Abstract
RECENT events have suggested that the modern organised State, closely linked as it is with the highly emotional concepts of the new nationalism, might prove a daiiger in the way of the free pursuit of scientific inquiry, and that it has already affected the international standing of science. It may be argued with equal justice that such a State is also a menace to the present nicely adjusted equilibrium offerees between the Powers which we call by the name of peace. The responsibility for the feeling of instability in the present international situation, of which every nation is conscious, is to be attributed, not so much to the activities of Herr Hitler and President Roosevelt in the political and economic fields—though these may seem to run counter to any progress towards a solution of world-wide problems on a world-wide basis—as to the spirit of aggressive self-expression and integration characteristic of present-day nationalism. This spirit emphasises and glorifies national distinctions, oblivious of the consciousness of a common humanity, to which much is forgiven and in which differences are composed rather than made the cause of offence. By the stress laid on nationality the urge towards the larger unity is repressed.
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Peace and War. Nature 133, 229–231 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/133229a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/133229a0