You would think that when man had found a way to provide himself with artificial things in unlimited plenty...the gift of universal peace might follow

Never was the peace more frail; and this, as we shall see-the frailty of the peace-is also a product of the machine. What force is this by fumbling found that man has put in motion? Its pulsations he controls; its consequences so far have controlled him, and modern life has become so involved in a mechanical spiral that we cannot say for certain whether it is that we produce for the sake of consumption or consume for the sake of production.