The German-Swiss author and Nobel laureate, Hermann Hesse, grappled with and wrote profoundly about the societal shifts triggered by World War I. Like many other artists and writers, especially Stefan Zweig, Hesse saw the war as a cataclysmic rupture that accelerated the erosion of traditional European culture.
And like D.H. Lawrence, Hesse became alarmed because he saw that the post-WWI era was an acceleration of modernity’s dehumanizing forces—urbanization, mechanization, and technological progress.
This, he believed, alienated people from nature and their authentic selves. It turns people into mindless functionaries.
This theme recurs throughout his works as a critique of how society had prioritized efficiency and materialism over spiritual depth.
If he could only see us now.
The following is a profound little passage from a 1926 essay titled “The Longing of our Time for a Worldview.” Oh, how eerily relevant it is today. I hope you enjoy it.