Today in History: 100 years ago today, an absolutely unremarkable princeling, and heir to a fading throne, was assassinated in a forgettable provincial capitol of a fading province of a dying empire. The result, of course, was world-wide war, because Europeans were too stupid to find any other way to deal with the loss of this fool. World War I was fought for the next 4 years, during which Europe was wrecked, 15 million people died, and the aforementioned empire finally gave up its ghost — along with three other decrepit and equally despicable autocracies — and none of these four empires was mourned by anyone save a few rich, doddering old fools. The bad part, the part youll care a little about, is that World War I did not really end, despite Armistice and Peace Treaties. It merely took a bit of a rest for the next 20 years while the nations involved replenished the cannon fodder (oooops, the young men) which had been so drastically depleted in the trenches of Belgium and France from 1914 to 1918. As soon as supplies of disposable soldier boys had improved, hostilities began again, in 1939, with vim and vigor and all the requisite propaganda, and they carried on for another 5 years, until Europe was again devastated, and a considerable part of Asia, too. This time, the party was called World War II, and depending on how you count, between 30 and 70 million people died. Some people say that Europe learned its lesson from these debacles, and thats why there hasnt been another such huge war since. But this is a fantasy. The empires which replaced the ancient regimes remained empires, in all but name. The big difference was simply that they learned how to have their disputes elsewhere, in out of the way places, where the people who were to die would be brown, or black or yellow and, hence, not worthy of comment. So, thats enough history for today. Excuse me while I weep for the memory of all those killed by greed and stupidity; and also for the whole gawdamned human race — despite that it doesnt really deserve anyones pity.
Posted on: Sun, 29 Jun 2014 05:10:49 +0000
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