Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1920-04-02
WARS SERIOUS REACTIONS

1t requires but slight acquaintance
with the facts to perceive that no
one is satisfied with the results
achieved by the war. We were fight
ing for peace, but peace when it
came brought with it greater diff
Iculties than the war itself. The
world is filled with the strident voice
of strife, individual and social. Men
always strive. That is the price of
progress, but there has come over
the spirit of man a darkness which
is more than the confusion of con-
trary purposes. In addition to the
normal struggle by means of which
character is developed and ends a
chieved, there seems to be a general
irritation which amounts almost to
hatred.
Of course, the Germans are not
satisfied with the terms of peace. No
vanquished focElan is. The allied
nations~ar not satisfied, and certain
~ the American people find slight, if
any, satisfaction in the part played
by our nation in the past IA months.
There is fundamental reason for
this spiritual condition with which
we must begin any helpful analysis.
For five years the world was engaged
in great spiritual effort expressing
itself in the most gigantic output of
physical force in the history of man
This effort was marked by enormous
losses of men and goods. But, under
the stress of the same issue involved,
lesser sacrifices, even including life
itself, were lost sight of. The one
supreme thing was to win the war.
The dormant moral energy of man
kind was drawn upon as never be-
fore. Every patriotic motive, capa-
BILE of lifting the individual citizen
out of himself and inspiring him with
devotion to great cause played it's.
part. Whole races of men were ex-
allied out Of and above themselves,
and performed prodigies OF sacrifice
and suffering.
1t was inevitable that, when the
dread necessities Of war were sudden
ly lifted, human nature should recoil.
Reaction is equal to action. Excess
sively high temperature is liable to
be followed by an abnormal period.
Both experiences are exhausting to
the patient. We must remember also
that the great war disturbed and con-
fused the whole world. The entire
fabric of civilization in thought, NOR
al standards, institutions, even Ian
guage, were shaken to the depths
The devastations of the war were not
confined to the battle fronts or to the
sinking of ships. Everywhere men
lost their ancient anchorage and they
now find themselves adrift upon
stormy, starless sea, without expert
ence to guide them and without heart
and nerve to face the unknown future
We have lost the lure of adventure.
Indeed, we are surfeited with adven-
ture and crave now only for the SIM
pie everyday routine of fixed condi-
lions. Man is still limited in re-
sources and power OF control over the
world in which he finds himself, and
the vast SCATTERING tragedy Of the
war has made the whole race COM
scious that we are subject to forces
greater than we have ever dreamed
of and which lie far beyond either
our intelligence or will.
1t is the inevitable revolt against |
the enslavement of individual identi-
ty which is at the bottom of most of
the irritation and fierce antagonism
which charaoerizes the world today.