STOP KILLING

Evening Star, Issue 19788, 11 February 1928, Page 10

STOP KILLING

DOOM OF HUMANITY CIVILISATION IN MELTING POT A wave of pessimism is sweeping over Europe. Wise men in many countries are talking of disaster. “1 should be a liar” (writes Sir Philip Gibbs, in the ‘Sunday Chronicle’) “if 1 pretended that 1 disbelieved that some of these dangers lie ahead for the human race. But .1 believe that the hitman mind is not incapable of avoiding them and finding a Tray out.” Is civilisation dying? In is perhaps some unconscious or semi-conscious knowledge—some intuition or foreboding—of an exhaustion of the very sources of energy leading to a desperate struggle for existence in which Empires, Stales, and peoples may perish, which is accountable lor a wave of melancholy spreading over the Western world, and expressed poignantly by many of the deepest thinkers in many different nations. They are all “calamity howlers.” it is a pessimism which strikes to the very roots of social philosophy, and pervades the- intellectual lilc of Europe with the spirit of despair. It is not only an acknowledgment, but an assertion, that Western civilisation has reached its zenith and is on the downward curve, that the end of the industrial era is at hand, that civilisation is in the process of decay and near to death. MOR1BI) PHILOSOPHY, This writing on the wall is .in Kalian, French, German, Spanish, Danish, English, and many other tongues. “Night falls over Europe,” said that great German statesman and idealist, Walthcr Rathenau, just bet ore his death. “Darkness is descending niton Europe,” writes Maurice Muret, in a hook entitled ‘The Twilight ot the White Races.’ “The process of dissolving the economy of Europe has already begun,” says N.itti, once Prime Minister of Italy. 'These prophets of doom do not limit themselves to Europe iu their vision ol mortal sickness overtaking civilisation. It is civilisation itse'lt which is on its wav to dissolution, and not even the United Slates, they say,_ shall bo spared, because they have within themselves the disease of death. This morbid philosophy—caused partly by the spiritual shock of the war iuid its disastrous consequences in many countries, hut duo also, I think, to the materialistic despair which has followed the abandonment of religion hv millions of minds unsettled by scientific dishlief—has been most elaborately sot forth in that strange and terrible hook, ‘The Decline of Hie West,’ by Oswald Splengler, a German scholar. “ In a few centuries from now there will he no more a "Western culture, no more be German, English, or J' reneb (be wiites). “The primitive phenomenon ol the great culture will itself have disappeared one day, and with it the drama of world history; aye, and man himself. and beyond man the phenomenon of plant and animal existence on the earth’s surface, the earth, the sun, the whole world of sun systems.” That, tremendous, all-embracing propheev of death may strike a taint chid into' imaginative minds reaching out towards the gates of eternity, hut leave tbo ordinary and practical minds untouched because of that remoteness.

But this man has no comlorfc lor the immediate future because he sees the already visible decay of nil that . culture which gave vital lorce to Europe in tho past, and the downv ard curve in that cycle ol civilisation which is drawn by destiny. Count Keyscrling, a Baltic baron, and a German intellectual leader, is also, like many modern minds, exceedingly anxious, hie, too. believes that modern democracy is overwhelming the old culture of our civilisation bv a process of barbarisation. AMERICANISM. In America, whore ho found the highest expression of mechanical efficiency, lie was terrified by the sonldestroying (-fleet of that achievement. Ho condemns America, because it is loss “civilised ” than Europe, but more “civilised.” . . “ AVhat is so awful in Amcncaism,' writes Count Kcyserling, “ is nob that it devitalises men, hut that it simplifies tho psychic organism to an unheard of degree. America proves that a complete and full inner life can be lived without a soul, without intellectual interests, without, cultivated feelings. . . . And this implies a fear In! danger.” All this is unmitigated gloom, leading to despair.. Is it true, or is it onl> the dark illusion of morbid minds? I should bo a liar if I pretended that I disbelieved that some of those dancers lie ahead for the human race. llut°J believe that the human mind is not incapable of avoiding them and finding a way out. It is likely on all evidence that we are reaching the limit of industrial development, and that the furious competition in machine-made goods win he beaten back, so that nations wil have to be more self-supporting _ and not dependent on export trade. 'J hat is not wholly a dismal prospect, though tho transition stage will ho paintnl and perhaps tragic in many countries. It is right and natural for man to base ins life upon the land, which is tin source of real wealth. l.ho disintegration of enormous cities and a more general return to the fields and woods might ho a blessing rather than a curse. ~ The simplification of life with less nee Is and less luxuries may bring back happiness, which seems to have fled from many centres of our present rhilisation. AVe may ho going to the dogs, hut, as Chesterton says, they mav he “ rather jolly dogs.” TASK OF THE AA’IITTE BALES.

The immense penis which the pessimists soc arc not imaginary. r J heir results will he world calamity if there is not intelligence enough to deal with them and control them. The weakening of the white races will undoubtedly lead to an overwhelming tide of color unless the white races decide to stop killing each other —not beyond the range of human intelligence—and co-operate instead of compete with each other. By acknowledging tho rights oi the colored races, by a gradual withdrawal from old forms of domination according as the colored peoples advance in selfcontrol ami possibilities of self-govern-ment, there may be friendly communication and intercourse which will avoid world war and a “ fighting retreat.” A spiritual understanding ot other human minds, racial instincts, and needs of life may lead to a solution of many economic problems and causes of conflict. HUMA NITT’S BEST INY. A world-wide system of co-operation and distribution by which the products most easily produced in one country, may be exchanged for those most easily produced in another, instead of all producing the same kind of things, would lead to less fever of competition and less waste of human energy. The genius of the human mind which lias investigated so many secrets of Nature with such marvellous skill, is not incapable ot reshaping its own destiny and frustrating the evil forces which are threatening the future life of mankind.-

I do not sec many signs as yet that human intelligence is on the upgrade or that man’s spiritual nature is advancing to high altitudes. On the contrary there are signs of decadence and weakening will power in many aspecti of modern civilisation. But we have the possibility within ourselves of improving our 'minds and our manners. Upon that possibility depends tho. fate of civilisation and all that, makes life good to us.