I am by no means sure even now that this is not
the last great war in the experience of men. I still believe it may be.
The most dangerous thing in the business so far is concerned is the wide
disregard of the fact that national economic fighting is bound to cause
war, and the almost universal ignorance of the necessity of subjecting
shipping and overseas and international trade to some kind of
international control. These two things, restraint of trade and
advantage of shipping, are the chief material causes of anger between
modern states. But they would not be in themselves dangerous things if
it were not for the exaggerated delusions of kind and difference, and
the crack-brained "loyalties" arising out of these, that seem still to
rule men's minds. Years ago I came to the conviction that much of the
evil in human life was due to the inherent vicious disposition of the
human mind to intensify classification.[*See my "First and Last Things,"
Book I. and my "Modern Utopia," Chapter X.] I do not know how it will
strike the reader, but to me this war, this slaughter of eight or nine
million people, is due almost entirely to this little, almost universal
lack of clear-headedness; I believe that the share of wickedness in
making war is quite secondary to the share of this universal shallow
silliness of outlook.
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