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treating the symptoms as distinct from the deep seated causes of political and economic maladies. Politics and diplomacy move in an atmosphere of hurry and restlessness. Statesmen are apt to be satisfied with a vision of what appears on the surface and a treatment of superficial complaints. That is what happened once again in the years 1918-20, literally on a worldwide scale. The result was the re-emergence or rather the continuance of all the old evils—competition in armaments, secret diplomacy, aggressive nationalism, imperialism, exploitation of the weak by the strong, race pride and war. One doleful consequence of the failure deserves special mention. The recent disillusionments have produced cynicism at the present moment when the need for great ideas and noble enthusiasms is more urgent than ever before. Western statemanship is fighting shy of radical reconstruction. It seems to have lost confidence in the future in the bargain.
War in the Social Context. At this juncture, then, it is necessary to point out that war, armament and Machiavellian diplomacy are not isolable phenomena. Imme. diate motives and occasions apart, they represent a method of pressing claims, a way of resolving disputes; in short, an instrument of policy natural to a scheme of things which admits the validity of voilence (f&er) and is grounded in part in the exertion of force by group upon
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
