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Before there was nine-one-one, there was eleven-eleven. That tragedy spanned the globe, included millions, and changed the entire world irrevocably. No one knows what those changes were, nor what might have been. History doesn't come with a "do over" option.
Welcome to the 87th anniversary of the end of civilization. What was there then is not here now.
The lives of the men lost has become abstract. The United States doesn't even call it Armistice Day anymore; it's Veterans' Day, and is supposed to commemorate all our veteran dead. (So why have Memorial Day, too, I've always wondered.) There are very few who still remember the war, soon there will be no living memory at all, neither military or civilian.
We talk about loss and disillusionment in reference to the Great War. That loss is described in fuzzy terms, a general malaise amongst the public. I believe it was more specific than that. Communism took a mortal blow, socialism was crippled, anarchy was destroyed, and the very concept of international solidarity was drowned in a tsunami of jingoist "patriotism". The loss was not just an important political loss, an important voice stifled in the public discourse, it was also the death of hopes and ideals and dreams that had been important, that offered a different view of the relationship between men and power, a different understanding of wealth. We lost the opportunity to explore those ideas, work with the concepts, and hope for futures where we had different values.
Maybe the left at the turn of the century had no answers. Maybe their ideals were stupid, their reasoning flawed, their observations biased, and their goals mendacious. Certainly, their actions (especially those of the anarchists, gods bless their foolish hearts and clueless minds) contributed to social unrest -- another aspect of World War I which is given short shrift by many a classroom. Maybe they had an important piece of the puzzle of how humans can live together on this planet. Maybe we would have found more pieces of that puzzle because they had a corner and edge piece to start with. Maybe we're working on an entirely different puzzle. It's another thing we will never know.
History doesn't come with a "do over" option. Something the dead know only too well, or not at all.
Welcome to the 87th anniversary of the end of civilization. What was there then is not here now.
The lives of the men lost has become abstract. The United States doesn't even call it Armistice Day anymore; it's Veterans' Day, and is supposed to commemorate all our veteran dead. (So why have Memorial Day, too, I've always wondered.) There are very few who still remember the war, soon there will be no living memory at all, neither military or civilian.
We talk about loss and disillusionment in reference to the Great War. That loss is described in fuzzy terms, a general malaise amongst the public. I believe it was more specific than that. Communism took a mortal blow, socialism was crippled, anarchy was destroyed, and the very concept of international solidarity was drowned in a tsunami of jingoist "patriotism". The loss was not just an important political loss, an important voice stifled in the public discourse, it was also the death of hopes and ideals and dreams that had been important, that offered a different view of the relationship between men and power, a different understanding of wealth. We lost the opportunity to explore those ideas, work with the concepts, and hope for futures where we had different values.
Maybe the left at the turn of the century had no answers. Maybe their ideals were stupid, their reasoning flawed, their observations biased, and their goals mendacious. Certainly, their actions (especially those of the anarchists, gods bless their foolish hearts and clueless minds) contributed to social unrest -- another aspect of World War I which is given short shrift by many a classroom. Maybe they had an important piece of the puzzle of how humans can live together on this planet. Maybe we would have found more pieces of that puzzle because they had a corner and edge piece to start with. Maybe we're working on an entirely different puzzle. It's another thing we will never know.
History doesn't come with a "do over" option. Something the dead know only too well, or not at all.
