The War and After
To Those who have read with increasing approval the various addresses made by President Hopkins dealing with, the problems of the war and its essential aftermath of problems entailed by the making of peace, it is in order to mention a series of two articles in the AtlanticMonthly by Dr. Richard M. Brickner dealing with the fundamentals of the German character, only one of which articles has appeared in print at this writing. They seem to have a direct bearing on President Hopkins' contention that what has to be assassinated is an idea—not a mere handful of poisonous leaders of the German people.
Dr.Brickner's assertion, as an expert in psychiatry, is that the German national mind appears to suffer from a sort of national disease, paranoid in character. The difficulty of "indicting a whole people" may be admitted, and of course there must be multitudes of Germans not affected by this psychological malady; but it seems reasonable to insist that a whole nation may be predominantly inclined toward a form of paranoia, just as it may be said to be predominantly white, or Christian, or Mahometan.
The heady doctrine of the super-race, which Hitler has stressed in all his speeches, is not new. Probably the roots of it were discernible even in the remote days of Tacitus, but their upshoots have been unmistakably visible since modern Germany began to coalesce and expand—roughly since 1866. Today the notion of Teutonic supremacy is certainly widely disseminated throughout the Reich.
Curiously, it seems to spring from a sort o£ inferiority complex, or rather from the consciousness that other races do not admit the "Aryan" superiority and need to be shown. Whatever the source, there is no longer room for doubt as to the widespread existence of the philosophy on which Hitler founds his ruthless creed, or of its ac ceptance by the great bulk of the younger German people. Hitler did not originate the idea. "Weltmacht oder Niedergang" has been a popular phrase for more than a generation. Dominate the world, or perish! Apparently the German mind accepts these as the sole alternatives, and completely rejects the idea that Germany can exist, even as primus inter pares, in a world where there is no single dominant race. That Germany is ordained to be the domineer seems to have become a sort of religious belief among such swarms of Germans that Dr. Brickner raises the arresting question, "Is Germany Curable?"
Either man is destined to be guided by the civilized notions born of the reasoning power which differentiates him from the brutes, or civilization is a sham and the ruthless law of Nature, red in tooth and claw, is right. Long smouldering among those of German race appears to have been a suspicion that the brutes have the right of it—a suspicion which has been fanned into flame by Nietzsche, and latterly by Hitler. Here is a head-on collision between two completely irreconcilable schools o£ thought, and the result is a world at war. The disquieting thing is that in this day and age such considerable numbers of human beings, long supposed to be civilized, should accept the doctrine that man, the rational animal, must be governed by the doctrine of unreasoning Nature, much as purely physical evolution has been, but with states, rather than individuals, as the units.
There can be no arbitrament save that of Mars and of the outcome it would be shameful to own a doubt. The great question is, what next? The war must and will be won. But what of the plague-spot which the last war failed to cauterize, from which has spread our present woe? Shall we make the same mistake again? Thoughts like these were stressed in the notable address which Mr. Hopkins made before the New Hampshire Legislature on February 17, and they lie at the core of Dr. Brickner's query whether or not Germany is curable.
