This book has twenty-nine chapters. It is a non-fiction book; it is corresponding letters between Mr. Hesse and different individuals they talked about during World War I and World War II. As I was reading this book, I noticed the same theme is resonating between this book and what Iranians are experiencing post the 1979 Revolution in Iran.
Mr. Hesse is a pacifist and wants to tell his readers how war is taking humanity away from people. War transforms them into soulless individuals that they no longer care about their well-being.
On page 11, the author gives reason for World War I and II, "He was a citizen and patriot in the international world of thought, of inner freedom, of intellectual conscience. In the moments of his best thinking, he saw the histories of nations no longer as separate, independent destinies but as subordinate parts of a total movement."
On page 11, the author explains how good people transformed into a cold person who no longer has any good thoughts toward another human being. "That the attitude of our military men, who treat an enemy prisoner with consideration, becomes a living approach to our thinkers, who are no longer willing to respect and esteem the enemy even when he is peaceful and brings benefits.
The author's foundation is under the premise of "Thou shall not kill." It is the essence of Christianity, which makes it different than other Ibrahimc faiths. The author drafts a letter to Herr Minister and says, "Beethoven's music and the words of the Bible told me the same thing; they were water from the same spring, the only spring from which man derives good. And then suddenly. Herr Minister, it came to me that your speech and the speeches of your governing colleagues in both camps do not flow from that spring, that they lack what can make human words important and valuable. They lack love; they lack humanity."
The End Product of War:
Page 19. So I heard all countries looked the same; even the difference between belligerent and neutral countries had virtually disappeared. Since the introduction of bombing from free balloons, which automatically dropped their bombs on the civilian population from an altitude of fifty to sixty thousand feet, national boundaries, though as closely guarded as ever, had become somewhat illusory.
What Does War to People? How Do People Tolerate Political-Economy Pressure?
Page 25. Practically everyone who is not a soldier is a civil servant. That makes life bearable for most people; a good many are genuinely happy. Little by little, one gets used to the shortages. When the potatoes gave out, we had to put up with sawdust gruel-they season it with tar now; it is surprisingly tasty-we all thought it would be unbearable. But then we got used to it. And the same with everything else.
There is no One True Religion:
Page 30. The essence of love, beauty, and holiness does not reside in Christianity or antiquity, or Goethe or Tolstoy-it lives in you, in you and me, in each one of us. This is the one eternal and forever identical doctrine, our one eternal truth. It is the doctrine of the 'Kingdom of Heaven' that we bear within ourselves.
Define War and Peace:
Page 55. Who call war the primordial and natural state is right. Insofar as man is an animal, he lives by struggle; he lives at others' expense, whom he fears and hates. Life is war.
Peace is something we do not know.
Being Self-authentic:
Page 107. The world was not made to be bettered. Nor were you made to be bettered. You were made to be yourselves. You were made to enrich the world with a sound, a tone, a shadow. Be yourself, and then the world will be rich and beautiful! Be other than yourself, be a liar, and a coward, then the world will be imperfect and seem in need of betterment.
What Kind of World Do We Live in:
Page 110. The world is cruel and incalculable; it loves only the strong and the able; it values those who remain true to themselves. Others can achieve only short-lived success.
Nature of Humanity:
Page 127. Most humans depend on four things they desire too much: long life, fame; title and rank; money and possessions.
What Does Nationalism Do to People:
Page 149. Swabia was a naturalized citizen of Wurttemberg. The rest of us were citizens of Basel, where our father had acquired citizenship. It was not these circumstances alone that made us permanently incapable of any serious nationalism, but they had a good deal to do with it. It is a good thing for us both that with all the nationalist bluster in the world around us, our childhood and origins' mere recollection makes us immune to such madness.
Delusional People:
Page 159. Another group consists of former colleagues and friends who openly and unreservedly support Hitler's triumphal progress all through the years. Now they write me touchingly friendly letters, telling me all about their lives, their bomb damage and domestic cares, their children and grandchildren, as though nothing had happened, as though nothing had become between us, as though they had not helped to kill friends and relatives of my wife, who is Jewish, and to discredit and destroy my life work. Not one of them says that he repents that he sees things in an entirely different light today, that he was deluded.
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