I'll Not Go Out to Flanders
I found this massive online archive of old photographs and dagurreotypes (http://www.old-picture.com/index.htm), and in looking around, I was reminded of how fucked up World War I was. Forgive me, but I had to write something.
There is no other event in history that makes feel as much rage and despair. At the same time, I always feel a surge of admiration and pride, for the soldiers who served bravely (French, British, German, Austrian, Turkish, Russian, all of them) and feel a certain appreciation for the sick brilliance of the technological innovations the war inspired.
It really was the most perverse, twisted, and horrific example of that old habit old men have of ordering young men to die for causes that are obscure even to the grand architects. It's especially revolting when you consider that the Great Powers' armies were composed not only of national citizens, but of colonial and imperial levies. Trenches were filled with the flower of youth of Ireland, Canada, India, Algeria, Libya, Australia, Armenia, Bosnia, Bohemia, Ruthenia, Burma, Tartarstan, Tanganyika, and Palestine, all forced to fight and die for the benefit of the peoples and governments who oppressed them.
Even though World War II saw so much more death and devesation, and involved some of the most repulsive horrors man has ever inlflicted on man, I don't find it as tragic as the Great War, for the simple reason that in World War II, everyone seemed to be fighting for and against something. World War I was essentially retroactively motivated after it had already broken out, with vague and unsatisfiying "casues." It was the meaningless wholesale slaughter of an entire generation. In the end, all those young men fought not for things like "balance of power," "territorial integrity," "self-determination," or "democracy." They fought for each other, their brothers in the trenches, and for the hope of one day seeing their sweethearts and wives again.
Very fucked up.
These tanks are filled with nerve gas:
There is no other event in history that makes feel as much rage and despair. At the same time, I always feel a surge of admiration and pride, for the soldiers who served bravely (French, British, German, Austrian, Turkish, Russian, all of them) and feel a certain appreciation for the sick brilliance of the technological innovations the war inspired.
It really was the most perverse, twisted, and horrific example of that old habit old men have of ordering young men to die for causes that are obscure even to the grand architects. It's especially revolting when you consider that the Great Powers' armies were composed not only of national citizens, but of colonial and imperial levies. Trenches were filled with the flower of youth of Ireland, Canada, India, Algeria, Libya, Australia, Armenia, Bosnia, Bohemia, Ruthenia, Burma, Tartarstan, Tanganyika, and Palestine, all forced to fight and die for the benefit of the peoples and governments who oppressed them.
Even though World War II saw so much more death and devesation, and involved some of the most repulsive horrors man has ever inlflicted on man, I don't find it as tragic as the Great War, for the simple reason that in World War II, everyone seemed to be fighting for and against something. World War I was essentially retroactively motivated after it had already broken out, with vague and unsatisfiying "casues." It was the meaningless wholesale slaughter of an entire generation. In the end, all those young men fought not for things like "balance of power," "territorial integrity," "self-determination," or "democracy." They fought for each other, their brothers in the trenches, and for the hope of one day seeing their sweethearts and wives again.
Very fucked up.
These tanks are filled with nerve gas: