no peace treaty has yet been signed ..
ever since the Second World War.

superman suffers from a fatal flaw

/ /

modern war is different from war in the past.
War now employs weapons of death and destruction
incomparably more effective than those of the past
and is consequently a worse evil than ever before.

Heretofore war could be regarded as an evil to which
men must resign themselves because it served progress

/ /

However, the superman suffers from a fatal flaw.
He has failed to rise to the level of superhuman reason
which should match that of his superhuman strength.

He needs such reason
to put this vast power to solely reasonable and useful ends
and not to destructive and murderous ones.
Because he lacks it, the conquests of science and technology
become a mortal danger to him rather than a blessing.

. . .

Erasmus, Sully . . .
and the others who in their time were engrossed in
the problem of peace
dealt with princes and not with peoples.

Their efforts tended to be concentrated on . . .
supranational authority vested with the power of
arbitrating any difficulties which might arise
between princes.

Kant, in his essay on "Perpetual Peace", was the first
to foresee an age when peoples would govern themselves
and when they, no less than the sovereigns,
would be concerned with the problem of peace.

In his opinion, peoples would be more inclined than princes
to maintain peace
because it is they who bear the miseries of war.

The time has come, certainly, when governments must look on
themselves as the executors of the will of the people.

But Kant's reliance on the people's innate love for peace
has not been justified.

..the will of the people, being the will of the crowd,
has not avoided the danger of instability
and the risk of emotional distraction from the path
of true reason,
it has failed to demonstrate a vital sense of responsibility.

Nationalism of the worst sort was displayed in the last
two wars . . .

All men, even the semicivilized and the primitive, are,
as beings capable of compassion,
able to develop a humanitarian spirit.
It abides within them like tinder ready to be lit,
waiting only for a spark.

The idea that the reign of peace must come one day
has been given expression by a number of peoples
who have attained a certain level of civilization.

I am well aware that what I have had to say
on the problem of peace is not essentially new.

It is my profound conviction that the solution lies
in our rejecting war for an ethical reason;

namely, that war makes us guilty of the crime
of inhumanity.
Erasmus of Rotterdam and several others after him
have already proclaimed this as the truth
around which we should rally.

Even today, we live in an age characterized by
the absence of peace;
even today, nations can feel themselves threatened
by other nations;
even today, we must concede to each nation
the right to stand ready to defend itself
with the terrible weapons now at its disposal.

Such is the predicament in which we seek the first sign
of the spirit in which we must place our trust.

/ /

May the men who hold the destiny of peoples
in their hands, studiously avoid
anything that might cause the present situation
to deteriorate and become even more dangerous.

May they take to heart the words of the Apostle Paul:
"If it be possible, as much as lieth in you,
live peaceably with all men."

These words are valid not only for individuals,
but for nations as well.

_

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