The cure for human troubles : a statement of the Christian message in modern terms.

viii, 159 p.; 22 cm. VG orig. tan cloth in vg dj. `the troubles of mankind arise chiefly from imperfections in man which are due to the appearance of self-consciousness' (27) `The physical unification of the world has increased feelings of insecurity. Formerly you could, generally speaking, only be attacked by your near neighbours; nowadays you may be threatened by people who live on the other side of the world. Moreover, the advance of technology has given men new weapons of mass-destruction--though the historian may doubt whether Hiroshima was more horrible than,say, some of the atrocities of the Mongols in the thirteenth century, the former is much nearer to ourselves. These feelings of insecurity,whether in nations or in smaller bodies politic,lead to a magnifying ofthe importance of one's own group and a belittling of the importance of other groups. The nomadic Arabs prior to Muhammad illustrate thiswiththeir two kinds of poem;in one they "boasted" ofthe glories oftheir own tribe and showed how its heroic achievements exemplified the highest human excellence (as they conceived it),while inthe other they spoke of the baseness and contemptibility of their enemies.Despite the many differences, modern war propaganda has the same basic pattern.Onthe one hand it portrays one's own side as superior in various ways--in ideals,in general conduct and in military success;and onthe other hand it suggests the inferiority of the enemy--his false ideals, his lower standards of conduct (sometimes amounting to atrocities), and his military failures. As people become more sophisticated, more subtlety is required to induce them to believe in their own superiority and their enemies' inferiority. The basic needs of average human beings, however, remain the same.' (123 f.). Binding is Hardcover.…