"Oh, well," said his chum as he puffed at his pipe, "in spite of all that the sun is shining and the leaves are coming out."
So when my Mahatma spoke of the need of sunshine I remembered what it had meant to two boys facing death in Flanders, and his advice seemed good. But I wanted to sound him out on other matters.
"What you say may be true, but the great demand of the present time is for laughter. Everybody wants to be amused."
"Are you sure of that?"
"Well, editors want amusing articles and stories, publishers want amusing books, theatrical promoters want amusing plays and scenarios—lecture bureaus want amusing lectures—and so it goes all the way along the line."
"That only goes to prove that amusing people has become a business without any more spontaneity in it than the manufacture of breakfast foods. And the people who want to be amused are the people who have easy money to spend. Have you noticed that mothers who have lost sons want to be amused, or that any of the millions who have been touched by the cruelty of the war are eager to laugh?"
"The prevailing opinion seems to be that we should forget the war."
"Certainly. Let those who made profits out of the war laugh and forget that they were enriched by the world's agony—that they piled up wealth while brave young men were being mangled, smothered, drowned, shattered in the war. If they remembered such things they could not enjoy their profits. By all means make them laugh and take your wages for your hireling mirth. Make the laborers shut their eyes and open their mouths with laughter so that they cannot see the disasters towards which they are hurrying. Make the young laugh so that they will not realize the heritage that is being passed to them by the older generation whose pride, greed, and folly have come near to ruining the world."
"The press dispatches say that all the capitals are mad with revelry. It is even said that tourists have been dancing on the battlefields."
"Quite so. And do you know what it all looks like to me? It reminds me of the wakes that used to be held around the coffins of the newly dead. Humanity is now holding a hideous wake over a dead civilization."