Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-11-14
NERVOUS NATIONS
By H. Addington Bruce

~ NE of the surest signs of nervousness in
L an individual is growing irritabil-
~ ity.
For little reason, or no reason at all, the
nervous individual loses control Of his tenn
per. Let his desires be crossed in any way,
he flares up in a rage. Also he is inclined
to see grievances where no grievances exist
This singular irritability and suspicious
ness is equally a sign Of nervousness in ma
tions.
When you find a nation, through its va
rous mediums of public utterance, inveigh-
ing continually against other nations, when
you find it forever lamenting that other ma
tons are intriguing against it, and when you
find it on plea selt-defe1se urging poll
cies calculated to embroil it with other ma
tons, you may rest assured that nation is in
a highly nervous state.
So, too, it is sign OF national nervous
ness when a nation, accounting itself civiliz-
ed, tolerates within it's borders any wide
spread occurrence of brutalities and out
RACES characteristic OF the unrestrained lust
and Whence Of cave men.
Nervous individuals, as every medical
psychologist is aware, often show a distinct
tendency to revert to the cave, mems modes
of thinking and foing. This is a result of
loss of control, permitting the emergence of
instincts and impulses inherited from remote
forbears, but ordinarily held in check.
And, it is noteworthy, the swing-back may
be, not to brutalities but to primitive stand
life, literary values, aesthetic ideals, etc. l
am reminded in this connection OF Stewart
Paton's comment on futurist art:
''The ultra-moderns are really pre-pr1m1-
tives. This is brought out if we compare the
idols and images of savage races with the
compositions of the futurist school of sculp-
tors or painters.
'"That the artist who produces these crea-
tions is often sincere does not alter this fact;
the dark sub-cellar abode at once of simple
ooI 6ofn tinco YiCtc in q Of
"The futurist art expresses, not intellect
ual superiority, but very primitive emotion,
and illustrates reversion to ideas and ideals
of the Stone Age"
If, then, futurist art becomes the mode,
national as we'll as individual nervousness
stands revealed. 1t is, indeed, a sign OF ma
tional nervousness if people flock to the
futurist exhibitions merely out of curiosity"
70 be constantly seeking new sensations is
another characteristic nervous symptom.
Futurism offers new sensation, SO the
nervous rush to 1t, just as they rush to
something new" in the opera, the ballet, or
the play. When they rush so numerously
that the quest of the new-and particularly
the new that is biZarre-may be described as
a national trait, theL again you have an un-
mistakable sign that the nation is truly in
nervous state.
These hints I commend to all whose Dusl-
ness it is-as statemen, educators, preach
ers. publicists-to cooperate in maintaining
national nerve control. They cannot too
alertly watch for indications that this con-
troll is weakening, or too earnestly labor to
re-establish it.
For Just as nervousness may bring 1nde-
soribable suffering to individuals, so may 1t
bring dire disaster to nations. A fact which
history has stressed for us again and again
not least in the recent downfall OF Ger
many.
Copyright, 1929