The greatest question of our time

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It is not merely the War of 1914 that has plunged us into pessimism,
Much less the economic depression of these recent years;
We have to do here with something far deeper than a temporary diminution
Of our wealth, or even the death of 26,000,000 men;

It is not our homes and our treasuries that are empty,
It is our 'hearts.'
It seems impossible any longer to believe
In the permanent greatness of man,
Or to give life a meaning that cannot be annulled by death.
We move into an age of spiritual exhaustion and despondency
Like that which hungered for the birth of Christ.

All the hopes of the Enlightenment were realized:
Science was free, and was remaking the world.
But while the technicians were using science to transform the earth,
Philosophers were using it to transform the universe.
Slowly, as one science after another reported its findings,
A picture was unfolded of universal struggle and death;
And decade by decade the optimism of the 19th century
Yielded to the pessimism of today.

Our schools are like our inventions - they offer us new ideas,
New means of doing old things;
They elevate us from petty larceny
To bank wreckages and Teapot Domes.
They stake all on intellect, only to find
That character wins in the end.

We taught people how to read, and they enrich
The 'tabloids' and the 'talkies';
We invented the radio, and they pour out,
A hundred times more abundantly than before,
The music of savages and the prejudices of mobs.

We gave them, through technology and engineering,
Unprecedented wealth -miraculous automobiles,
Luxurious travel, and spacious homes;
Only to find that peace departs as riches come, that
Automobiles override morality and connive at crime, that
Quarrels grow bitterer as the spoils increase, and that
The largest houses are the bloodiest battlegrounds
Of the ancient war between woman and man.

We discovered birth-control, and now it sterilizes the intelligent,
Multiplies the ignorant, debases love with promiscuity,
Frustrates the educator, empowers the demagogue, and
Deteriorates the race.

We enfranchised all men, and find them supporting and preserving,
In nearly every city, a nefarious 'machine' that blocks the road
Between ability and office.

We enfranchsed all women, and discovered that
Nothing is changed except clerical expense.

We dreamed of socialism, and find our own souls
Too greedy to make it possible;
In our hearts we too are capitalists, and have no serious objection
To becoming rich. . .

The greatest question of our time is not communism vs. individualism,
Not Europe vs. America, not even the East vs. the West;
It is whether men can bear to live without God."


William James Durant (1885–1981), American philosopher, historian, and writer.