War, Culture, & the Minds of Nations Did Germany’s cultural avant-garde cause WWI? Vice versa?

The National Review ^ | September 8, 2014 | John O’Sullivan

[2ndDivisionVet]

German infantry at the Vistula River, 1916

We are accustomed to thinking that such real-world physical experiences as war, defeat, and economic ruin produce such psychological, cultural, artistic, and social responses as disillusionment, frenzy (including frenzied enjoyments), and despair in the collective mind. The First World War — which, exactly 100 years later, we are now remembering, and whose lessons we are still pondering — seems to confirm and illustrate this belief.

It was an event whose magnitude and impact we find hard to grasp even today. Though it began in the Balkans, it spread across the world to all continents — in part because it was a war between European states that controlled worldwide empires. Indian soldiers in the British Army fought on the Western Front in France and won a very high proportion of Victoria Crosses. Little New Zealand sent about a quarter of its male population to France and the Middle East. When touring through the small, tranquil towns on the plateau behind Australia’s Great Ocean Road, I was moved to see monuments listing the names of local men above the modest statement “They Answered the Empire’s Call.”(continued)

[Prospero]

Greatly appreciated your posting this piece, one very likely to have been lost in the Kultur Smog otherwise.

A thoroughly thought-provoking provocation.

[2ndDivisionVet]

I’m always bemused or astounded by which of my threads gets 150+ replies and which get none or a few. Even with over 24,000 posted I can’t always predict it.

[Vision Thing]

The article mentions that shell shock from WWI resulted in the hedonistic roaring 20s.

From this, it’s my opinion that the self destructive roaring 20s led to WWII.

Same thing is happening in the USA now: the shell shock of 9/11/01 has turned this country into a self-destructive hedonistic mess, giving rise to obama, homos, potheads, and the illenial generation.

Next stop: another world war.

[Vision Thing]

Also forgot to mention that Germany’s cultural avant-garde can be blamed for almost all of modernity’s ills.

Allan Bloom did a great job explaining it in “The Closing of the American Mind.”

[Rockpile]

Re Responses.

Look at the time.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Yeah, to a certain extent, but I seem to remember high responses around the same time period if the subject matter excited enough people. I post a LOT of stuff around now.

[fso301]

One of the oddest expressions of this receptiveness was the death by heart attack of the deputy head of the German General Staff while — clad in a tutu — he performed a ballet routine before an audience that, for earlier performances, had sometimes included the Kaiser.

This incident as part of a broader theme has been discussed on a number of FR threads over the years.

[Moltke]

The long view by Spengler:

The Inevitable World War I