The Story of Mankind [184]
many people, as a
childish superstition which was perhaps natural in a race of
men who had burned witches as late as the year 1692. Even
our hospitals and our laboratories and our operating rooms
of which we are so proud will look like slightly improved
workshops of alchemists and mediaeval surgeons.
And the reason for all this is simple. We modern men and
women are not ``modern'' at all. On the contrary we still
belong to the last generations of the cave-dwellers. The foundation
for a new era was laid but yesterday. The human race
was given its first chance to become truly civilised when it took
courage to question all things and made ``knowledge and
understanding'' the foundation upon which to create a more
reasonable and sensible society of human beings. The Great
War was the ``growing-pain'' of this new world.
For a long time to come people will write mighty books to
prove that this or that or the other person brought about the
war. The Socialists will publish volumes in which they will ac-
cuse the ``capitalists'' of having brought about the war for ``commercial
gain.'' The capitalists will answer that they lost infinitely
more through the war than they made--that their children
were among the first to go and fight and be killed--and
they will show how in every country the bankers tried their
very best to avert the outbreak of hostilities. French historians
will go through the register of German sins from the
days of Charlemagne until the days of William of Hohenzollern
and German historians will return the compliment and
will go through the list of French horrors from the days of
Charlemagne until the days of President Poincare. And
then they will establish to their own satisfaction that the other
fellow was guilty of ``causing the war.'' Statesmen, dead and
not yet dead, in all countries will take to their typewriters and
they will explain how they tried to avert hostilities and how
their wicked opponents forced them into it.
The historian, a hundred years hence, will not bother about
these apologies and vindications. He will understand the real
nature of the underlying causes and he will know that personal
ambitions and personal wickedness and personal greed had very
little to do with the final outburst. The original mistake, which
was responsible for all this misery, was committed when our
scientists began to create a new world of steel and iron and
chemistry and electricity and forgot that the human mind is
slower than the proverbial turtle, is lazier than the well-known
sloth, and marches from one hundred to three hundred years
behind the small group of courageous leaders.
A Zulu in a frock coat is still a Zulu. A dog trained to ride
a bicycle and smoke a pipe is still a dog. And a human being
with the mind of a sixteenth century tradesman driving a 1921
Rolls-Royce is still a human being with the mind of a sixteenth
century tradesman.
If you do not understand this at first, read it again. It
will become clearer to you in a moment and it will explain
many things that have happened these last six years.
Perhaps I may give you another, more familiar, example,
to show you what I mean. In the movie theatres, jokes and
funny remarks are often thrown upon the screen. Watch the
audience the next time you have a chance. A few people seem
almost to inhale the words. It takes them but a second to read
the lines. Others are a bit slower. Still others take from
twenty to thirty seconds. Finally those men and women who
do not read any more than they can help, get the point when
the brighter ones among the audience have already begun to
decipher the next cut-in. It is not different in human life,
as I shall now show you.
In a former chapter I have told you how the idea of the
Roman Empire continued to live for a thousand years after
the death of the last Roman Emperor. It caused the establishment
of
childish superstition which was perhaps natural in a race of
men who had burned witches as late as the year 1692. Even
our hospitals and our laboratories and our operating rooms
of which we are so proud will look like slightly improved
workshops of alchemists and mediaeval surgeons.
And the reason for all this is simple. We modern men and
women are not ``modern'' at all. On the contrary we still
belong to the last generations of the cave-dwellers. The foundation
for a new era was laid but yesterday. The human race
was given its first chance to become truly civilised when it took
courage to question all things and made ``knowledge and
understanding'' the foundation upon which to create a more
reasonable and sensible society of human beings. The Great
War was the ``growing-pain'' of this new world.
For a long time to come people will write mighty books to
prove that this or that or the other person brought about the
war. The Socialists will publish volumes in which they will ac-
cuse the ``capitalists'' of having brought about the war for ``commercial
gain.'' The capitalists will answer that they lost infinitely
more through the war than they made--that their children
were among the first to go and fight and be killed--and
they will show how in every country the bankers tried their
very best to avert the outbreak of hostilities. French historians
will go through the register of German sins from the
days of Charlemagne until the days of William of Hohenzollern
and German historians will return the compliment and
will go through the list of French horrors from the days of
Charlemagne until the days of President Poincare. And
then they will establish to their own satisfaction that the other
fellow was guilty of ``causing the war.'' Statesmen, dead and
not yet dead, in all countries will take to their typewriters and
they will explain how they tried to avert hostilities and how
their wicked opponents forced them into it.
The historian, a hundred years hence, will not bother about
these apologies and vindications. He will understand the real
nature of the underlying causes and he will know that personal
ambitions and personal wickedness and personal greed had very
little to do with the final outburst. The original mistake, which
was responsible for all this misery, was committed when our
scientists began to create a new world of steel and iron and
chemistry and electricity and forgot that the human mind is
slower than the proverbial turtle, is lazier than the well-known
sloth, and marches from one hundred to three hundred years
behind the small group of courageous leaders.
A Zulu in a frock coat is still a Zulu. A dog trained to ride
a bicycle and smoke a pipe is still a dog. And a human being
with the mind of a sixteenth century tradesman driving a 1921
Rolls-Royce is still a human being with the mind of a sixteenth
century tradesman.
If you do not understand this at first, read it again. It
will become clearer to you in a moment and it will explain
many things that have happened these last six years.
Perhaps I may give you another, more familiar, example,
to show you what I mean. In the movie theatres, jokes and
funny remarks are often thrown upon the screen. Watch the
audience the next time you have a chance. A few people seem
almost to inhale the words. It takes them but a second to read
the lines. Others are a bit slower. Still others take from
twenty to thirty seconds. Finally those men and women who
do not read any more than they can help, get the point when
the brighter ones among the audience have already begun to
decipher the next cut-in. It is not different in human life,
as I shall now show you.
In a former chapter I have told you how the idea of the
Roman Empire continued to live for a thousand years after
the death of the last Roman Emperor. It caused the establishment
of