Modern Culture and the New European War

Extract

WE STAND at the beginning of events of enormous importance. It is too early to form an opinion as to how these events will develop—whether it will be a long-lasting war or if all will be finished when these lines are published—whether other nations and countries will be involved in the struggle besides those who began it, or in other words whether this war will become really a world catastrophe or if it will be relatively localized—which way Chance will turn and what will be the final result of the war? Trying to answer these questions would be mere guess work, without any sufficient foundation. One thing only one might say with entire certainty: it is not a simple war-like episode the beginning of which we witness, it is an event, or rather a series of events of world importance, a. turning point in European history. And in so far as European Culture has become World Culture, the new European War may be considered as a turning point in the life of the whole world.