1. Compulsory obedience. This was in the Middle Ages when men were
compelled to do the common work by the authority of the church and
nobility.
2. The experiment with Individualism. This has been since the
Renaissance, especially since Rousseau--a personality put as the centre
and aim of education, the abhorrence of every compulsion whatsoever.
3. Voluntary Obedience. It is the education of tomorrow. It is a stage
where all men will see their mission in their collective work, and
therefore voluntarily enchain themselves into the panhuman organism,
plunging their imaginative, pointlike personalities into a big and
mystic personality of mankind.
The Voluntary Obedience will mean a voluntary slavery. We are going to
be slaves again, but not by royal or papal compulsion, but by our good
will; we are going to be slaves as the parts of a body are slaves and
servants of each other, and as the bricks are slaves and servants of a
great building. We are going to be "prisoners of the Lord," as St. Paul
says, instead of being as now the prisoners of our dreams, imaginations
and ambitions.
This war will close a period of a wrong education, and will open a
period of a right one. It will open our eyes that we may see how we all
are one, and how the greatest of us is nothing else than a bigger cell
in the immense organism of history.
There is no hope for the future in the politicians, or generals, now
struggling. The only hope and guarantee lies in the children. A new
education in _personal goodness_ making for _social greatness_ is the
only salutary war. Therefore, let us look to the children!