A Record of Meetings held by P.D. Ouspensky - HolyBooks.com

only man will be a little more clever. But men are what they are, sothis is inevitable.Leaving cosmic ideas and taking just historical causes, it is difficultto speak, because very few people know history. I don't mean historyof ancient times, but present modern history. Many people don't knowthe history of the last twenty years—I mean history of the facts. If wewant to understand the present situation, we must go to just after theNapoleonic Wars, to the Vienna Congress. The Vienna Congress, withall the faults that were made there, still kept Europe for a hundredyears. It is necessary to understand in general the period from theVienna Congress to the Crimean War; another period from the CrimeanWar to 1914, or better up to the Versailles Conference. Certainly thelast years before 1914, say from 1900, one must study with moredetails. Then another period from the Versailles Conference up to thebeginning of this war. So we must study these periods, and unless youknow as well as possible these three periods it is very difficult to speakabout causes, reasons, faults of this war.MR. B. You have said that some wars are good or may be necessary. Isthis one of those?MR. O. Not necessary. I never said that. You see, if we start from theother end, many people speak and write books saying that wars are notnecessary because all differences of opinion between people can bedecided with the help of conferences, mutual talks and so on. This isright in principle, but not from the point of view of facts, because it ispossible not at every moment. Up to 1914, if we take the end of thenineteenth century and the beginning of this century, it was possible.Now, before this war, it was impossible. Quite the opposite, allattempts of conferences and so on only created this war. To understandthis you must begin from the Versailles Conference. Good or bad, thewar was finished. Good or bad, something was decided. Many wrongthings were done there, but in any case England and France were in avery good position and had all the trumps in their hands. But they letthem out one after another. First they helped the bolsheviks instead ofthe White Army; then they recognized them; then they allowed Germanyto arm—never openly, but they let them. Then they paid forthat.The chief cause was recognition of the bolsheviks. Hitler is theresult of it; he is not the cause. If you understand that you will