HORACE MEYER KALLEN, New School for Social Research, New York.
(2) catastrophe of 1914 and the psychic reactions to it present the student a distinctive problem. The readjust ments demanded by; the World lArar appear psychologically as contributions to the genesis of conviction. When we attempt to view the lArorld War as occasioned by psychic condi tions, this implies a look below and beyond outward manifestations, to the underlying phe nomena, and then to see these reflected in the convictions of men under the coercion of a vio lent reconstruction of their already adjusted outlooks, outlooks upon the world formed dur ing a period of peace.
It is only by confining oneself to generalities that one can discuss group mentality and senti mental states. For though all groups doubtless possess a certain number of common character istics, many partial differences divide them, and even various provinces possess strongly marked similarities, which distinctions, however, do not in the least preclude the existence of many. com mon characteristics.
In former wars as in the late struggle it was not each nation's desire for national expression which made the continuance of peace impossible. It is the fact that thus far in the world's his tory such desire has been bound up with naval ism and militarism. Any national group whose flontier bristles with engines of war is not un like the individual with a magazine pistol ready for instant action. Both tnake for murder: and in their hearts, both really niean murder.. This war was occasioned by too many nations with a desire for self-expression under niilitary and nava' conditions and only one planet upon which they 'might expand. Ptychologically, war is mere instinctive action. The Great War cannot have been dependent upon the will of any one. man. It was brought about by deep-seated,. re mote and varied causes, which had been accumu lating until now when. their effects emerge soddenly, as it were, into *Mr ken. We have been surprised, and our mental peace has been taken from us by the revelations of, say, a preparedness, so far surpassing ours, that we do not see ourselves so muchof a world power as we had imagined ourselves. The Great War
revealed the souls of men. The leading European representatives of Western civilization Germans, Englishmen and French— are op pressed by a paralyzing astonishment in regard to each other's real nature. They did not know each other,— and yet considered themselves as members of a single ancestral stem.
Ever since the olden days, the world has been seething with suppressed but none the less deStructive activities that have at last laid it low with the worst case of universal nervous prostration ever lcnown. This state is called war. The world could not avoid war as long as it remained on the level of warfare. Ours was not a Christian world. And while the national pulpit preached Christianity, nations eyed each other, ready for blood. The powers that move one mass of humanity against its brethren are deep and subtle; so deep and subtle that we are constantly substituting surface and relatively unimportant causes for the real ones.
One of the plainest lessons taught by history, and one of those substantially verified by the late conflict, is that nations are not ruled by realities, but by more or less illusory ideas which they have, intellectually. rnisformed of realities. The truth about an historical event is seldom, very seldom, known at the time of its occurrence.
Wars are not the expression of reason but of instinct. And there is in consequence no such thing as uculturep or acivilizatioe on the level of reasonless instinct. The instinct of partisan s,hip which on one side is devotion and loyalty, on the other side hate and bigotry; the instinct of dominance which makes the strong love to assert their power over rivalry and the instinct of pugnacity urge men to fight and nations to war. Most great wars are fratricidaL The worst wars and the worst misunderstandings, prejudices and hatreds bred by war are be tween strong nations cloaely War has the zest of action at terrific istensity. It is the very intoxication pf instinctive life and is as tempting as strong drink.