty
of being as moral as we should
like to be in an immoral society.”

But while we are all constant-
ly being subjected to the pres-
sures of the immoralities of capi-
talism, our socialist convictions
should make it possible for us to
resist these pressures — with-
out, of course, setting ourselves
too far apart from the people.

It is our knowledge of what a
truly human, truly moral‘society
can be like that spurs us on to
work for it and fight for it, and
to bring our vision of that better
society to others.

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