IX
evitable in the long run ", the present trend of human
evolution as typified in the rise of totalitarian dictator-
ships is against it. This argument ignores the pheno-
menon of dialectical transformations and mutations in
nature and history. A close study of natural and his-
torical phenomena shows that when a particular ten-
dency in nature or society has reached its peak, it is very
often ripe for a mutation, i. e., transformation into its
opposite by a sudden leap. During the last war the
culmination of the power of armaments gave rise to the
technique of frightfulness which means you do not need
to kill if you can demonstrate your undoubted capacity
to kill. By the use of this technique it was found possible
by totalitarian powers to subdue and enslave whole
nations almost without firing a shot. It is not without
significance that although the destructive power of
armaments and the numbers involved in the last World
War were far greater than in World War I, actual
casualties were less. Proceeding on this analogy,
it should not be difficult to visualize that as the
number of people groaning under the iron heel of
militarism grows, the stage is set for the discovery that
if the oppressed masses simply shed the fear of death,
it might not be necessary for them to die to regain their
freedom. The deadlier the weapons of destruction be-
come, the greater is the chance of humanity's learning to
confront them with a power of an altogether different
kind against which they cannot prevail. Armaments can
but destroy. Yet, total destruction is not what the tyrant
seeks, but co-operation, willing or forced, of the victim
and this no power of armaments can extract from a people
if they have the strength to say ' No '. The moment,
therefore, the people become aware of soul force or the
power of the spirit, which armaments can neither destroy
nor subdue, the arms will be rendered useless and the
citadel of tyranny will fall.
The earliest and perhaps the most brilliant recorded
historical instance of the triumph of this power of the
spirit is to be found in the encounter on the plain of