It would be absurd to attempt to change mankind overnight. Human character and human outlook are produced by the course of evolutionary experience during immense periods of time. But if we ought not to embark on such a futile task we ought to embark on the nobler and wiser task of making the knowledge of Karma available to all. Then, if people continue to injure others, they will at least know that retribution must eventually come to them. To remove their ignorance and to increase their comprehension of truth is our clear duty. To act towards their neighbours with goodwill, will then be theirs.
To the profound thinker, the history of the last hundred years plainly evidences the existence of a higher power which is guiding the destinies of mankind no less than it evidences the existence of a karmic law which is tying pain to wrong actions. The careful study of history by a mind which is not only capable of independent thinking but also able to bear the consequences of such thinking, and which is equipped with a knowledge of the law of Karma, will lead to significant results of a most philosophical character. In this connection, Buckle's History of Civilization in Europe is a book worth reading even though its author had but an unconscious knowledge of the truth of Karma. We may learn therefrom that societies, like men, rise to their zenith and fall into their decline through their own moral and mental defects.
-- Notebooks Category 13: Human Experience > Chapter 4 : World Crisis > # 269
