uiet, and let Clerambault ruin himself his own way; but even he was
alarmed by this explosion of tyrannical stupidity. In history and at a
distance it could be laughed at; but close at hand it looked as if the
human brain was about to give way. Why is it that in this war men lost
their mental balance more than in any other at any previous time? Has
the war been really more atrocious? That is either childish nonsense,
or a deliberate forgetfulness of what has happened in our own day,
under our eyes; in Armenia, in the Balkans; during the repression of
the Commune, in colonial wars under new conquistadors in China and the
Congo.... Of all animals we know, the human beast has always been the
most ferocious. Then is it because men had more faith in the war
of today? Surely not. The western peoples had reached the point of
evolution when war seemed so absurd that we could no longer practise
it and preserve our reason.

We are obliged to intoxicate ourselves, to go crazy, unless we would
die the despairing death of darkest pessimism; and that is why the
voice of one sane man threw into fits of rage all the others who
wanted to forget; they were afraid that this voice would wake them up,
and that they would find themselves sobered, disgraced, and without a
rag to cover them.

It was all the worse because at this time the war was going badly and
the fine hopes of victory and glory which had been lighted up so many
times were beginning to die out. It began to be probable, no matter
which way you looked at it, that the war would be a failure for
everybody. Neither interest, nor ambition, nor ideals would get
anything out of it, and the bitter useless sacrifice, seen at close
range, with nothing gained, made men who felt themselves responsible,
furious. They were forced either to accuse themselves or throw the
blame on others, and the choice was quickly made. The disaster was
attributed to all those who had foreseen the defeat and tried to
prevent it. Every retreat of the army, every diplomatic blunder found
an excuse in the machinations of the pacifists, and these unpopular
gentry to whom no one listened were invested by their opponents with
the formidable power of organising defeat. In order that none should
be ignorant of this, a writing was hung about their necks with the
word "Defeatist," like their brother-heretics of the good old days;
all that remained was to burn them, and if the executioner was not at
hand there were a