I have noticed and notice that many people, even those scientifically educated, have fallen into divers forms of mysticism, spiritualism and occultism. But is this type of religious re-awakening really desirable? It seems to me that, religiously, we are in much the same position after the war as we were before it.
The crisis of the modern man is general. It is a crisis involving the whole man, and the whole of spiritual life. Modern life in its entirety, all its institutions, its whole outlook on the world and on the problem of existence need to be revised. An inner lack of unity, an atomization in individuals and in society, a general mental anarchy, a struggle between past and present, fathers and children, the antagonism of the Churches towards science, philosophy, art and the State, permeate the whole range of modern civilization. If we seek peace of mind for ourselves, where and how are we to find it? In the effort to attain spiritual freedom, many fall into excessive individualism and introspection. Hence their spiritual and moral isolation. Many give themselves up to materialism and to a mechanical conception of the Universe. Maybe, we have all cultivated the intellect too one-sidedly and have forgotten the harmonious cultivation of all our spiritual and physical powers and faculties. In their opposition to the Churches and religion, not a few were satisfied with mere scepticism and negation, and thought it enough to be political revolutionaries. Though they were convinced that no lasting organization of society is feasible without agreement on the primary conceptions of life and of the world, they revolted against ecclesiastical discipline, only to become the slaves of parties, groups and factions. Any talk of or call for morality and moral restraint they denounced as antiquated moralizing, and piety and a religious life as superstition. Restlessness, discontent and scepticism; weariness born of disjointedness; pessimism, irascibility and despair ending in suicidal mania, militarism and war—these are the dark sides of modern life, of modern man, of the superman.
After the war a conviction spread that Europe and civilized peoples were in process of final decline. While the pan-Germans often proclaimed, before the war, the decline of the Latin races and of the French in particular, German philosophers of history, like Spengler, now announce the decline of the Germans likewise and of the whole of the West. Some look for salvation to Russia or to the Far East, though Russia suffered overthrow in the war as well as Germany and Austria; and it is certainly characteristic of German literature that Russian
