Collective Homicide and Progress 17 



them repeat the same idea in different forms, and 

 enough have been given to show the justification 

 for Novikov's definition of the distorted "social 

 Darwinism" as "the doctrine that collective homi- 

 cide is the cause of human progress." Without 

 war the world would still be inhabited by men 

 seeking a shelter in caves, and the great societies 

 of nations would never have been formed, accord- 

 ing to Herbert Spencer. The formation of a State 

 is impossible without violence, that is to say with- 

 out war, according to Mr. Ratzenhofer. Without 

 war humanity would never have learned to work, 

 according to Professor Ward, and the system of 

 industrial production would have been impossible. 

 Without war no great art would have been possible 

 according to Ruskin. Without war the virile 

 qualities would decay; the moral fibre of the 

 nations would rot; the world would stagnate and 

 lose itself in materialism, according to Renan, 

 von Moltke, and Roosevelt. Novikov sums up the 

 evidence thus : 



The idea that war has been the cause of the progress 

 of our species is almost universal in the minds of the 

 great public. The number of persons who do not 

 share this belief is very limited and the persons who 

 are imbued with it are to be found in the first ranks 

 of the social hierarchy and among those who have 

 the greatest political influence. All those persons who 

 pretend to be practical and realistic, who do not wish 

 to be ridiculed or to be accused of being idealists, 

 affirm categorically that homicide serves progress. 



