War and Civilization in the Future

Abstract

When we look to the future there are various neglected points which should be considered. (I) Modern warfare has become increasingly destructive by the military utilization of advances in knowledge and inventions made by civilians. So, too, warfare is being directed increasingly against civilians and their industrial activities. It is necessary, therefore, that civilians should begin to take a direct interest in military problems. (2) The possession of superior armament has been accompanied, in modern times, by the growing assertion of absolutist theories of government, especially by Fichte and his successors in Germany. (3) The difficulties inseparable from war do not end with the conclusion of peace. Demobilization creates more difficult problems than mobilization. We need a close-up investigation of what has happeded in different countries after the return of armies to civil life. (4) The theory of the state is a doctrine of violence, but modern thought is dominated by theories of violence. Darwin's conception of a "war of nature" in which "the more dominant groups beat the less dominant" was welcomed in Germany as supporting militarist arguments. (5) We must look forward to the invention of ever newer agencies of destruction as long as we keep on insisting upon theories of violence. But we can readily trace the dissemination of the ideas which are undermining civilization, and we must face the difficulties which have been created by the work of men such as Fichte, Darwin, and Marx. The future of civilization turns upon the ability of scholars to meet the responsibility of intellectual leadership.