In some countries where racial prejudice is acute,violence has so come to be taken for granted as ameans of solving differences, that it is not evenquestioned. There are countries where the white manimposes his rule by brute force; there are countrieswhere the black man protests by setting fire tocities and by looting and pillaging. Important peopleon both sides, who would in other respects appear to be reasonable men, get up and calmly arguein favor of violence – as if it were a legitimate solution, like any other. What is reallyfrightening, what really fills you with despair, is the realization that when it comes to thecrunch, we have made no actual progress at all. We may wear collars and ties instead of war-paint, but our instincts remain basically unchanged. The whole of the recorded history of thehuman race, that tedious documentation of violence, has taught us absolutely nothing. Wehave still not learnt that violence never solves a problem but makes it more acute. The sheerhorror, the bloodshed, the suffering mean nothing. No solution ever comes to light the morningafter when we dismally contemplate the smoking ruins and wonder what hit us.
The truly reasonable men who know where the solutions lie are finding it harder and herder toget a hearing. They are despised, mistrusted and even persecuted by their own kind because theyadvocate such apparently outrageous things as law enforcement. If half the energy that goes intoviolent act...