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Show 1 . Comparing the West and the East If you talk with visitors from the east, you gather the impression that the east is in a state bordering On panic. Most visitors comment on the comparative sanity of westerners ; also on the fact that westerners are more self-reliant self-reliant in hard times. This is easily understood. The average easterners is little lit-tle better, in normal times, than a serf. He has a master to do his thinking for him ; he is one of a great herd, governed by a few herd-masters. The west's less intense industrialization has left us, up to now, more individual. Most of us still are capable of thinking for ourselves and, to some extent, working out our own problems. And there is still some of the old rugged pioneer spirit left in us, thank heaven ! Let us hope that, out here, we never become herd-minded, subject to wild panic and wild enthusiasm. We shall get farther and fare better by standing, each of us, on his own feet, fighting his own battle instead of relying on someone else. ' |