A lifelong student of history and a keen observer of the worldwide trends that drove the sweeping epic of international relations, Baron Pierre de Coubertin spoke with confidence of the major vicissitudes of modern life.  World War I was still underway when he addressed the Greek Liberal Club of Lausanne in February of 2018 and made this trenchant observation.  In this passage from the speech, “What We Can Now Ask of Sport,” the Baron placed the development of physical education in the late 19^thcentury in the larger context of the dialectic of history.  One hundred years later, today’s headlines make it clear that the Baron knew what he was talking about. 

 “In our day ... it was necessary to return towards physical education even at the risk of later going too far in that direction. For humanity is like a pendulum which seeks equilibrium but achieves it only transiently on its ineluctable flight from one excess to another.”