Life, 1920-01-01 · page 23 of 48
Life — January 1, 1920 — page 23: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page critiques **Brooks Adams**, the historian and pessimist brother of Henry Adams, whose philosophy is described as deterministic and fatalistic—essentially arguing the universe is chaos and humanity is doomed. The cartoon depicts Adams as a skeletal, grim figure receiving a medal from Death personified, captioned "Pardon me, sir, but this medal should be yours"—mocking his death-obsessed worldview. The article argues Adams is wrong: while troubles exist (post-WWI, the Peace Treaty is imperfect), there's no reason for widespread starvation or civilizational collapse. The writer urges faith and practical action—specifically feeding starving Austrians and supporting Herbert Hoover's relief efforts—rather than Adams's nihilistic resignation. The satire targets both Adams's philosophical pessimism and, implicitly, isolationist reluctance to help post-war Europe. The final cry "Buck up, Mr. Adams!" demands optimism and engagement over defeatism.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Job Mr. Brooks Adams will show it to us, as he has been to see it and made a report. Mr. Adams knows no more about faith than the senators do, but in thought he has had some prac- ti He is a good deal discouraged about human life and the prospects of mankind. “Each year that I live,” he says in the introduction to the new edition of his “Emancipation of Massachusetts,” “I am able to withstand the suspicion that the uni- verse, far from being an expression of law originating in a single primary cause, is a chaos which admits of reaching no equilibrium and with which’ man is doomed eternally and Sea. less PAKDON ME, SIk, BUT THIS MEDAL SHOULD RE YOUKS hopelessly to contend.” Reduced to the vernacular, that seems to mean— There ain't any God, and we're all in had. Perhaps so, of course, but perhaps also the trouble is merely that Mr, Adams isn’t on to the scheme of. crea- tion or has lost his way. That is more credible when recalls that he escaped by only one year being a Har- vard classmate of Henry Cabot Lodge. But all that is general. Mr. Adams's description of the Deep Sea is par- ticular. sin the Har- vard Graduates’ Magazine: Those who have read “ The Edu- cation of Henry Adams” will recog one A reviewer 23 nize in Mr. Brooks Adams's philoso phy the “ propounded by his distinguished brother, But the Adams has made the theory more concrete and intelligible; he that it is in individual and national “ dynamic theory ” of history younger makes it clear competition, sharpened ané ened inexpressibly by the industrial inventions and advances of the last century, that the danger to civiliz And he finds that tremendous acceleration of ene tion lies. this with which mankind must. struggle, is not controlled by any power or directed to any intelligent compre hensible end. So Mr. Dr. Jacks does, and for like reasons, that the world is going to pot, but unlike Dr Adams feels as Jacks he sees no help for it That much Adams Cram th Mr. Adams Disaster does threaten. is true. Mr. Ralph would probably agfee v that chaos has been visibly impending since the Reformation. The Peace Treaty is imperfect, as Dr. Jacks says. and doubtless has the particular de- fects that he suggests. It won't save the world all by itself even if the Sen- ate passes it, but it should be, and let us hope will be, a nseful instrumen- tality in pulling the world out of a very bad hole, and sending the human race along to run, by no means hope- lessly, another lap of the great race for which it is entered. Troubles there will be; difficulties and perplexities there will be, but there is no real rea- son why millions of people should starve, or why the apparatus of civilization should crash down on the heads of its operatives. What the world, like the Adams family and even some of the Cabots, needs is a revival of faith. All it Brooks Adams admits the suspicion that the universe is on the blink, is that Mr. Adams has lost faith and ought to join the Salvation Army or some other stout organization that has got some, and try to get converted. The universe is doing about as usual The immediately is to have confidence that it will last out the winter, and try to help Mr the Austrians. If we don’t feed the and other distressed people in Eastern Europe, how can we expect the uni- verse to look good to us? Ruck up, Mr. means when Mr. thing to do Hoover feed Austrians those \dams! Buck up! comicbooks.com