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I have a burning need to know stuff and I love asking awkward questions.

Thursday, May 07, 2020


Just Finished Reading: First World War – Still No End in Sight by Frank Furedi (FP: 2014)

This popped up on my radar a little while ago with the intriguing title. It reminded me of the joke new headline ‘Franz Ferdinand found Alive – First World War a Mistake’ but was nowhere near as funny. The author asks a deceptively simple question: Why, when war was announced across Europe in 1914 did so many people including internationalists rush to their respective countries colours in such numbers? Even their own governments were surprised at the patriotic feelings on display. It was, maintains the author, because after almost 100 years of peace and increased prosperity across the continent that people had seemingly forgotten what it was all for. Many saw the war – expected to be short by all sides – as a sure fire way to prove themselves, to give their lives enhanced meaning, to briefly be part of something greater than themselves, to take part in a glorious adventure away from their dull and predictable lives. Of course these rather naïve illusions were very quickly shattered in the industrial level carnage of the First World War.

Once over it wasn’t only illusions and landscapes that lay shattered on the battlefields and in No Man’s Land – if was the belief in Progress, the belief in politicians, politics and political solutions and the belief in Democracy itself. Realising this at some level governments across the western world increased the franchise and began enfranchising women voters. But between the wars many were looking for alternatives to the system that had so recently failed them and increasingly moved to the Left with Communism (led by the Soviet Union) and Fascism in Italy and later Germany.

Unsurprisingly ideological warfare led to an ideological war – World War Two. When the dust settled from that particular catastrophe the political Right was forever tainted. The Left however, at least for a while, was triumphant. But not for long. Almost before the last whiff of cordite had left the battlefields a new war started – the Cold War. With Soviet Communism viewed as an equal and opposite force to Western Capitalist freedom a great ideological struggle played out across a world made up largely of two camps. Each defined themselves in violent opposition to the other. However, it wasn’t long before the Communist shine, gained with so much blood in the victory over Fascism, began to fade and the western Left-wing parties with it. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 90’s the global Left had lost its greatest champion. But if neither the political Left nor Right could claim ascendency what then for politics? It was time for the personal to become the next political battleground with the Culture Wars starting in the 60’s and staying with us in ever evolving form ever since.

That’s where we are today – deep within the Culture Wars where politics is fragmented and ‘political parties’ as such (if they even exist anymore) are often nothing more than clusters of beliefs on a continuum that can, and often do, fragment and reconstitute regularly. This whole process started, according to the author with the loss of political faith caused by the titanic effects of the First World War – and we are still living through the seismic cultural and political shocks to this very day with no end in sight. It’s an interesting hypothesis and an interesting lens through which to view the long 20th century and the present global political chaos. Whilst not an easy book to read – I did find myself struggling at times – it is an interestingly mind bending one and will certainly get you thinking about the last centuries political upheavals in a very different way. Recommended.

Coming soon – Moving forward into The Jazz Age!         

3 comments:

mudpuddle said...

big questions... i've thought in the past that party labels aside, recent history is more about grabbing the money and power than anything else... "capitalism" and "communism" not meaning a whole lot... of course i'm probably all wet...

Judy Krueger said...

I just read about this progression from an American point of view in Howard Zinn's book, A People's History of the United States, though he took it all the way from the Revolutionary War to 9/11. And now I have gone back to fiction for a while!

CyberKitten said...

@ Mudpuddle: I think Capitalism & Communism are shadows of their former selves. Back in the 20th they actually meant something. Now they're just empty slogans.

@ Judy: Culture seems to be like a river. Sometimes the flow is wide and slow and other times there are rapids and waterfalls. Of course when it hits a hard rock formation it gets diverted onto a different path. Endlessly fascinating though!