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and culture, peace and security within potential reach of every man, woman and child in the world. But the potentialities have so far been realised only with a few classes in a few countries and that, too, only for interludes between wars. The reasons are not far to seek. Firstly, the new energies were largely annexed by the old passions of strife, hatred, exploitation and frustration centring round race and nation, class and sect. So men are confronted today with the paradox of poverty in the midst of plenty; and of darkness in the midst of untold facilities of enlightenment.
Disappointments and Disillusionments.
This is the problem with which the world is confronted today and for the solution of which various plans have been suggested by philosophers and statesmen. As the last war (1914-18) drew to its close twenty-five years ago, ardent spirits everywhere applied themselves to the discovery of ways and means of democracy, self-determination, international co-operation and adjudication, disarmament, outlawry of war and perpetual peace. The spirit of the age seemed to find its embodiment in Woodrow Wilson, the American President, whose idealism and eloquence electrified whole people in the east and the west alike. But twenty years sufficed to bring about a complete disillusionment and to percipitate the present war. The disappointments have been due to a mistake very frequent in politics, that of
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
