The world stands at the crossroads, faced by two alternatives: organisation of it as one whole or periodic wars. We make the society in which we live. We are the masters of the institutions which have taken a wrong turn and we must discover the necessary remedies for this sick society. If the civilisation which, till recently, rejoiced in its progress and humanity is now convulsed in agony, it does not mean that it is being hurried by an inexorable process of history to its own dissolution. Periods of creation have been periods of great suffering. The world will pass through a phase of growing-pains before it reaches a new equilibrium. Even though there may be set-backs and relapses, the human race is bound to move towards a saner world. But the pace is set by our courage and wisdom. Constructive purposes which might lead to the redemption of the race are often wasted, not through lack of emotion or will but through confusion of mind and timidity.

The serious distemper of our social life is traceable to the lag between our social institutions and the world purpose. Nature has made many races with different languages, religions and social traditions, and has set man the task of creating order in the human world and discovering a way of life by which different groups can live peaceably together without resorting to force to settle their differences. The world is not intended to be a battleground of warring nations, but a commonwealth of different groups co-operating in a constructive effort to achieve dignity, noble living and prosperity for all.

The necessary conditions for world union are available; only the will of man is lacking. The great causes of divisions, oceans and mountains, have ceased to operate. Through the facilities of transport and communication now available, the world has become a close neighbourhood. Unlike religion and custom, which are local in character, science recognises no political or social boundaries and speaks a language which is understood by all. The impact on man of the machine has shattered the pre-machine world of entirely independent states. The industrial revolution has affected economic relations so completely that we have become a world society with a world economy which calls for a world order. Science reveals identical cosmic elements as the basis of human life. Philosophy visualises a universal consciousness at the back of nature and humanity. Religion refers to our common spiritual struggles and aspirations.

In the early stages of human evolution, expressions of group thought and fueling took their rise and carried on their development in circumstances which led naturally to mutual isolation and unawareness. The nation state came into being when man felt the necessity of a reliable social order and a strong central power which would put down tribal feuds and civil wars. It served humanity in the past by giving the nationals a spaciousness and creativity not otherwise capable of being attained. Many nations have managed to attain national unity, and it will only be carrying this process a stage further to achieve the unity of the world. Human roots go deeper than the fibres of race and nationality. Our planet has grown too small for parochial patriotism. Historical backgrounds, climatic conditions, widespread intermarriage have made the different races what they are today. We all have the same mental processes, the same emotional reactions, the same basic impulses and the same longings and aspirations. Darwin in his Descent of Man observes: “As man advances in civilisation and small tribes are united into larger communities, the simplest reason would tell each individual that he ought to extend his social instincts and sympathies to all the members of the same nation, though personally unknown to him. This point being once reached, there is only an artificial barrier to prevent his sympathies extending to the men of all nations and races.” One of the recognised tests of an advance in civilisation is the gradual extension of the boundaries of the group. Darwin would marvel at the talk of racial parity, the exaltation of one breed of men as the chosen favourites of the gods.

The urge of nationalism and its ideals still dominates the thoughts of peoples, whatever be their political faiths, Nazi or Communist, Fascist or Democratic, and thus the energies of men are diverted from the main stream pf human progress into narrower channels. We are in the position of primitive groups which embrace the members of the blood kin only, or those with whom they are more or less intimately acquainted. A kind of miseducation to which we are subjected from our nurseries makes us victims of nationalist ‘passion.’ We look upon baseness, brutality and violence as quite normal if associated with the nation’s cause.

Nationalism is not a ‘natural’ instinct. It is an acquired artificial emotion. Love of one’s native soil, loyalty to regional traditions, do not mean violent hostility to one’s neighbours. If today the feeling of national pride is intense, it only shows the prodigious capacity of human nature for self-deception. Selfinterest, material greed and lust for domination are the operative ideals. Patriotism has killed piety, and passion logic. Those who are not fortunate in the matter of earthly possessions protest against the unfair apportionment of the earth’s surface. The British have a quarter of the land area of the world. France comes next. Even small nations like Holland, Belgium and Portugal have large colonial possessions. Germany wants room to live, expand and dominate. The need for living-room becomes the controlling motive of the policies of the unsatisfied and ambitious powers. If we assume that the most powerful race must be the master of the world, ruthlessness becomes the pursuit of divine destiny.

We are at one of the most decisive moments in the life of mankind. At no other period of human history were so many people bearing such impossible burdens or suffering such agonising persecution and anguish of heart. We are living in a world in which tragedy is universal. There is a startling relaxing of traditions, of restraints and of established law and order.

Ideas which until yesterday were regarded as inseparable from social decency and justice, which were able to direct and discipline conduct for centuries, are swept away. The world is rent by misunderstandings, bitterness and strife. The atmosphere is charged with suspicion, uncertainly and much fear for the future.

The growing distresses of our race, the deepening economic misery, wars on an unprecedented scale, the divided counsels in high places and the inertia of those in power and authority, who wish to preserve the collapsing order and save the crippled civilisation at any cost, 1 are rousing, the world over, a spirit which is, in essence, revolutionary. The term revolution’ need not always imply mobviolence and massacre of ruling classes. Any urgent desire for intense and drastic change of the foundations of civilised life is a revolutionary desire.

The word is used in two senses : (i) a sudden and violent uprising resulting in a coup such as the French or the Bolshevik Revolution ; (ii) a gradual transition spread over a period of time from one system of social relations to another as, for example, the British Industrial Revolution. What makes a period revolutionary is not the fact of change, which is always present in history, but the pace of change. The present age is revolutionary because the rate of change is very rapid. Everywhere round about us we hear the sound of things breaking, of changes in the social, in the political and economic institutions, in the dominant beliefs and ideas, in the fundamental categories of the human mind. Men of intelligence, sensitiveness and enterprise are convinced that there is something radically wrong with the present arrangements and institutions in regard to politics, economics and industry, and that we must get rid of them if we are to save humanity.

Scientists tell us of the various ways in which the earth may perish. It may be destroyed by the approaching moon at some remote time or by the cooling of the sun. A comet may strike the earth or a poisonous gas exude from the earth itself. But all these are remote possibilities, while the probabilities are that the human race may perish by its own deliberate acts, by the stupidity and selfishness which are strongly enthroned in human nature. It is tragic that, in a world which is there for us to enjoy and which might be made full of happiness for everyone, if only we are prepared to spend a fraction of the energies which are now given to the perfection of war machinery, 1 we let death and destruction go on. A blind impulse to destroy seems to have taken possession of mankind, and, if there is no check to it, we will take a long stride towards final extinction and prepare for an era of intellectual darkness and ethical barbarism in which man’s noblest accomplishments of the past wouTd be laid waste. The tragedy of it oppresses us all with the weight of a physical burden, paining our minds and troubling our hearts. We live in a period of agonising strain, of grave anxiety, of manifold disillusionment. The world is in a condition of trance.

The witness of a few noble souls to a finer world is our hope for the future. In recent decades, we have had not only material development which is striking and visible to the eye, but also a definite growth in ethical sense and social passion. There is an increased desire to apply the results of science and invention to the improvement of the general conditions of life. In our ideas of the relations and obligations of man to man there is a very real advance. The crusade against child labour, factory legislation, old age pensions, compensations for accidents are a few illustrations of the growing sense of responsibility in the community towards every one of its members. Never before in the history of the world has there been such a deep desire for peace and such a widespread hatred of war. The unvindictive courage, the unpretentious selfsacrifice of millions in this war point to the growth of the moral sense and love of humanity.

What is happening today is something that far transcends the fate of any one country. It is a vast convulsion of society as a whole. It is not a mere war, but a world revolution of which the war is a phase, a major alteration in the entire thought and structure of civilisation, a crisis that goes to the very roots of our civilisation. History has launched our generation into such an epoch and we must try to guide the revolution to the service of proper ideals. We cannot reverse the course of the revolution. The old order, the order which is the parent of Hitlers, Mussolinis and Tojos, is doomed. Those who fight against them must realise that they are laying the foundations here and now of the new order of liberty. Our enemies are to be put down simply because they still cling to the old and do not help us to clear the path for the new. The cowardly inertness of the human mind must be checked if we wish to win the peace and prevent planting seeds of future disasters. To secure an enduring peace, we must eliminate the conditions which make for wars and be earnest about a new way of life which will mean the sacrifice of cherished idols. So far as we can, we must make sure that we do not allow the fury of combat, the strain of suffering, ttie resentment at aggression, to warp our just judgment about our foes. We must learn to observe humanity even towards the inhumane, keep our mind on the distant future and not cloud its prospects by insensate hatred.