Causes Of War: Scientists’ Views

Northern Advocate, 29 September 1938, Page 12

Causes Of War: Scientists’ Views

“At this moment of international tension I want to turn for a moment to refer to the deeper causes of war. and the scientific study of this question," said Mr Duncan Hall, of the League of Nations Secretariat, in a recent broadcast from Geneva. “The British Association has just debated the question whether scientists are responsible for the misuse made of their discoveries and inventions. Lord Rayleigh, the president, thought not, and pointed out that this was an old story. It does not begin with the turning of motor-cars into tanks.

"Human inventions have always been used for war, if men could find any use for them in killing their fellows. The wonderful new stone hammer • axe of the New Stone Age man was double-edged—both tool and weapon. It made possible for the first time the clearing of forests and the building of houses and ships. But one lof its chief uses was for splitting skulls. The British Association decided anyhow to set up a new division to investigate the social effects of scientific discoveries. The president was not too sure that much would come of this. But the London “Times” in a remarkable leading article thought the step was hopeful [ —anyhow in the long run. Comment by “The Times.” “ ‘The scientific study of human nature,’, said ‘The Times,’ ‘especially in its social aspect, is only in its in--1 fancy. As Dr, Cover forcibly pointed | out a few years back, the causes of i war are at least as much psych,ologi- | cal as economic. Repression and frus- | tration in early life engender un- [ conscious cruelty whose natural outj let is violence, and mass suggestibility, under the influence of propagi anda, generates an irresistible mass | hysteria, a neurosis of society. Theoretically, at least, it is possible to plan a system of education which would allow the natural impulses to be expressed instead of repressed, thus removing the dangerous because unconscious mainspring of violence, and making it possible to harness the deep physchological forces to construction instead of destruction; and one which instead of fostering suggestibility and material respect for authority as such, would encourage critical reflection and a healthy distrust of propaganda. A society educated thus would be a new kind of society, of its very nature much less inclined to make war than ours. Admittedly this is remote, but is it more remote than was our electric age from the age of G.alvani or of Ampere, or even of Faraday? To apply, scientific method to the study and control of human nature, new techniques and a new approach .are necessary; ,but there is no reason to suppose that it cannot be done, and many reasons for supposing that in doing so lies the world’s chief hope of emerging from chaos-and frustration.” “There Can Be No Winners.” “The view thus expressed by the ‘Times’ is slowly gaining ground. People ar~ so impressed with the extraordinary irrationality of the present situation that some are beginning to ask what hidden forces there can be in human nature which make it all possible. It is widely recognised that, as Mr Chamberlain said, in modern war there can be no winners. The indiscriminate bombing of all the main centres of population from the air threatens with destruction the lives and economic interest of everyone. Every consideration of personal safety and econqmic interest should therefore push them back from war. Yet men feel themselves being pushed willy-nilly towards the precipice, as if by uncontrollable forces deep down in themselves.

“There has already been some recognition in League circles of the importance of a scientific study of these deeper causes of war. Several years ago the League Institute of Intellectual Co-operation published two im-

portant papers on the subject by eminent Viennese psychologists. One I was entitled ‘Why War?’ by Professor Freud, who is now in London, i Tins was in answer to a letter ad- : dressed to him by Professor Einstein. The other was a study of the nature ox a collective psychosis, or a group madness as it might be called, and its 1 relation to war, by Dr. Robert Waelder, now in the United States. I I A League Investigation. I ”A further important step forward ; lias just been taken. Last year the j British Medical Association at its BelI fast Congress passed a resolution calling upon the League through its Health Committee to undertake a scientific investigation of the psychological causes of war. As the Institute of Intellectual Co-operation had already shown its interest in this mat- | ter. the British Association’s resoluI tion was referred to it by the Health j j Committee for consideration. I I “A first step is thus being taken to- j wards that application of ‘scientific | ! method to the study and control of j ■ human, nature.' which the article: cited above refers to as affording ‘the | ; world’s chief hope of emerging from i i chaos and frustration.”’ ■