lydy | Armistice Day

The Eleventh hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh month --

It was a celebration of the end of the world. Nothing else has affected the Western world so profoundly as World War I. A generation of young men dead, a permanent shift in the economy from agriculture to manufacturing, the destruction of socialism and anarchism, the stage set for World War II, and class order crumbling. It was the end of the absolute rule of monarchs in Europe, and provided the catalyst for the Russian Revolution (remember that the revolution did not start out as a communist or socialist movement). Women were forced to go to work. In order to finance and manage the war, governments were forced to substantially increase their size and authority. It was the end of 300 years of European hegemony.

It doesn't mean much, anymore. While it is, just barely, within human memory, the last veteran of the war has died (or else is over 100 years old). Do they still toll the bells on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month? They did when I was a teenager. St. Paul Cathedral would toll the bells -- I don't remember for how long. Possibly as much as an hour. It seemed to go on forever.

I think I know a little bit of how Emma Goldman felt. When the war came rushing up, and was received by such excitement, she was devastated by the enthusiasm and patriotism it inspired in her comrades. As an anarchist, she believed in internationalism. To watch her fellow anarchists, socialists, and communists throw away all of their principals to join the army to defend their beloved country, to defend France, Germany, America, or the British Empire, was appalling. Each country had most of their left leaning political leaders suddenly charging into war, suddenly overcome with statism, and loyalty to their country, not to all people everywhere.

I watch our country charge into Iraq with the same enthusiasm, and hope that we aren't making a similarly catastrophic mistate. Oh, it won't be trench warfare, it will be like Vietnam, with sand instead of jungle. There's no longer any politically powerful radical left to be torn apart by such issues. Gods know what my government will do over the next four years, but I find it unlikely that they will exile me to Russia.

It's odd, you know. One of the few people left who still remembers when the armistice was signed, one of the few people who still feel some small, ancient grief about World War I, is an anarchist, a loony liberal, someone who would have been a peace actiist (or at least a lazy supporter of same).

I don't know how it is in Europe. Ancient history seems to have a more personal impact on them, and they are still feeling the effects of the Great War, the War to End All Wars. Are there still public ceremonies? Do the bells still toll on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month?