WW1 & Me

I rarely reflect on World War I. But, when I do, I am struck by how much of a clusterfuck it is. And I do not use this word lightly. 

The start of WWI is a lesson in bad governance and the failure of foresight. Perhaps the ultimate manifestation of edging gone wrong. And I fear I may have taken the wrong lesson from it. 

As I studied the systems of alliances, rapid militarisation, nationalism and imperial collapse that inspired the First World War, I remember being surprised. Not at how massive amounts of unearned confidence can fuck over entire nations. Nor was I surprised at witnessing the limits of a white man's ability to fail upwards (looking at you Imperial Russia). Instead, I remember being surprised at the military and political leaders who did not expect the hell their incompetence had spawned. While many of these men expected to fight a war, they were unprepared for the meatgrinders of Verdun, the Sommes and France. 

Rather ironically, for men who had dedicated their entire beings to birthing this war, they underestimated the horrors of modern warfare. They failed to heed the lessons of the Russo-Japanese War, and the US Civil War. Of what would happen would you combine modern artillery with cavalry tactics. Most importantly, they failed to disabuse themselves of the myth of glorious war. And as a result, they started something they could not finish but had no choice but to. Put simply, they fucked around and they were finding out. 

Here's the lesson I took from the start of WW1: if you're not willing to find out, don't fuck around. 

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