Page:Gregg - Pacifist Program in Time of War.pdf/8

 a new civilization. This is a task to stir men’s imaginations and energies.

If you say that such a task is too difficult, I reply in the terms of the old Sanskrit saying: “Magic powers do not come to a man because he does things that are hard, but because he does things with a pure heart.” Miracles can be accomplished by singleness of purpose and utter devotion.

If you say that we pacifists are too few to do the work, and we must not be presumptuous and foolish, the answer is that every great human movement was begun by a very small group of people, and often when the clouds were dark. The decisive work of the government of all nations, in both the political and economic realms, is done by a few people. If society is in any sense an organism, the great changes produced in the bodies of animals by exceedingly small quantities of hormones may illustrate this point. In the realm of physics also we know that an integrated and delicately balanced system of forces, some of which may be very powerful, can be greatly altered by applying quite small forces at proper times and places.

Maybe you will say that such a task as remaking an entire civilization is too long, that we haven’t time, that we must first stop the threatening war, and that only after that has been accomplished should we take up the larger problem. If you say that, you are simply denying one of our assumptions—that war is an integral element of our civilization. We cannot abolish an essential feature of a system, unless we alter the nature of the system. Concentrating all our efforts on postponing war would not leave energy for the deeper changes which are required if the causes of war are to be eliminated. The so-called normal forces in our present society are not strong enough to stabilize the situation during a breathing spell. Deep changes must begin now, before war comes to us, in order to get our better civilization later, whether war comes or not. My opinion is that if we direct all our energies toward making the deeper changes, we would probably escape war; but if we try to sup press or postpone the symptom, war, the pent-up forces will soon break out still more destructively. International diplomatic agreements do not alter civilizations. They are too superficial and fragile to meet the need.

Even with the acceleration of modern social processes it would probably, for psychological reasons, take at least three