Have the Lamps of Europe Been Relit?

[flazatty]

Upon the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the British Foreign Secretary, Edward Grey, who later became the First Viscount Grey of Fallodon, commented, “The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our time.”

Have the lamps of Europe been relit?

[Tim D]

Yes.

[tuffy]

Yes, in 1918

[Alan]

NO. Up to 1914, world civilization was making steady, if very slow, progress. The "Great War" stpped that in its tracks, and the world ever since has been completely chaotic - you have only to listen to a couple of BBC News programmes to realize that ! There has been great "material" progress in technology, but almost every new invention and development is immediately put to its WORST possible use - the Internet and "Social Media" are prime examps of that . Then, the worship of "Democracy" - "Election by the incompetent many", as g.B.Shaw put it - and of "Freedom", whatever that is, has made "Good Government" virtually impossible, while that "incompetence" is exacerbated by the worship of the other "sacred cows" of "Equality", irrespective of intelligence and education" - "All views and opinions are of equal worth" - and "Human Rights" - the idea that everyone has the "Right" to behave as they like, irrespective of the effects of that behaviour.
An "external observer" of the world over the last 100 years would see, not "progress", but retrogression towards primitive individualism - but this time with "Weapons of Mass Destruction" readily available.
Fotunately, 100 years is considerably less than a flicker of the eye in historical time.