An important consequence of the inner significance of the war is that the external onset of peace marked the beginning of a new struggle. The unseen forces of darkness and enlightenment naturally re-arrayed themselves and re-aligned their supporters again inside all countries soon after peace had removed the former dangers which threatened them. The military victory has not concluded the war but only brought about a change in the external character of the conflict. The planet once more became a battleground between two rival attitudes, the stubbornly materialistic and the spiritually decent. The first will fight hard for domination, the second will enter the last trench and will defend itself and its future. At first it is assuming in most countries the aspect of nothing worse than a bloodless political strife. Yet it will be none the less bitter for all that, its later developments none the less bloodier. For all those who through selfish desire or materialistic miscomprehension wish to cling to the dying age and to resist the coming age of new ideas and a better life for mankind, the war's lessons will again have been of little avail. They will consequently have to bear the bitter karma which such resistance must necessarily generate.
-- Notebooks Category 11: The Negatives > Chapter 3 : Their Presence in The World > # 282
