H. G. Wells On Humanity

Sink me, I’ve taken to Twitter and abandoned ye olde blog. Sorry about that, but I know no one reads this darn thing anyway.

Tough Questions Answered’s Bill Pratt wrote about H. G. Wells’ conversion from naïve humanist to shell-shocked realist. In his book, A Short History of the World from 1937, Wells wrote:

Can we doubt that presently our race will more than realize our boldest imaginations, that it will achieve unity and peace, and that our children will live in a world made more splendid and lovely than any palace or garden that we know, going on from strength to strength in an ever-widening circle of achievement? What man has done, the little triumphs of his present state…form but the prelude to the things that man has yet to do.

To be followed by this after World War II, from A World at the End of Its Tether:

The cold-blooded massacres of the defenseless, the return of deliberate and organized torture, mental torment, and fear to a world from which such things had seemed well nigh banished—has come near to breaking my spirit altogether…“Homo Sapiens,” as he has been pleased to call himself, is played out.

Pratt’s point is one that should—but doesn’t and never will—resonate with too many: Mankind cannot pull itself out of the quicksand, we need a supernatural hand up. Our very natures are immensely flawed and as such, you cannot save yourself.

Live with it or die with it.