Most Great Peace, The: A New Phase of Human Thought
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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Marion Holley, Most Great Peace, The: A New Phase of Human Thought, New York: Bahá'ı́ Publishing Committee, 1935/1937, bahai-library.com.
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THE
((MOST GREAT PEACE"
A NEW PHASE OF HUMAN THOUGHT

by
MARION HOLLEY

''The world's equilibrium hath been
upset through the vibrating influence
of this most great, this new World
Order. Mankind's ordered life hath
been revolutionized through the agency of this unique, this wondrous
System - t11e like of which mortal
eyes have never witnessed."
BAHA' U'LLAH

BAHA'. f PUBLISHING COMMITTEE
P. 0. Box 348 Grand Central Annex
New York, N. Y.
THE BAHA'I FAITH

The Revelation proclaimed by Baha'u'llah,
His followers believe, is divine in origin, allembracing in scope, broad in its outlook, scientific in its method, humanitarian in its principles
and dynamic in the influence it exerts on the
hearts and minds of men.
The Baha'i Faith recognizes the unity of
God and of His Prophets, upholds the principle
of an unfettered search after trut!i, condemns
all forms of superstition and prejudice, teaches
that the fundamental purpose of religion is to
promote concord and harmony, that it must
go hand-in-hand with science, ~nd that it constitutes the sole and ultimate basis of a peaceful,
and ordered and progressive society. It inculcates
the principle of equal opportunity, rights and
privileges for both sexes, exalts work performed
in the spirit of service to the rank of worship,
recommends the adoption of an auxiliary international language, and provides the necessary
agencies for the establishment and safeguarding
of a permanent and universal peace.
Shoghi Effendi.

"'\VT
WAR is the most preventable accident!" said 'Abdu'l-Baha,
the exemplar of the Baha'i Faith.
His words, which even twenty years
ago seemed quite improbable, carry
to modern ears an inescapable and
terrible conviction. We recognize in
them no less than a profound indictment of the nations of the world.
The history of these last years has
been dominated by two tendencies
intimately affecting the future of
war. First, there has come such an
expansion in the possibilities of
human intercourse, such intensification of et onomic dependence, together with a wider sympathy for
the habits and ideals of alien groups,
that for the first time the sons of
earth are drawn close enough to conceive and aspire after forms of relationship other than violence. To
this new-felt need-actually an opportunity to substitute for the cruel
and gross processes of war a more
civilized inter-action-has been added, secondly, a fatal necessity in the
guise of an "armament revolution."
Until the end of the 19th century the
methods of war had "remained stagnant and unprogressive for hundreds
of years." 1 But the conflict of 1914
brought to perfection new devices for
mass murder-poison gas, air raids,
tanks, heavy artillery-techniques so
efficient that in four years' time, more
than twice as many men were killed
as in 123 years of warfare preceding
1914. The costs of war are now so
staggering that statesmen like Mr.
Baldwin are impelled to ask: "Who
in Europe does not know that one
more war in the West apd the civilization of the ages will fall with
as great a shock as that of Rome?" 2
Modern war is not only a preventable accident; it is a dreadful scourge,
more to be feared than the Black
Death.
This has not been true in every
time. The benefits of war have often
cancelled out its evils, have actually
advanced the course of human evolu-
1-Daltoc, Hugh, T oward the Peace of Natio11s, p. 2.
2-Quoted by Dalton, p. 1.
tion. For example, otherwise isolated groups used to meet upon the
battle-field; and long after physical
combat had ceased, the cultural ferment induced by such contact altered
and enriched the customs of the
hostile peoples. With the impact of
Islam upon Europe during the Crusades, the structure of the Dark Ages
was shattered and the western world
entered a new phase. By revealing
unsuspected horizons, war has undoubtedly speeded the progress of
civilization.
More()ver, it has served to breed
hardy and vigorous men, inspiring
in them the will to enterprise and
action. Discipline, cooperation, inventiveness-these, as well as death,
sorrow, waste, have beeen by-products of an activity which the modern
world must now condemn. For the
costs have finally overtaken the profits. Today, "we see war no longer
as a tragic necessity in human life,
but as a horrible arrest in development. "3
3-Wells, World of William C/issold, quoted by
Dalton, p. 276.
The figures of losses sustained by
the fighting nations in the Great
War, appalling as they are-ten
million wounded, a total money cost
of $337,846,000,000- actually indicate but a small portion of the destruction. The costs of war, indeed,
cannot be estimated, but their significance may be glimpsed when it is
remembered that, as a biologist has
written, "The war question is essentially a problem in human ecology.
Just as the plants and animals in
an aquarium, pond, or forest constitute a delicately balanced e:omplex,
so human society is a complicated
organism. War, therefore, does not
affect merely the armies engaged,
but the civil populations as well, not
only of the belligerent nations but
also of remote neutrals." 4
Thus the Great War distorted
every phase of modern life. Six
million people were wiped out by
Spanish influenza. "Nearly all Polish
children under six are said to have
died from starvation.'' 5 The fatalities
4-Hunt, Some Biological Aspects of War, p. 3.
5-Ibid .• p. 2.
among Armenians, Syrians, Jews,
Greeks, Roumanians, Austrians, Serbians, Russians, Belgians, due to
starvation and disease, were enormous. Nations jeopardized even
their future health to feed this terror
which coveted only the fittest human
specimens. In the United States,
"about 83 per cent of the drafted
men who possessed defects of a probably more or less hereditary character
were rejected," to return to their
homes and father a generation. 6

AT the same time, the economic equilibrium of the world col·
lapsed. Factories and industries,
growing up to fulfill war needs,
caused dislocation and overproduction after the war. Political instability interfered with trade. High and
oppressive taxation cut down the
purchasing power of the public and
lowered the standard of living by ten
per cent. In the light of subsequent
developments, it is interesting to
read a post-war prophecy that "the
6-Ibid., p. 83

f
very breakdown of modern economic
society might be the price exacted." 7
Yet the physical consequencesbiologic and economic, together with
the political disturbances created by
the Versailles Treaty-were overshadowed, if possible, by the havoc
worked upon the character of public
ethics and private morals. No appraisal could exaggerate these factors, which in their totality form the
damning evidence of "man's inhumanity to man," and predict in grim
accents the terms upon which another
war shall be fought. One of the
strangest attitudes of our day is the
nonchalance with which the common
man watches his government prepare
for suicidal conflict. Like blithe
children the nations of the world
seek arms for a tourney with Death,
apparently unconscious of the merciless intent of their opponent.
There are, to be sure, thousands
of persons who, through the bitter
years of the Great War, acquired an
aching thirst for peace, and many
7- Bogart, Direct and l ndirect Costs rrf the Great
World War, p. 299.
of these have since devoted their
lives to this ideal. Moreover, it is
now the opinion of an imposing
number of statesmen and leaders that
war and human society have come to
the parting of the ways. Diverse
projects exist for the consummation
of this process, sustained by as many
explanations of the causes and cures
of war as there are fields of human
activity. After fifteen years of faithful application, however, some people
are questioning whether success does
not wait upon the coordination of
these separate enterprises.

Now no plan, it is safe to
say, so unites every contributory
movement, so richly harmonizes the
impulses and efforts of men towards
the superb goal-world peace-as
does the Baha'i Faith. 'Abdu'l-Bahi
wrote, "The scope of Universal Peace
must be such that all the communities and religions may find their highest wish realized in it." 8 Comprehensive in analysis, all-embracing in
8- Baha' I Peace Program, p. 19.

scope, inviting the cooperation of
every forward-looking individual and
group, the Baha'i Faith not only
conforms with fact, but is enabled
to enlist and conserve every authentic interest in the quest for that
"durable peace" which, as President
Roosevelt has said, "is the only goal
worthy of our best efforts."
Perhaps the primary and most
stimulating contribution of Baha'u' -
llah (Father of 'Abdu'l-Baha and
Founder of this Cause) was an affirmation in unequivocal terms that the
case for peace would prosper. "Yet
so it shall be; these fruitless strifes,
these ruinous wars shall pass away,
and the 'Most Great Peace' shall
come." 9 His words challenge at the
outset the threadbare theory that
war is inevitable because human
nature does not change, a brand of
illogic which is both untenable and
futile. Failing as it does to distinguish between the instincts of individuals and social institutions, it
is unable to recognize that whereas
9-Quoted in Esslemont, Bahtl'n'llah and the
New Era, p. 48.

human impulses may not change,
their expression-forms can certainly
be shaped and guided. Happily, the
opinion of an eminent body of psychologists has been recorded: "War
is not instinctive and ineradicable.
By a vote of 346 to 10 the members
of the American Psychological Association have registered their opposition to the doctrine that war is a part
of human nature and cannot be
stopped." 10
War, actually more akin to politics
than to biology, might be de.fined as
"a comest by force between political
groups." 11 Arising from the struggle
for existence, it is not therefore a
necessary conclusion, but rather the
most obvious and brute-like solution
of this competition for life. Menwho are endowed with intellecthave often replaced natural processes
with reasoned ones, especially when
their very existence has been found
to depend upon the latter. As one
Baha'i writer says, "Disillusion
would only be justified if human
10-Science News Letter, August 6, 1932.
11-Davie, The Evolution of War, p. 46.

society could be successfully established on the war principle." 12 Those
who are alert to historic necessities
know that war is doomed; at the
same time they are prepared for a
sharp and long-drawn struggle to
eradicate the principle which so in-                      .   l
timately penetrates the fabric of
modern life.

'ABnu'L-BAHA has said:
"War is not limited to one cause.
There are many kinds of war and
conflict going on: political war, commercial war, patriotic war and racial
war. This is the very civilization of
war." 13 Today economic causes seem
the most significant, with our world
a seething mass of economic stresses
and strains. Unemployment, "the
cancer of the body economic," was
estimated in 1932 as affecting some                       . .J
fifty millions of the world's popula-                         I
tion, unquestionably a conservative
figure. Another critical question is
that of population pressure and it is
said that whereas "in 1.8 00 there were
12-Holley, T he World E conomy of Ba/11i'u.'llah, p. 7.
13-Com.bi/ation, etc. , con cerning t he Most Great
Peace , p. 41.

probably 600,000,000 or 700,000,000
people in the world, today the number is perhaps 1,800,000,000." 14 Increasing complexity of economic life
together with a breakdown of the
system of production and distribution, (both of them problems grossly
complicated by the Great War) ,
these are the factors leading to friction and rivalries.
But-and it is a consideration
fraught with importance and hopeeconomic causes in themselves do not
result in war. Conflict springs up
only when political groups, in an
effort "to support the economic interests of their citizens," 15 clash and
resort to violence. With immigration
laws, tariffs, harsh trade policies, raw
material monopolies, and protection
of foreign investments, governments
attempt to underwrite prosperity,
ever guided by the unhappy notion
that one nation can prosper independently of other nations, even at their
expense. As a matter of fact, the
World Economic Conference of 1927
14-Patterson, The World's Economic Dilemma, p. 23.
15-Lamb, Economic Causes of War, p. 6.

disposed of this creed: "Any strictly
nationalistic policy is harmful not
only to the nation which practices it,
but also to the others and therefore
defeats its own ends." 16 This twentieth-century truth, still not universally known, stands as one of the
basic premises of the World Order
of Baha'u'llah.
Economic irritants are not, however, the sole instigators of a war
spirit, and seldom if ever are they
formally acknowledged. It is far
easier to address popular fury in
terms of its emotional antipathies.
In other words, human prejudices
form the most fertile ground for the
seeds of war-prejudices national,
racial, religious, class and cultural.
How carefully through the ages
these provincialisms have been fostered, despite the fact that "the most
important step from savagery to culure is the emancipation of the individual man from complete or temporary segregation or isolation." 17
How tenaciously group-egotisms
16-Quoted in Lamb, p. 60.
17-Davie, p. 16, quoting Ratzel, History
of Mankind.
have been transferred from the first
primitive tribal unit, exalting itself
with the name "Men" as if other
tribes were not men, to the succeeding feudal, state and national organizations.
Ethnocentrism, that loyalty which
does good service in stabilizing each
newly-created society, always in the
end projects the social body into
armed conflict. Today, disguised as
nationalism, it is arousing passions
which inevitably must hurtle us into
another desperate struggle. Perhaps
in no other school will men fi.nall y
learn that: "All prejudices whether
of religion, race, politics or nation,
must be renounced, for these prejudices have caused the world's sickness. It is a grave malady which, unless arrested, is capable of causing
the destruction of the whole human
race. Every ruinous war with its
terrible bloodshed and misery has
been caused by one or another of
these prejudices." 18
These and many others are the
18-'Abdu'l-Baba, TN! Baha'i Magazine,
February, 1934.

true causes of wars. But we must
distinguish between causes and that
basic condition of world society
which makes war actually possible.
For war is itself nothing but one
method for settling disputes. It has
already been dispensed with in the
relations of individuals, families,
states; only between nations does it
remain the honored arbiter. Only
between nations are there no effective
definitions of law and government,
no restraints to violence, no alternative courts of last appeal.

INTERNATIONAL relations,
up to the Great War, were in a state
of complete anarchy. Even today,
after the efforts of the Versailles
Treaty to establish a League of Nations, and in spite of subsequent
pacts and agreements and the organized work of millions of interested people, international relations
are still too chaotic to prevent the
catastrophe which tempts us like a
lurid shadow. Definitely, at least
five institutions and processes for
the prevention of war have been
established: the League of Nations,
the International Labor Office, the
Permanent Court of International
Justice at The Hague, the Locarno
treaties and similar insurance treaties, and the Kellogg-Briand Pact.
Actually, "every nation in the world
has become signatory to some kind
of a solemn pledge that it will settle
its future difficulties by pacific
means.'' 19
Yet in 1935 we stand in more
danger of war than at any time since
1914. The League of Nations, once
seen as the hope of the world, has
in the last year proved itself ineffectual. Indeed, it is in no true sense
a League of Nations, since the United
States, Germany and Japan-to name
the most important-do not belong.
And the League is powerless to stop
them, it is powerless to interfere if
Japan wishes to quarrel with China,
it is wholly inadequate to prevent
the next great conflict for which all
19-Tuttle, Alternatives to W ar, p. 2.

countries are preparing with illdisguised haste. The armaments race
has at last been entered upon frankly although six years ago war was
renounced "as an instrument of national policy." 20 It is a fact that the
world spends enough on armaments
in one year to support the total cost
of the League for more than six
centuries!
In a world so enslaved by selfishness, so bestial in many of its impulses, so intent upon destroying
the few world institutions which
have been laboriously erected, what
remains to a lover of peace? In what
consolation may his soul find patience
and what assurance will sustain him
through the coming darkness? There
is only one answer. Those who cling
to the bright vision of a New World
Order, whose thoughts continuously
encircle it and whose actions faithfully contribute to its consummation
- they shall wrest sanity from the
world's insanity and peace from its
bloodthirstiness.
20--Kellogg-Briand Pact, quoted in Tuttle, p, 152,

Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the
Baha'i Faith, has written: "That the
forces of a world catastrophe can
alone precipitate such a new phase
of human thought is, alas, becoming
increasingly apparent. That nothing
short of the fire of a severe ordeal,
unparalleled in its intensity, can fuse
and weld the discordant entities that
constitute the elements of presentday civilization, into the integral
components of the world commonwealth of the future, is a truth which
future events will increasingly demonstrate."21
The outlawry of war waits upon
the awakening of man's intelligence
and will. May humanity emerge at
last from its blindness into the profound conviction that no less a foundation than that of undivided loyalty
to a world society can ever support
the structure of an enduring peace.
21-Goal of a New World Order, p. 26.
-- Most Great Peace, The: A New Phase of Human Thought (Used by permission of the curator)