What will the 100th anniversary of World War Two be like?

As I was born in 1931, the only thing I am reasonably certain of is that I will not be around to see it.

I would hope that people would spend some time contemplating the horrors of the 20th Century which culminated in World War II, probably the most destructive in human history. The stupidest ideas of the 19th Century became realities in the 20th with horrifying results. Eugenics which inspired Hitler and Margaret Sanger, among others, to a racist ideology. The idea of the perfectibility of man and the idea of perpetual progress with the resultant use of Procrustes Bed when man appeared to be resistant to such ideas. The deranged thoughts of Marx and Engels which produced such monsters as Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Che Guevara, the Kims and their ilk. The isms of Communism, Nazism, Fascism, Progressivism, et. al. The growth of the servile state, ethnic cleansing and the general inhumanity to man. The apparent “Suicide of the West” with birth rates well below replacement levels, hedonism, and the attitude of “All for one and I am the one”. The apparent acquiescence with the resurgence of fundamentalist Islam which is intent on implementing a 7th Century ideology on the rest of the world, and calling the resistance to same “Islamophobia”.

I confess I am puzzled with this apparent rush to destruction with the intent of again proving George Santayana correct when he wrote “Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” [1]

[1] Wikiquote - George Santayna

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Would you call it historical revisionism to remove Confederate monuments 150 years after the Civil War?

No. It is not historical revisionism to remove statues or rename buildings etc. for racists, or for any other reason. But why limit it to Confederate Civil War generals, politicians and slave owners? There are many slave owners and racists who have been honored with monuments, statutes and buildings. If some, why not all? First let’s deal with the term “Traitor” that many respondents have used for the Confederates. The 1783 Treaty of Paris ended the war between the colonies and Great Britain. It’s first article declared the 13 colonies “to be free, sovereign and independent states.” In 1787, these 13 sovereign nations came together as principals and created the federal government as their agent for specific activities, i.e. “enumerated powers”. Principals have the right to fire their agent and withdraw from the pact, that is secede. During the 1787 Constitutional Convention, a proposal was made that would allow the federal government to suppress a seceding state. James Madison rejected...
Read more

In war, does life expectancy go up with battle experience?

I would say yes to a certain degree. Skills are learned when you are in combat that are not learned in training. Some of it is just luck. This assumes that other things are equal. Not all combat is equal by any means. Some jobs are just less dangerous than others even in active combat operations. For instance incoming artillery rounds sound different from outgoing artillery rounds. I learned this from experience in about one day. The luck comes in when the spot you picked to take cover in gets hit or not. The first you have some control over, but absolutely no control over the second. This information is from Korea. Experiences after that may be different.
Read more

Read This First

Posts containing questions and answers are not in any particular order. You can search for a topic in the search bar or click on the Index to choose from an alphabetical list of topics. To see the original posts, go to his profile on  Quora.com .
Read more