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receives, and this mutual enrichment is, after all, the only
valid reason for ever giving anything.
How to Widen your Social Horizons
As no one can be happy in work which is centred
entirely about his own person and deals exclusively with
the satisfaction of his own immediate needs, so no one
can be entirely happy in social relations which focus only
in himself and his immediate and narrow sphere of
influence. To find happiness we must seek it in a focus
outside ourselves. To do this in the social wrorld it is
desirable that every one should commit himself definitely
to a programme of social awareness, social expansion, and
social concern. There is little merit in deploring social
injustice, civic corruption, political chicanery, or inter¬
national chauvinism, but if you get into some social
movement that appeals to you and devote your interest,
attention, and activity to it, you are likely to reap a
valuable dividend therefrom.
If you live only for yourself you are always in immediate
danger of being bored to death by the repetition of your
own views and interests. If your centre of gravity is in
some extra-personal social movement you profit by the
vitality and the objectivity of that movement. It matters
little for psychological purposes whether you interest
yourself in making your city cleaner, or enlist in the
international campaign to rid the world of the illicit
opium traffic, whether you go in for Birth Control or
become a crusader against the vicious influence of
prudery and superstition. Choose a movement that
presents a distinct trend towards greater human happiness
and align yourself with it. No one has learned the
meaning of living until he has surrendered his ego to the
service of his fellow-men.
Wide social horizons are the more worth cultivation
because no single social group is completely objective in
its scope. Read conservative and radical papers at the
same time, and learn to draw your own conclusions from