repeats the affirmation, modifying it little or much in
accord with circumstances.

Modification means purposeful change--partially or wholly abandoning the
old and replacing it with something new. In the course of these changes
the conservative elements in man and in society, voluntarily or under
coercion, give up the old and learn how to use the new. The learning
process is always more or less painful, especially to people past middle
age.

The world-wide revolution resulted from a long-continued related series
of affirmations, punctuated and interrupted by contradictions and
conflicts.

Trends inherent in the world-wide revolution of 1750-1970 suggest a
cycle that reached its high point at the turn of the century and began
its downward course around 1900. The chief European empires were jointly
and severally involved in the bitter struggle for survival and supremacy
from 1870 onward. Until the outbreak of war in 1914, events followed an
irregular course marked by the shifting relationships of Italy and the
increased pressure from Germany for a showdown. The showdown was the war
of 1914-18, continued in a second phase from 1936 to 1945.

Immediate political results of the showdown were victory for one side
and defeat for the other side. Economic, sociological and ideological
consequences were profound and far reaching. We noted some of them in
the previous chapter.

UNESCO's _History of Mankind_ devotes its final volume six to the
twentieth century. The authors note that the chief European powers
emerged from the general war of 1914-18 "weakened in every way: in men
and wealth, in the balance of their economies and the stability of their
political structure and above all in their relation to other powers
rising or beginning to rise in other parts of the world". (Vol. VI p.
10.)

Aside from the victory-defeat relationship which led to political
realignments during the post-war years, the essence of the experience
is to be found in the UNESCO phrase "weakened in every way". Another way
of describing the experience is to state that the participants in this
four year blood bath were "bled white."

It is easy to be specific. In the course of the war sixty million people
were mobilized. Most of these people stopped what they had been doing
until mid-summer of 1914 and began an entirely new line of activity. Up
to that point most of them had been living with their families, in their
neighborhoods, going through a d