人类取得的成就如此震撼，无可辩驳。在音乐、文学、绘画、建筑和雕塑领域，我们创造了伟大的作品。近些年来，科学技术为我们带来了生活方式的根本性变化，让我们有能力创造出二百年前可视为奇迹的东西。毫无疑问，人类的头脑是高度智慧的，但这种智慧被人类的疯狂所玷污，因为科技放大了人类心障的毁灭性力量——毁灭地球，毁灭其他生命形态，甚至毁灭人类自身。正是因为科技因素，人类的心理障碍和集体疯狂在二十世纪的历史中获得极清晰的展现。此外还有一个因素，人类的心障事实上在不断强化和加速。
1914年，第一次世界大战爆发。所有战争皆因人类的恐惧、贪婪和权力欲而激发，毁灭性的残酷战争贯穿了人类历史，恰如奴隶制、酷刑，以及宗教和意识形态引发的泛滥暴力一样，历史上司空见惯。人类的痛苦更多地来自相互伤害，而不是自然灾难。到1914年，人类高度智慧的大脑不仅发明了内燃机，还发明了炸弹、机关枪、潜水艇、喷火器和毒气，智慧效力于疯狂！在法国和比利时的固定堑壕战中，数百万人为了争夺几英里的烂泥地而丧生。当1918年战争结束时，上千万人惨遭杀戮，更多的人遭受伤残或毁容，幸存者们看着战后的满目疮痍，惊恐万状，又百思不解。人类的疯狂从未爆发出如此巨大、如此显而易见的毁灭力。但他们根本不知道，这仅仅是开始。
The achievements of humanity are impressive and undeniable. We have created sublime works of music, literature, painting, architecture, and sculpture. More recently, science and technology have brought about radical changes in the way we live and have enabled us to do and create things that would have been considered miraculous even two hundred years ago. No doubt: The human mind is highly intelligent. Yet its very intelligence is tainted by madness. Science and technology have magnified the destructive impact that the dysfunction of the human mind has upon the planet, other life-forms, and upon humans themselves. That is why the history of the twentieth century is where that dysfunction, that collective insanity, can be most clearly recognized. A further factor is that this dysfunction is actually intensifying and accelerating.
The First World War broke out in 1914. Destructive and cruel wars, motivated by fear, greed, and the desire for power, had been common occurrences throughout human history, as had slavery, torture, and widespread violence inflicted for religious and ideological reasons. Humans suffered more at the hands of each other than through natural disasters. By the year 1914, however, the highly intelligent human mind had invented not only the internal combustion engine, but also bombs, machine guns, submarines, flame throwers, and poison gas. Intelligence in the service of madness! In static trench warfare in France and Belgium, millions of men perished to gain a few miles of mud. When the war was over in 1918, the survivors looked in horror and incomprehension upon the devastation left behind: ten million human beings killed and many more maimed or disfigured. Never before had human madness been so destructive in its effect, so clearly visible. Little did they know that this was only the beginning.
