What has brought the world to its present impasse?

Sometimes, I go high in the etheric regions and look down upon the earth―so high that the horizons bound one hemisphere after another. 

The horizons of time are also thus expanded, and I see ahead of and behind the present hour. 

I see the causes that have brought the world to its present impasse. 

You will have to remove the wall that separates you from the age of enlightened brotherhood.

―The Judge [Last Letters from a Living Dead Man]