登陆注册
15299200000068

第68章 THE ENDING OF THE WAR(7)

The most dangerous thing in the business so far is concerned is the wide disregard of the fact that national economic fighting is bound to cause war, and the almost universal ignorance of the necessity of subjecting shipping and overseas and international trade to some kind of international control.These two things, restraint of trade and advantage of shipping, are the chief material causes of anger between modern states.But they would not be in themselves dangerous things if it were not for the exaggerated delusions of kind and difference, and the crack-brained "loyalties" arising out of these, that seem still to rule men's minds.Years ago I came to the conviction that much of the evil in human life was due to the inherent vicious disposition of the human mind to intensify classification.[*See my "First and Last Things," Book I.and my "Modern Utopia," Chapter X.] I do not know how it will strike the reader, but to me this war, this slaughter of eight or nine million people, is due almost entirely to this little, almost universal lack of clear-headedness; Ibelieve that the share of wickedness in making war is quite secondary to the share of this universal shallow silliness of outlook.These effigies of emperors and kings and statesmen that lead men into war, these legends of nationality and glory, would collapse before our universal derision, if they were not stuffed tight and full with the unthinking folly of the common man.

There is in all of us an indolent capacity for suffering evil and dangerous things, that I contemplate each year of my life with a deepening incredulity.I perceive we suffer them; I record the futile protests of the intelligence.It seems to me incredible that men should not rise up out of this muddy, bloody, wasteful mess of a world war, with a resolution to end for ever the shams, the prejudices, the pretences and habits that have impoverished their lives, slaughtered our sons, and wasted the world, a resolution so powerful and sustained that nothing could withstand it.

But it is not apparent that any such will arises.Does it appear at all? I find it hard to answer that question because my own answer varies with my mood.There are moods when it seems to me that nothing of the sort is happening.This war has written its warning in letters of blood and flame and anguish in the skies of mankind for two years and a half.When I look for the collective response to that warning, I see a multitude of little chaps crawling about their private ends like mites in an old cheese.

The kings are still in their places, not a royal prince has been killed in this otherwise universal slaughter; when the fatuous portraits of the monarchs flash upon the screen the widows and orphans still break into loyal song.The ten thousand religions of mankind are still ten thousand religions, all busy at keeping men apart and hostile.I see scarcely a measurable step made anywhere towards that world kingdom of God, which is, I assert, the manifest solution, the only formula that can bring peace to all mankind.Mankind as a whole seems to have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing in thirty months of war.

And then on the other hand I am aware of much quiet talking.

This book tells of how I set out to see the war, and it is largely conversation....Perhaps men have always expected miracles to happen; if one had always lived in the night and only heard tell of the day, I suppose one would have expected dawn to come as a vivid flash of light.I suppose one would still think it was night long after the things about one had crept out of the darkness into visibility.In comparison with all previous wars there has been much more thinking and much more discussion.If most of the talk seems to be futile, if it seems as if everyone were talking and nobody doing, it does not follow that things are not quietly slipping and sliding out of their old adjustments amidst the babble and because of the babble.Multitudes of men must be struggling with new ideas.It is reasonable to argue that there must be reconsideration, there must be time, before these millions of mental efforts can develop into a new collective purpose and really /show/--in consequences.

But that they will do so is my hope always and, on the whole, except in moods of depression and impatience, my belief.When one has travelled to a conviction so great as mine it is difficult to doubt that other men faced by the same universal facts will not come to the same conclusion.I believe that only through a complete simplification o religion to its fundamental idea, to a world-wide realisation of God as the king of the heart and of all mankind, setting aside monarchy and national egotism altogether, can mankind come to any certain happiness and security.The precedent of Islam helps my faith in the creative inspiration of such a renascence of religion.The Sikh, the Moslem, the Puritan have shown that men can fight better for a Divine Idea than for any flag or monarch in the world.It seems to me that illusions fade and effigies lose credit everywhere.

It is a very wonderful thing to me that China is now a republic....I take myself to be very nearly an average man, abnormal only by reason of a certain mental rapidity.I conceive myself to be thinking as the world thinks, and if I find no great facts, I find a hundred little indications to reassure me that God comes.Even those who have neither the imagination nor the faith to apprehend God as a reality will, I think, realise presently that the Kingdom of God over a world-wide system of republican states, is the only possible formula under which we may hope to unify and save mankind.

End

同类推荐
  • 少室六门

    少室六门

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 唐朝名画录

    唐朝名画录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • Gargantua and Pantagruel

    Gargantua and Pantagruel

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 巩氏族谱

    巩氏族谱

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 黄箓五老悼亡仪

    黄箓五老悼亡仪

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 回忆的长桥

    回忆的长桥

    也许他是喜欢我的,只是那是以前了。不是不爱只是爱的时间不对。以后是怎么样的,谁又知道呢,只是现在的我们很好
  • 重生之只要复仇

    重生之只要复仇

    受难一世,恶人终福,连老天都可怜我;时间倒转,改写过去,已对爱情无寄托。同样的过去,不同的未来,是否再次找回当初的清纯?
  • 斋戒箓

    斋戒箓

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 麻雀的爱情:蓝瘦香菇

    麻雀的爱情:蓝瘦香菇

    世人总有新奇的想法,如:“破镜重圆,重归于好”;相反的,还有“貌合神离,同床异梦”呢。常鸿夫妻之间是什么情形呢?他们的恋爱、结婚、生子,真是坎坎坷坷、跌宕起伏,堪称神奇。
  • 重生战国之刺客系统

    重生战国之刺客系统

    诡影无踪柳叶镖,神行百变凌霄步!李陌,现代都市中的小李飞刀传人,重生战国末期,却意外的获得了刺客系统。李陌拜入鬼谷门中,出山之后却机缘巧合下加入了不属于百家游侠一派的大家族中,开始了赚票子,买房子,找妹子的得过且过生活。皇家为首,诸子百家明争暗斗,不再只是学派,而是一种异姓联盟,只为争夺华夏大地的主事权。游侠联盟,包揽江湖各流侠客,鱼龙混杂的庞大组织,有十步杀一人的剑客,有掌控阴阳的道士,也有谈笑间樯橹灰飞的名家……阵营分化,百家之间的战斗一触即发!
  • 那年我在校园追过的女孩

    那年我在校园追过的女孩

    校园的爱情,总是很浪漫和纯美的。如果伴随着生与死和忠诚与背叛,那么这段如梦如烟的感情时光,就如刀刻一般,永远铭刻在心。
  • 悍妃追夫记

    悍妃追夫记

    别人穿越都是被美男追到遍地跑,而她苏玉的穿越却是被男神一次又一次的唾弃与拒绝。好吧,为了前世的爱恋,今世的夙愿,她便开启了无敌追男模式。正所谓,男追女隔层山,女追男隔层纱,她把纱都捅破几百次了,为何那男人还无动于衷?他——年云飞,世家第一公子,京都第一美男,只因初见,便心许于他。他——玄寅烈,当今四皇子,一朝为她倾心,便可豁尽天下宠她爱她。他——赵子高,帝都第一纨绔儿,因嘲笑她的厚颜无耻,却在不知不觉中,受她吸引,以至于最后身心沉沦。【情节虚构,请勿模仿】
  • 萝莉丧尸皇

    萝莉丧尸皇

    前世,她是杀手,任务失手而死,变成孤魂,末世飘荡十年,看尽人心险恶。今生,她得了空间强势归来决心在这末世中掀起一番风雨,笑傲天下!不圣母,美男多多,白莲花多多(很惨滴)其余自行脑补~~~
  • 七年情妇

    七年情妇

    17岁那年,她被嗜赌如命的父亲卖给了他做债款。那一年,她对人生充满的所有幻想都被破灭。18岁那年,他给她办了一场成人典礼,庆祝她长大成人。那一年,她对于未来的梦想被粉碎。从此以后她成了他的情妇,并签下了七年的契约。在契约满的那一天,她将他送给他的所有衣服和钱都带走了,包括那个双人枕头,只留下了那枚戒指静静的躺在床边的柜子上。她尽情的挥霍着他送给她的一切:去买了属于自己的房子车子,准备过属于自己的日子。可是,半年后他找到了她,带着那一纸契约“嫁给我,或者一无所有”就这么一句话让她从情妇变成了妻子......
  • 神兵小将之死神来了

    神兵小将之死神来了

    神兵小将们打败原始天魔后。黑暗再次袭来神圣国被黑暗力量吞噬对手是谁???