Buzzkill
I think that many of my gloomy ruminations of late come directly from my reading material, which has been, mostly, history. Right now I am working through The Guns of August, which is an absolute masterpiece, which is heavily involved with the people and personalities that drove the beginning of WWI. The imperfection of men is never more apparent than when it executes poor military plans, which were recognized by those executing them as a poor course of action, resulting in the deaths of tens of millions.
The reason the plans were exercised was pride and a fear of losing face. The Kaiser went from nervous, right before he declared war, to being absolutely debilitated by migraines after. He never intended to actually start a war; he only wanted to posture and make France and Britain recognize Germany as superior. He was bluffing and he never believed France and England would call his bluff. German strategists even published their strategies for taking France by going through Belgium in publications that officers from all over Europe were sure to read. The German people were on the cutting edge of socialism, psychology, physics, military power, architecture, and engineering; they were clamoring for recognition as the leading world power.
To the Kaiser's horror, when he sent the ultimatums to France and Russia, which were designed partially to keep them out of Serbia, and more importantly, to make them recognize German superiority, the French and Russians called him on it. It was the last thing he expected, and to his dying day he insisted that the war was the final victory of the "scheming" Edward VII over himself; the final "encircling of Germany." Nevermind that Edward was dead and had only been strengthening ties between England and the rest of Europe.
H'anyway...
The Kaiser did not want war, but he did it to keep face and because his officers told him it was impossible to avert it, despite the fact that England promised to keep France neutral if Germany held off. WWI was caused by a rising tide of bluster and pride, and it destroyed the three greatest countries in the world, economically, physically, spiritually. The three countries with the greatest universities, most refined culture, and prosperous citizenry, and they went about deciding who was best as one would expect from sophisticated societies: they beat each other to death.
Reading this kind of literature requires increased videogame time. Why? Because you can keep perfect order in a game. Everything can be bent to your will. Good triumphs, evil falls, and the hero and heroine are together, in perfect bliss, under the sun forevermore....Or, at the very least, your well oiled military machine pounds the adversary to dust with minimal civilian causalities; a brief decisive war....Or at least I get to paste a few ugly critters/aliens (ugly alien civilians work too). No, really. I need extra veg time or my brain cooks and I find the one zit that still exists on my head and work it until it looks like a gunshot wound.
I think this points to one wise old cliche. A little knowledge is a very dangerous thing. What they fail to mention is that a lot of knowledge is even more dangerous.
The reason the plans were exercised was pride and a fear of losing face. The Kaiser went from nervous, right before he declared war, to being absolutely debilitated by migraines after. He never intended to actually start a war; he only wanted to posture and make France and Britain recognize Germany as superior. He was bluffing and he never believed France and England would call his bluff. German strategists even published their strategies for taking France by going through Belgium in publications that officers from all over Europe were sure to read. The German people were on the cutting edge of socialism, psychology, physics, military power, architecture, and engineering; they were clamoring for recognition as the leading world power.
To the Kaiser's horror, when he sent the ultimatums to France and Russia, which were designed partially to keep them out of Serbia, and more importantly, to make them recognize German superiority, the French and Russians called him on it. It was the last thing he expected, and to his dying day he insisted that the war was the final victory of the "scheming" Edward VII over himself; the final "encircling of Germany." Nevermind that Edward was dead and had only been strengthening ties between England and the rest of Europe.
H'anyway...
The Kaiser did not want war, but he did it to keep face and because his officers told him it was impossible to avert it, despite the fact that England promised to keep France neutral if Germany held off. WWI was caused by a rising tide of bluster and pride, and it destroyed the three greatest countries in the world, economically, physically, spiritually. The three countries with the greatest universities, most refined culture, and prosperous citizenry, and they went about deciding who was best as one would expect from sophisticated societies: they beat each other to death.
Reading this kind of literature requires increased videogame time. Why? Because you can keep perfect order in a game. Everything can be bent to your will. Good triumphs, evil falls, and the hero and heroine are together, in perfect bliss, under the sun forevermore....Or, at the very least, your well oiled military machine pounds the adversary to dust with minimal civilian causalities; a brief decisive war....Or at least I get to paste a few ugly critters/aliens (ugly alien civilians work too). No, really. I need extra veg time or my brain cooks and I find the one zit that still exists on my head and work it until it looks like a gunshot wound.
I think this points to one wise old cliche. A little knowledge is a very dangerous thing. What they fail to mention is that a lot of knowledge is even more dangerous.
Comments
Post a Comment