Pan, Mars, Hitler, And Marx
Story★★★★O Pan, you god of the Greeks, when you played your pipes you lured so many along the path that seemed the way of happiness as they danced away towards Arcady! O Mars, you god of the Romans, you brought that ancient Empire to world domination, and men thought you knew the way to selfrealization! Nor were all the false gods in the distant past. Hitler beguiled young men of Christian families, made them forswear their Christian faith, led them back towards paganism and towards a darkness deeper than death.
Karl Marx, we read your stinging words, and millions have followed you because they thought you knew the way and were, indeed, the light of the world. But now we turn and look at Ancient Greece and Rome.
We contemplate modern Germany and Russia, and we know that, like the will-o’-thewisp, you led men into a morass, and the end was darkness and fear. Leslie D. Wcathcrhead From Christian World, Dec. 21, 1950
The point
False gods and ideologies—from Pan and Mars through Hitler's Nazism and Marx's communism—lure humanity toward darkness and despair. The passage traces history showing these paths end in death and fear, not enlightenment.