The Social Problem and the Present War

Abstract

An American publicist2 recently predicted that the end of our present social order would come before I930. He points out that many of the social tendencies of the present are strikingly like those which preceded the French Revolution. He cites the mental opacity of our ruling classes as in many respects similar to the stupidity of the old French nobility when they were faced by the necessity of social readjustment in their time. The parallel between recent social unrest and that which preceded the storm of the French Revolution would probably be assented to by nearly all students of social history. Indeed, it requires no profound scientific mind to see the parallel. The blindness and ultraconservatism of many in our privileged classes on the one hand, the fanatic radicalism and one-sidedness of many of the leaders of the non-privileged on the other, would breed trouble in any social order. Unless plasticity of mind and a sense of social obligation can be instilled into our socially fortunate classes, and broadminded and constructive views shall dominate the leaders of our masses, western civilization is indeed brewing for the world something worse than a French Revolution. The problem of our civilization is something more than the mere threatened overthrow of existing political and industrial institutions. This the present European war (I9I4) makes evident. The problem before us is not how to avoid political revolution, but rather how to avoid the decay and disintegration of civilization itself. Many writers have recently told us that our civilization is on the wane, and many things might be cited in the present European war to show that such a conclusion is no mere