THE UNIVERSE OF INFORMATION.pdf - ideals

Because of his indefatigable work for the League of Nations
idea, his frequent lectures on it, the regular appearance
of articles by him in newspapers and journals, his concern for
the future of neutral powers after the War and his apparent
lack of hostility to the Germans, Otlet was accused of being
disloyal to Belgium, possibly a traitor to the Allies. At the end
of 1915 some steps were apparently taken to deny him entry
into Paris and he sent a note to the Prefect of Police explaining
his attitude to the War, distinguishing between a pacifist
which he was not, and an internationalist and patriot,,
which he was.
I have come to Paris to make propaganda for peace, but like
every man who thinks and reflects, I am completely preoccupied by
the origins and by the development of this war, by its purposes and
by what should follow it. I have given myself over to the study of
these questions ... in order to be able at last to find for them some
objective basis, which is required for the solution according to scientific
methods of any problem. Towards this goal I have had conversations
here with various personalities in the worlds of .Scienceand
Politics, long standing acquaintances for the most part, and I
have given a course of five lectures at the School of Advanced Social
Studies called «After the War: origins, causes, problems and solutions».
I have taught at this School on two different occasions beforethe
war, and the course was as much requested by the Administration
as urged upon it by me.
For twenty years, the study of international questions has been one
of my occupations. I founded in Brussels with the patronage and
material support of the Belgian government, the Union of International
Associations, which attempted to concentrate and co-ordinate the
international movement of which Belgium had spontaneously becomethe
headquarters fifty years ago. I am one of the originators of the
great Congresses of this Union. I direct its office and publications
as well as its Museum, set up in State buildings.
This is to say that I am an internationalist. I will add that I am
not a pacifist. The distinction, which is not always made, is a valid
one. At the same time that the means of communication make the
world smaller and smaller, the population which lives in it, is increasing
greatly. It follows that it is impossible to keep each group in its
own territory. International contacts are established and multiply;
a world-life is manifested in every domain. There is a two-fold result:
on the one hand interests become established beyond political frontiers,
every one being more or less involved in the universal circulation
of men, products and ideas; on the other hand, antagonisms
multiply along with the points of contact, and the spheres of friction
grow larger. As a rule, governments have not been sufficiently
aware of this profound transformation. As a result, all of this international
life, both so fecund and so dangerous, has been left almost
completely to its own devices, rather than being framed in institutions
which could give it organisation and establish necessary
checks and balances. It is necessary to search out the deep causes, not
of this war—there have always been wars — but of the universal
character of this war, of its implications, direct and indirect, for every
element of the civilian population.
The pacifist wants—would like, to be more exact—peace at any price.
His feelings delude him about human goodness and do not lead
him to reason about sociological causes. He is like the charitable mare