Source: “Hidden Wisdom: Secrets Of The Western Esoteric Tradition”, By Tim Wallace-Murphy, The Disinformation Company Ltd., 2010.
The Esoteric Revival And The War To End All War.wav
This podcast explores the transition from an era of apparent peace and prosperity, fueled by industrialization and imperialism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, to the devastating world wars of the 20th century. It argues that while material progress and scientific advancements were significant, they were often underpinned by greed and exploitation, both of the working class and colonized peoples. The text highlights a simultaneous revival of interest in esoteric and spiritual matters among some intellectuals and scientists, contrasting this with the dominant materialist and increasingly amoral nature of science and politics leading up to and during the devastating world wars. Ultimately, the source suggests that the failure to integrate spiritual principles into the prevailing scientific and political philosophies contributed to the unprecedented violence and destruction of the 20th century.
Topic 1 The period around 1880 marked a significant transformation in the "developed" world. Literacy rates were high, and intellectual life, politics, and economics had largely freed themselves from the influence of traditional religions, which were seen as bulwarks of superstition. Science, increasingly essential for modern technology, was virtually monopolized by these developed regions. This era saw the rise of liberal bourgeois society, fueled by developments stemming from the dual revolutions (likely referring to the Industrial and French Revolutions, though only the Industrial Revolution is explicitly named as showing the way to growth). This growth, while creating prosperity for a few, also led to the exploitation of a new class of landless workers.
Topic 2 The rise of modern imperialism in the nineteenth century was deeply intertwined with the economic philosophy underpinning the Industrial Revolution. This philosophy provided both the motivation and the means for the global spread of Western trade and thinking. At its core, the new imperial age was driven by institutionalized greed: a relentless search for new markets and cheap raw materials, promising immense profits. This avaricious pursuit was often presented outwardly as a desire to transform the world through the benefits of new theoretical systems like classical political economy and utilitarian philosophy. Thus, the confident conquest of the globe was closely associated with the ideologies and concepts of liberal, bourgeois democracy.
Topic 3 Internal difficulties and conflicts within the developing capitalist system were perceived as being solvable through the creation of new markets in colonies. The source suggests that the spread of growing prosperity from factories, through fuller employment, helped temporarily alleviate simmering discontent among European laboring classes. For a time, it seemed major obstacles to capitalist growth had been removed, leading to a lessening of political reaction and an era of relative "world peace," with conflicts like the Crimean War and colonial skirmishes viewed as minor or necessary costs. However, the source argues that contradictions inherent within Europe itself, rather than external factors or continuous capitalist growth, were the true seeds of future, worldwide conflict. The Great Slump of the 1930s is presented as a significant crisis for capitalism, prompting the need for reform.
Topic 4 Industrialization was generally associated with a decline in religious tradition in the industrially dominant Western countries, particularly in the Protestant liberal democratic states where individual responsibility for salvation and thought on ultimate questions was emphasized. In this increasingly materialistic world, the question arose about the place for spiritual matters. While traditional churches and Freemasons are mentioned as potential carriers of spiritual tradition, the source highlights an impulse from the East, specifically Tibet, transmitted through Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, as a significant force in sustaining knowledge of the supersensible in the age of empire. This reflected a broader spiritual climate among the intellectual elite, where the decline of religion stimulated renewed interest in esoteric matters.
Topic 5 Helena Petrovna Blavatsky is presented as a remarkable woman who exhibited precocious talents and strong psychic powers from childhood. Believing she had a great purpose, she traveled extensively, financially supported by her father, with the goal of stemming the rising tide of materialism in the West and rebutting the domination of new scientific thinking. Her purpose was to replace these with esoteric knowledge, teaching altruism and presenting nobler, more ancient ideas. She founded the Theosophical Society in New York in 1875 with the aim to study psychic phenomena and investigate natural laws and latent human powers. Despite facing controversy and accusations, her co-founders, reputable lawyers, supported her. After moving to India, she simplified the society's aim to forming a nucleus of universal brotherhood. Her major works, including Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine, became principal sources for early Theosophy, which spread widely, particularly in the English-speaking world.
Topic 6 The triumph of Cartesian and scientific philosophies led to a significant shift in understanding the universe, with the bourgeoisie removing religious theology from their worldview. Nature became seen through a scientific lens, yet paradoxically, also increasingly incomprehensible to the average person, leading to alienation. Some, like Friedrich Nietzsche, while using pseudo-science, distrusted science. Others offered alternative perspectives. Nikola Tesla is presented as having an innately spiritual conception of the world, viewing nature as a vibrant entity that science, with its limited method, could not fully describe. He questioned scientific objectivity and saw alternative frameworks of reality, visualizing his inventions with an inward eye. Vladimir Solovyov, a Russian philosopher, also offered a spiritual vision, seeing the Earth as a living organism and bridging science and spirituality, predating later concepts like the Gaia hypothesis. The imaginative, holistic science of Goethe was also viewed as a bridge between the material and spiritual, influencing figures like Rudolf Steiner and Tesla.
Topic 7 Despite a period of relative peace among European powers following the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, tensions were building. The source argues that simplistic explanations for the outbreak of World War I, such as economic or imperial rivalries, or socialist agitation, are inadequate. Instead, the war is seen as resulting from the complex interactions of grandiose rearmament schemes by Britain, Germany, and France within intricate and antagonistic alliances, driven by France's fear of Germany and Britain's concerns about its naval power. This created a political time bomb. The fuse was lit, not by external conflicts, but by the actions of a small group within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Specifically, the assassination of the Archduke at Sarajevo by a Serbian nationalist, Gavrilo Princip, triggered Austria's declaration of war. Due to the existing alliances, this act led inevitably and irrevocably to worldwide conflict, signifying the violent end of the preceding era of perceived stability and peace.
Topic 8 The aftermath of World War I saw the map of Europe redrawn by the Treaty of Versailles and other treaties, creating arbitrary boundaries and unstable, inexperienced democracies. Germany was blamed for the war and burdened with heavy reparations. Meanwhile, the Russian Revolution of 1917 established a Marxist state, leading to a brutal civil war involving foreign intervention. Capitalism faced a severe crisis in the 1930s with the Great Slump, highlighting the need for reform; John Maynard Keynes proposed state management and mixed economies as a solution, though his ideas were fully adopted later. In this turbulent environment, totalitarian regimes rose to power: Fascism under Mussolini in Italy and Nazism under Hitler in Germany, supported by military and industrialists. These regimes were characterized by brutality, police states, political repression, and in Germany, a new depth of racism leading to genocide against Jews. Their aggressive imperial ambitions and military preparations were demonstrated in the Spanish Civil War, seen as a rehearsal for wider conflict.
Topic 9 The interwar period saw significant advancements in theoretical physics, centered notably at Göttingen University in Germany. Brilliant scientists from various countries converged there, pursuing fundamental knowledge about the universe. This research delved into the structure of the atom, leading to the discovery that its nucleus could be artificially disintegrated, potentially releasing immense energy. Scientists like Walther Nernst foresaw the dangers of this discovery. With the rise of Hitler and the Nazi regime's persecution of Jews and political opponents, many leading physicists, including many Jewish scientists, fled Germany and sought refuge in the United States. News of German interest in applying nuclear physics to warfare, such as placing an embargo on uranium export from occupied Czechoslovakia, alarmed these exiled scientists. This fear, amplified by figures like Leo Szilard and Edward Teller who worked with Einstein, led them to urge the US government to initiate its own atomic bomb project, known as the "Manhattan Project," fearing Hitler would develop one first.
Topic 10 World War II became a truly global conflict, unprecedented in its scale and impact, affecting even neutral nations. Civilian populations were subjected to aerial bombardment, military occupation, and systematic genocide, most notably the Holocaust, resulting in the extermination of millions of Jewish people and others deemed undesirable by the Nazi regime. The scale of casualties was staggering. The revealing of the horrors of the Holocaust after the war stunned the world and led to the concept of "crimes against humanity" and the Nuremberg trials. By the war's end, the traditional European powers were weakened, and the United States and the Soviet Union emerged as the dominant superpowers. The US use of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, followed by the Soviet Union's rapid development of its own atomic weapon, ushered in the nuclear age and the era of "mutually assured destruction" (MAD). This balance of terror between the two ideologically opposed superpowers defined the post-war period, leading to the division of Europe by the "Iron Curtain" and, paradoxically, seeming to legitimize a continuous series of smaller, non-nuclear conflicts referred to as "conventional" wars, often involving chemical or potentially biological weapons. This period is viewed as one where atomic strategy replaced spiritual principle in international statesmanship, reflecting a system perceived as lacking moral guidance.