Nationalism was the rage then as now. Britain hid in ‘Splendid isolation’, “Non-intervention; no European police system; every nation for itself, and God for us all...”
Germany sought it’s ‘Place in the sun’ no matter what the cost.
Alliances came and went all over the Europe. Weaponry, particularly battleships were the ultimate expression of national prestige. Everyone not ‘us’ was ‘them’ and so irrelevant. Everyone smelled the money.
Sound familiar?
The empires of Europe did almost nothing to avoid the horror on the horizon. Some actively encouraged the conflict. None of them thought they could lose. It was a grand adventure. People all over the Continent celebrated the outbreak of war.
Nationalism masqueraded as patriotism everywhere and what it brought about was an estimated 12 million dead. In the name of nationalistic fervor, almost a whole generation was wiped out.
The glory and romantic notion of the noble cavalry charge degraded into the trenches, machine guns and misery for the fighting men while the generals lived in commandeered chateaus and dined on fine china. It was a defeat of every human decency yet conceived.
I find it significant that the President of France remembered the Armistice that stilled the guns along the front in 1918 this way:
“Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism. Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism. In saying ‘Our interests first, whatever happens to the others,’ you erase the most precious thing a nation can have, that which makes it live, that which causes it to be great and that which is most important: Its moral values.”
Emmanuel Macron - President of France
November 11, 2018, Paris
We’re at that crossroads of 1914 again. But we live in an interconnected world now more than ever. No moral country can afford to be an island unto itself, especially today.
No nation, least of all ours; one filled mostly with people who’s heritage is everywhere except here can have the luxury of turning away from everything outside our border. We who are from so many places should lead the world, not hide from it.
The echos from a century ago are plain. May we this time go down the ‘road less traveled by’ and so make all the difference.
All the difference in the world.
