In the lifetime of most of us, humanity has lived through years of the most diabolical evil the world has ever known. Estimates of the extent of the sufferings of humanity in the recent years of the Second World War are now available. The latest figures tell that forty-two and one-half millions of people have died prematurely in these ten years. Nearly twenty-five millions were civilian and nineteen and one-half millions were military deaths. These forty-two and one-half millions were men, women and children who were starved, tortured, shot, blown to bits, vivisected, frozen and gassed to death. They were deliberately murdered by every conceivable method of fiendish cruelty at the hands of supposedly civilized, cultured and mostly Christian Nations.

Since the end of the Second World War, the Nations have sought unsuccessfully for that international unity and solidarity for which the great majority are longing. Thus far humanity seeks in vain to satisfy its growing hunger for wholeness, its longing for friendship, peace and security. Like twin swords of Damocles, atomic and bacteriological warfare hang over every Race, city and home on earth. In the face of these tragic facts men might well despair, not only of world peace in our time, but of the whole future of the Race.

What, then, is the place of Australia in this great plan and what is the destiny of its peoples? Simply put, the answer is that the fifth Race is at this time producing a sixth sub-race, and the four countries of North America and Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand are the chief places of its birth. The sixth sub-race of the mother Aryan stock is being produced by emigration of European peoples, chiefly British, to the new racial homes. Even now the plan is well advanced. Each of the four countries is already producing its typical variant of the new type. Indeed, the two World Wars may be regarded as both the death throes of an old dispensation and the birth pangs of a new.

Those who at present possess the capacity for taking into themselves diversities and sending them out again as unities, and for utilizing the most different individualities, finding each its place in freedom and welding all together into a strong whole - such people already display New Race characteristics. The ideal, as will be seen, is not a universalized set of conditions and a uniformity of human personality, but full individual development with readiness to combine and to co-operate in the great causes of human happiness and progress.

Theosophy adds to the statement of this far-reaching plan that every individual can participate in the progress of the Race. Each one of us is important; for each of us can help or hinder the historical process. If each one of us will play our constructive part, if we can inspire our young people with the vision of themselves as Nation-builders, then America, Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand will fulfill their present promise of rapid advance to magnificent nationhood.

In the light of such teachings of Theosophy, the truly alarming portents to which I drew attention at the beginning of this Talk assume a less menacing aspect, dangerous though they are. The student of Theosophy need not fear that any futility overshadows man's highest dreams; he need not be afraid that civilization will be allowed up in unheeding, everlasting night; for he is taught that man moves through innumerable ages to ever-in-creasing power, wisdom and glory.[Page 5]

The problem which I am now going to discuss is that of good citizenship and bad citizenship, particularly in the young people of today. Reports and statistics emanating from many countries and sources demonstrate that all is not as it should be with modern youth.

"Poets are born, not made", it is said, but good citizens are made, not born, and the same is true of bad citizens. Moral laxity in youth is largely the result of deficient education at home and at school and of pernicious influences out in the world. In consequence, idealists are visualizing an educational system with the main objectives of developing human character and of producing good citizens of the home, the school, the city, the Nation and the world. Advanced thinkers have long been proclaiming the urgent need for education for character-building, stability and integrity. They seek to imbue young people with a strong moral sense and a vision of excellence. Education for successful living and for useful citizenship, including public service, is now being regarded as both the key to the New World Order and the life blood of civilization.

Education is of two parts — in school and out of school. At present these two influences upon the growing child tend to become divorced. Teachers state that the good they try to do in the school is all too often undone at home and out in the world. In-school and out-of-school education should be co-ordinated, otherwise the one nullifies the other. The home will then widen naturally into the school which in its turn becomes both an extension of the home and a natural gateway to adult life.

Broadcasting is one example of these dangers. The radio penetrates every home. Every child from babyhood is exposed to it. Sensational stories, luring advertisements, moronic crooning and raucous jazz pour out of loudspeakers throughout the Nations. To combat this very serious evil, a due censorship is urgently needed, with the single purpose of producing good citizens.

Advertising may be taken as another example. The newspapers, the hoardings, the handbills, and some of the radio stations of the world are designed for advertising. This almost hypnotic procedure beats upon the consciousness of modern man, influencing thought and word and deed. The adult gradually acquires a self-defense against this perpetual battering. Unfortunately that defense is cynicism. But the child does not know any better and is inevitably affected, deceived, moulded. The predominant motive of commercial advertising is to get, to acquire, to deceive, to persuade, to allure one's fellow men. It is selfish, acquisitive. The child tends to conclude that cleverness in deceit for personal profit wins the world's greatest prizes. He absorbs this attitude towards life, gravely to his detriment, thinking of success in purely worldly terms and material values.

Many children are thus spoilt, marred as potential good citizens. They are sent out into life with a strong desire to advertise themselves, to sell themselves, their education, their scholastic degrees, their highest gifts, for money, power, possessions. Thus the young people of today are being moulded by adults into selfish embodiments of a ravenous passion for getting things. Of religion, of the Divine Presence, they know naught. Their minds are not spiritually moulded. [From Reader’s Digest, USA] A radio announcer's daughter when asked to say grace spoke forth easily: “This food comes to us by courtesy of God Almighty." A story is told of another child who, when shown by her mother her first rainbow, immediately asked: "What is it supposed to advertise?"