【英文原著类】War and the Future(战争与未来).pdf

WAR AND THE FUTURE
WAR AND THE
FUTURE
Italy, France and Britain at War
H. G. Wells
1
WAR AND THE FUTURE
THE PASSING OF THE EFFIGY
1
One of the minor peculiarities of this unprecedented war is the Tour of
the Front. After some months of suppressed information-- in which even
the war correspondent was discouraged to the point of elimination--it was
discovered on both sides that this was a struggle in which Opinion was
playing a larger and more important part than it had ever done before. This
wild spreading weed was perhaps of decisive importance; the Germans at
any rate were attempting to make it a cultivated flower. There was
Opinion flowering away at home, feeding rankly on rumour; Opinion in
neutral countries; Opinion getting into great tangles of misunderstanding
and incorrect valuation between the Allies. The confidence and courage of
the enemy; the amiability and assistance of the neutral; the zeal, sacrifice,
and serenity of the home population; all were affected. The German
cultivation of opinion began long before the war; it is still the most
systematic and, because of the psychological ineptitude of the Germans, it
is probably the clumsiest. The French /Maison de la Presse/ is certainly the
anisation in existence for making things clear, counteracting
hostile suggestion, the British anisations paratively
ineffective; but what is lacking officially is very largely made up for by
the good will and generous efforts of the English and American press. An
interesting monograph might be written upon these various attempts of the
belligerents to get themselves and their proceedings explained.
Because there is perceptible in these developments, quite over and
above the desire to influence opinion, a very real effort to get things
explained. It is the most interesting and curious-- one might almost write
touching--feature of anisations that they do not constitute a
positive and defined propaganda such as the Germans maintain.