The Moral Vision
Working Together
~ 70 ~
WORKING TOGETHER
In the days of the steam engine, the engine drivers
had no option but to stand at close quarters to a
blazing fire. It was all part of being an engine
driver, and without that no train could have run.
Much the same thing happens to the individuals
who make things go in civic life. They are
confronted by the blazing fire of their own anger at
other members of society.
They rage at wrongdoers, cheats and shirkers, both
real and imagined. But just as the engine driver
controls both the fire which drives the engine and
his own desire to escape from it, so must the
individual in society tame both his own fury and a
desire simply to run away from adverse situations.
If a society is to hold together and function in
harmony, individuals must learn to bear with those
who oppose and hurt them. There is no group of
people in which differences of opinion do not arise;
no group in which there are never feelings of
grievance and resentment. It would, indeed, be
unrealistic to expect that everything should be plain
sailing.
