"Olaf Stapledon - Last And First Men" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stapledon Olaf)

One brief but tragic incident, which occurred within a century after the
European War, may be said to have sealed the fate of the First Men. During
this century the will for peace and sanity was already becoming a serious
factor in history. Save for a number of most untoward accidents, to be
recorded in due course, the party of peace might have dominated Europe during
its most dangerous period; and, through Europe, the world. With either a
little less bad luck or a fraction more of vision and self-control at this
critical time, there might never have occurred that aeon of darkness, in which
the First Men were presently to be submerged. For had victory been gained
before the general level of mentality had seriously begun to decline, the
attainment of the world state might have been regarded, not as an end, but as
the first step toward true civilization. But this was not to be.
After the European War the defeated nation, formerly no less
militaristic than the others, now became the most pacific, and a stronghold of
enlightenment. Almost everywhere, indeed, there had occurred a profound change
of heart, but chiefly in Germany. The victors on the other hand, in spite of
their real craving to be human and generous, and to found a new world, were
led partly by their own timidity, partly by their governors' blind diplomacy,
into all the vices against which they believed themselves to have been
crusading. After a brief period in which they desperately affected amity for
one another they began to indulge once more in physical conflicts. Of these
conflicts, two must be observed.
The first outbreak, and the less disastrous for Europe, was a short and
grotesque struggle between France and Italy. Since the fall of ancient Rome,
the Italians had excelled more in art and literature than in martial
achievement. But the heroic liberation of Italy in the nineteenth Christian
century had made Italians peculiarly sensitive to national prestige; and since
among Western peoples national vigour was measured in terms of military glory,
the Italians were fired, by their success against a rickety foreign
domination, to vindicate themselves more thoroughly against the charge of
mediocrity in warfare. After the European War, however, Italy passed through a
phase of social disorder and self-distrust. Subsequently a flamboyant but
sincere national party gained control of the State, and afforded the Italians
a new selfrespect, based on reform of the social services, and on militaristic
policy. Trains became punctual, streets clean, morals puritanical. Aviation
records were won for Italy. The young, dressed up and taught to play at
soldiers with real fire-arms, were persuaded to regard themselves as saviours
of the nation, encouraged to shed blood, and used to enforce the will of the
Government. The whole movement was engineered chiefly by a man whose genius in
action combined with his rhetoric and crudity of thought to make him a very
successful dictator. Almost miraculously he drilled the Italian nation into
efficiency. At the same time, with great emotional effect and incredible lack
of humour he trumpeted Italy's self-importance, and her will to "expand." And
since Italians were slow to learn the necessity of restricting their
population, "expansion" was a real need.
Thus it came about that Italy, hungry for French territory in Africa,
jealous of French leadership of the Latin races, indignant at the protection
afforded to Italian "traitors" in France, became increasingly prone to quarrel