The Icelandic Canadian - 01.10.1942, Blaðsíða 6

2
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
themselves were not patterned upon preconceived concepts; they were
evolved in accordance with the growing stream of human consciousness;
an organism that was fed by new ideas drawn from innumerable strange
sources; but the sustaining soil was the Norse heart, the Norse nature.
Is there not something of pertinent challenge in all this for those
of us who have Viking blood in our veins? Is it not clear that now, as
perhaps never before in this troubled world, what is most needed are
adventurers with a new vision who have the courage and the fortitude
to seek new horizons?
It is true that the physical world is shrinking; that space and time
have contracted to such an extent that a whisper now circles the globe
with the speed of lightning. There are no terrestial frontiers; no alien
countries unknown and mysterious; for the nations of the earth are
fast becoming an integrated patchwork and every man his brother’s
keeper.
But still there are new horizons, infinite everlasting horizons for
the questing human consciousness. For the one frontier that now
remains is the realm of the mind, and what a wilderness is here! What
a jungle of mental weeds and misconceptions confronts the pioneer!
Racial hatreds, racial pride, ignorance, superstition, bigotry, these are
the shoals the adventurer must circumvent or die. Yet this is the
supreme adventure of our age; the challenge to our organic genius for
survival. The handwriting on the wall is plain. The old order of brute
force, of foolish exploitation and rigid mental attributes is dying. The
ultimate survivors will be those peoples in whom there is enough flexi-
bility and mental genius to be the instrument of evolution. Pioneers in
new and better human relationships; adventurers dedicated to the
future, not the past.
With this thought in mind the Icelandic Canadian Club launches
its little barque of hopeful letters upon the troubled seas of contempor-
ary thought. It is our conviction that the time has come to cut our-
selves free of the fallacious idea that our duty to the past must con-
strain us to the old Icelandic mold. We believe that our first duty is to
Canada and to the world of tomorrow. In that new world ethnic
differences must not prevail as they have hitherto prevailed. Our
divergent cultures must be freely spent in building a co-ordinated and
greater civilization sincerely and sanely devoted to the common good
of this country. Cooperation and not opposition must be the watch-
word of tomorrow. We shall lose nothing of value and gain much that
is productive of a better and richer national life by so doing.
Iceland will still live in our hearts; what is more, all that is good
and great and treasurable in her ancient traditions will be transformed
into living reality. As Canadians, and only as Canadians will it be