Chapter VIII. Elements Of Power
In the World War Germany displayed tremendous power. Restraining our emotions as much as possible, let us endeavor to analyse that power with mathematical dispassionateness.
Why did Germany display more power than any other single nation? Because in the establishment of her “ethics,” her political system, and her economic structure, Germany availed herself, in larger measure than any other nation, of scientific achievements and scientific methods. It is a very common, very erroneous, and very harmful belief that war was created solely by a “war-lord.” Every idea or movement doubtless originates with somebody but back of such “originations” or initiations there are favoring conditions, forces and impulsions. The stage is set by life and the ages; the actor enters and the show begins. In the instance in question, the stage was set by our whole modern system of civilization. The war lords were the “Deus ex machina”—the show was a real one—a tragedy.
The true origin of this war must be looked for [pg 156] in the economic field. Our economic system is the very complicated result of all our creeds, philosophies and social customs. It is therefore impossible to understand the working of the economic forces without understanding the foundation upon which this system of forces is based. A short list of works on the subject is given at the end of this book. A plain statement here will be enough.
Germany was committed to a policy of indefinite industrial expansion. This artificial expansion had reached its limits. Germany was on the verge of bankruptcy. Only a victorious war could avoid a national catastrophe; she played her last card, and lost despite her gigantic power, the greatest ever displayed by any nation. The leading European states were not able to overpower her for a long time. This writing is not intended as an apology for Germany, much less to praise her or her war lords. German purposes were nationally narrow and nationally selfish to the root; her methods were inhuman but Germany displayed power; and without the understanding of power, Human Engineering is impossible.
It is possibly a fault of the writer's military training, but it seems to him that the “General Staff” point of view has as much claim to consideration as any other among the many different interpretations of history—perhaps it has more. It is not the primary [pg 157] aim of the general staff to “fight,” very far from it. Their primary aim is “victory” and all the better if victory be possible without a fight. Strategy, brain-work, intelligence, knowledge of facts—these are the chief weapons; brutal fighting is only a last resort. It is highly important to bear that in mind. Soldiers and engineers do not argue—they act. Germany affords the first example of a philosophy or a society having for its main purpose the generating of power to “do things.” It seems only reasonable and intelligent to analyse the history of the war from the engineer's point of view, which, in this case, happens to coincide with the military point of view. It must be clearly understood that the modern general staff, or military, point of view has very little or nothing to do with the romance or poetry of war. War to-day is a grim business—but “business” before all else. It has to mobilize all the resources of a nation and generate power to the limit of its capacity. The conduct of war to-day is a technological affair—its methods have to be engineering methods. To crush an obstacle, there is need of a giant hammer, and the more mass that can be given it and the greater the force put behind it, the more deadly will be the blow. Prior to the World War technology had not been mobilized on so vast a scale nor confronted with a task so gigantic. Mobilized technology has revealed and demonstrated the fact [pg 158] that it is possible to generate almost unlimited power and has shown the way to do it; at the same time it has demonstrated the measureless potency of engineering and our utter helplessness without it. Technology is comparatively a new science; by some it is called a “semi-science” because it deals primarily with the application of science to practical issues. But when it became necessary “to do things,” an engineer had to be called; the general staff had to adopt his view, and all other practices and traditions were bent to his ideas.
I have already repeatedly pointed out that the progress of technology proceeds according to a law like that of a rapidly increasing geometrical progression, and I have stressed the danger of inattention to any phenomena, force or movement that conforms to such a law. We have only to recollect the story of the simple but very greedy farmer who was very happy to make a contract with a laborer for a month's work, paying him only one cent the first day, twice as much the second, twice for the third, and so on to the end. Behold! The bill for the month ran into millions of dollars and the farmer was ruined. Such is the deadly secret of the geometrical progression. Violent readjustments await any society whose ethics, jurisprudence and the like do not keep pace with the developments of engineering.
Engineers are the wizards who, using the results [pg 159] of scientific research, can subjugate or release the concealed powers of nature. The supreme factor is the use of the mind—the exponential function of time—the time-binding energy of man. From that we have to take our start because that is the source of human power.
The German philosophy, as a whole, has its definite place in the history of philosophy; and the first thing to consider are those philosophic writers who directly and indirectly have contributed to the building up of German power. Hegel greatly affected the building up of the German mind—strange as it may seem; but Hegel was greatly under the influence of the work of Fichte, and Fichte in turn under that of Spinoza. All of them were, in a way, mathematicians in their methods and philosophy, as much as they could be in their time. I said “strange,” because it is significant that the mathematical part of their philosophy was just the part which built up the German power. But if we look into it, it is not strange.
It had to be so, because mathematical and mechanical methods are the only ones by which power can be understood and built. Hegel in 1805 lectured on history of philosophy, pure mathematics and natural law. It would be hard to find a better combination for a philosophy of power. That is precisely what this philosophy was. It influenced not only German [pg 160] philosophy but even German theology, and through these channels it sank deep into the national consciousness. It affected every phase of life. An immense cult of disciples arose. Each one added something to that philosophy of power. One of the most brilliant representatives of this movement is Professor Oswald, who in his Monist Sermons gave the famous advice: “Do not waste energy but give it value.” The German understanding of the great value of technology directly applied that principle to their philosophy, law, ethics, politics, and so on.