The war was a test which showed humanity (and those who observe it) just where it stood. It showed up the hidden evil as well as the hidden good, revealed the lurking weakness and the unused strength. If true religion had prevailed in Germany, the Nazis with their selfishness, aggressiveness, and trickery could not have prevailed also. But this test was an extreme one. We need not fear that fresh Hitlers, more Mussolinis, are always going to arise. They will not. Dictators and their dictations are but transient instruments of the world-changes which mark the last years of a dying age. The world did not encourage the initial monstrous acts of Hitler, but neither did it oppose them. This was evidence of its own inner weakness. It is true, Hitler led his people finally to humiliation and ruin but that does not absolve the world of having contributed to the possibility of the Hitleristic regime. He was our tutor, raised to cause suffering to himself, his people, and ourselves, that the world might learn the futility of materialism, greed, envy, and selfishness.
-- Notebooks Category 11: The Negatives > Chapter 3 : Their Presence in The World > # 208
