There was no "generation" that saw the significance to 1914 that the WTS now gives it. Even into the early 1930s, Rutherford still taught that the parousia took place in 1874. Russell taught that there would be a 40-year harvest period after the Parousia, which would end in 1914 when the Zionists (hence the name of his magazine) would begin to rule the earth from Jerusalem, and bring in an unprecedented time of peace. When his predictions were proved false, the organization altered words in his book, such as changing "before 1914" to read "after 1914", and kept selling the books. So not even Rutherford had any spiritual insight into 1914. The change of the Parousia took place some 20 or 30 years later.

At Matthew 24, Jesus warned his disciples about deceivers who would come in his name ("Christ" means "Anointed"). They would hear stories about wars and earthquakes and such, but they were told not to be concerned. Jesus never spoke about size, extent, number of casualties, length, intensity. He only spoke about being aware of deceivers.

If these days are so bad and you could travel back in time, where would you go? Why? Would you go back to the Middle Ages, Stone Age, Rome, Babylon?