Excerpt from The Control of Ideals: A Contribution to the Study of Ethics
In the few chapters that follow I have aimed at writing a reconstruction book dealing with first principles and concerned primarily with the matter of war prevention. Just as after an influenza epidemic it is one thing for a nation to regain its health and another thing to prevent future outbreaks, so after a war it is one thing to restore the piping times of peace and another thing to learn by what steps to avoid future conflicts. This book deals with principles of prevention rather than methods of cure.
The only way to outgrow war is through education; and the problem is one not so much of each man educating his neighbour, as of each man educating himself into independence of certain powerful traditions and ideals that apparently make war inevitable. The crux of the situation is the personal problem of changing our attitude toward ideals. The attitude aimed at is expressed in the phrase that "we can afford to laugh a little at our own ideals and hold them no less dear."
The root of modem wars lies in the clash of ideals.
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