Such a situation could have been foreseen by the initiated. Preparations
could have been made in advance to deal with it when it arose. In the
absence of adequate preparation the result is the chaos incident to
every downturn of the private enterprise business cycle, magnified in
this case by the regressive forces released during the disintegration of
the entire social fabric.
Two other areas require a word of comment. Among human faculties are
ambition, imagination, ingenuity, inventiveness, creativity. Human
beings are, to a greater or lesser degree, cosmically aware. In the
physical field western civilization handsomely rewards initiative. In
the social field it has been far less generous. Imagination and cosmic
consciousness have been quite generally listed among the undesirable
endowments of mankind.
Western civilization, in the early years of the present century,
produced a generation of insecure, unsettled, anxious, worried, harried
people. This is generally true of young, middle aged and old, of rich
and poor. Rapid social transition from expansion and advance to
contraction and retreat is a traumatic, hectic experience for any human
being.
Western civilization in the early years of its decline has not brought
out the more generous aspects of human nature. In the best of times a
materialistically oriented society appeals to the more material and less
spiritual aspects of human beings.
Pages:
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83