I Condone the Use of Pictures

I will attempt to write something more substantial as my last couple post have been appalling. It looks like I will be going to Finland at the end of next month (26th to 29th of September)... I wonder if it would be easier/faster to fly out of Boston.

Anyway, more to the point. I just finished a book on the Great War, the War to End all Wars, or, as it is known today, World War I. The more times I read up on stuff like this the more I realize that nothing ever really changes. When there is a War or, in our case, an armed occupation of a country, there needs to be a compelling reason to fight. For WWII there was the attack by the Japanese and for the Civil War there was the South being stupid, i.e. A physical threat to the civilian population or the economy. I still do not know the reason for entering Vietnam or Iraq and I think that WWI also falls into this same 'What the fuck are we doing' category. There was no direct threat to the US population (thanks to the Atlantic Ocean), there was no direct threat to the Economy (we were making Billions financing the War), and the Bolsheviks were in Russian and did not come to power until after the US got involved.

To make the country ready and willing for war a huge propaganda program was created. This program played sections of the population against each other (Old Americans vs. Immigrants, Immigrants vs. Blacks) and gave everyone something to hate. End the end Wilson forced us into WWI to bring about his idealized future with Democracy for everyone and league of nations... he failed. This seems very similar to what is going on today. We have all given something to hate and something to fear, but what are we really fighting for? Is it something like Wilson's childish fantasy or something more grotesque?


The world may never know.