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Under a Spell – The Armistice at 100

44 points by paulorlando 8y ago

Theodores 8y ago
This is the best story on HN right now, it has been up here for an hour and nobody has sought to comment. It brings insight on a WW1 reporter who most people know nothing of and could be enlightened by. A true literary gem is here. Had there been a post on something really vital such as that newish function key strip thing they have on those Apple computers these days then there would be 480 comments on how to customise it best for Vi/Emacs. And then we wonder why we - us - human beings - fall into the same traps of propaganda and war every time.
- paulorlando 8y ago
  Thank you! It's comments like yours that keep me writing. And as to your point on what draws attention.. yes, agreed. Recognizing that is a step and I remain optimistic.
credit_guy 8y ago
> The waiter drew a diagram on the table-cloth. ‘I was just there.’ The three cavalry officers laughed. ‘Extraordinary! We were a few yards away.’ They chatted with the waiter as though he were an old acquaintance who had played against them in a famous football-match. They did not try to kill him with a table-knife. He did not put poison in the soup.” This rarely happens after a war. A lot of wars are fought over ideological reasons: Crussades because the Cristians hated Muslims, lots of medieval European wars because Catholics and Protestants hated each other, the Napoleonic wars because monarchists hated republicans, etc. In my opinion WW1 was different because the cause of the war was not ideological, but more materialistic: Germany had perceived that it had achieved technological military parity with Great Britain. They did that after a phenomenal 50-year burst of productivity advances that rivaled the advances seen in Great Britain roughly 50 years before. They probably had the feeling that everything is possible. So any spark could, and did trigger a war. The people in the trenches though, had nothing agains each other. They fought because they would be executed if they didn't, but otherwise it was natural for them to be friends once the war was over.
- dudul 8y ago
  The Napoleonic wars were fought because Napoleon wanted to great a "big blob". He knew times were changing and only big blocks would be able to play an important role in the future. Most medieval wars were fought over very materialistic concerns. The 100 years war is basically a "dynastic war". Most important wars in the middle ages or the Renaissance were conquest wars that had nothing to do with religion. And also, Muslims probably hated Cristians just as much.
  - PhasmaFelis 8y ago
    > And also, Muslims probably hated Cristians just as much. Surprisingly, not as much as you'd think. In most of medieval Islamic lands, non-Muslims were second-class citizens, but they were generally allowed to worship as they pleased. You didn't get large-scale pogroms like medieval Europe. Edit: It's telling that people are downvoting this.
    - amygdyl 8y ago
      I must add the Bangladesh Civil War, 1971-87 , to the pogrom count, the other way around. Calcutta Brahmin Hindu families intermarried and converted to Islam. The Muslims were supposed to go to Pakistan, as it became. But the ties were deeper than just family; Calcutta was a technical powerhouse in its prime. Skilled workers couldn't find work outside the community, which of course moved to East Pakistan/Bangladesh. The numbers were not few, and the fact that the war is officially dated to the first year of Independence, is the start of the most sorrowful tale. Three million women and children were killed or perished. Veterans of that war, ten years ago, suddenly were allowed to immigrate to the UK and America. The UK dropped the prohibition of entry and settlement, of elderly, infirm, uneducated and dependant relatives. I have friends whose futures were ruined, as the burden, despite having free healthcare and extremely generous benefits, if you have cooperative society, which in a majority ghetto concentration, you can rely on as friendly, my friends watched younger siblings lose education and housing chances, the family resources depleted entirely. Caring for unwell elderly is not compatible with the part time jobs which young mothers and school age children forwent to be on hand to attend often multiple great grandparents and even aunts and uncles. THE EFFECTS ARE CATASTROPHIC the strictly patriarchal Bengali society was obedient to elders who alienated the younger population from general society. The youngest are growing up in houses no longer bilingual, but Bengali only for avoidance of offense to the elders. The elder men collect voting cards. Twenty five, in my friends family. I see families suffering from organised indignities. I see racial discrimination in sensitive positions like social workers, who are largely another race altogether. Unusual in i predominantly, 80% Bengali area. We have frightening frequency of forcible adoption and removed from mothers and the most amazingly brazen aggressive and fraudulent routine abuse of Family Division of the High Court. I experienced this obviously through friends but then with my mother because I fought in Court Pro bono and started winning the kinds of cases that sicken me to know many go unchallenged. I became unwell as a result.
airfreak 8y ago
I really learned to appreciate the scale and horror of the war after listening to Dan Carlin's 6 part podcast series on it. I highly recommend it though it isn't for the faint of heart. https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-50-blueprint-for-armageddon-i/ https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-50-bluepr...
- thrower123 8y ago
  This is a fantastic series, and it's worth noting that it is free to download. Buckle in for a wild 24 hour ride... Ghosts of the Ostfront similarly cannot be recommended enough.
logifail 8y ago
>> ‘The politicians are the guilty ones,’ said one cavalry officer. ‘I am all for revolution after this bloody massacre. I would hang all politicians, diplomats, and so-called statesmen with strict impartiality.' This section was the stand-out for me. Some things haven't really changed very much, have they?

44 points by paulorlando 8y ago

This is the best story on HN right now, it has been up here for an hour and nobody has sought to comment. It brings insight on a WW1 reporter who most people know nothing of and could be enlightened by. A true literary gem is here. Had there been a post on something really vital such as that newish function key strip thing they have on those Apple computers these days then there would be 480 comments on how to customise it best for Vi/Emacs. And then we wonder why we - us - human beings - fall into the same traps of propaganda and war every time.

paulorlando 8y ago
Thank you! It's comments like yours that keep me writing. And as to your point on what draws attention.. yes, agreed. Recognizing that is a step and I remain optimistic.

credit_guy 8y ago

> The waiter drew a diagram on the table-cloth. ‘I was just there.’ The three cavalry officers laughed. ‘Extraordinary! We were a few yards away.’ They chatted with the waiter as though he were an old acquaintance who had played against them in a famous football-match. They did not try to kill him with a table-knife. He did not put poison in the soup.” This rarely happens after a war. A lot of wars are fought over ideological reasons: Crussades because the Cristians hated Muslims, lots of medieval European wars because Catholics and Protestants hated each other, the Napoleonic wars because monarchists hated republicans, etc. In my opinion WW1 was different because the cause of the war was not ideological, but more materialistic: Germany had perceived that it had achieved technological military parity with Great Britain. They did that after a phenomenal 50-year burst of productivity advances that rivaled the advances seen in Great Britain roughly 50 years before. They probably had the feeling that everything is possible. So any spark could, and did trigger a war. The people in the trenches though, had nothing agains each other. They fought because they would be executed if they didn't, but otherwise it was natural for them to be friends once the war was over.

dudul 8y ago
The Napoleonic wars were fought because Napoleon wanted to great a "big blob". He knew times were changing and only big blocks would be able to play an important role in the future. Most medieval wars were fought over very materialistic concerns. The 100 years war is basically a "dynastic war". Most important wars in the middle ages or the Renaissance were conquest wars that had nothing to do with religion. And also, Muslims probably hated Cristians just as much.
- PhasmaFelis 8y ago
  > And also, Muslims probably hated Cristians just as much. Surprisingly, not as much as you'd think. In most of medieval Islamic lands, non-Muslims were second-class citizens, but they were generally allowed to worship as they pleased. You didn't get large-scale pogroms like medieval Europe. Edit: It's telling that people are downvoting this.
  - amygdyl 8y ago
    I must add the Bangladesh Civil War, 1971-87 , to the pogrom count, the other way around. Calcutta Brahmin Hindu families intermarried and converted to Islam. The Muslims were supposed to go to Pakistan, as it became. But the ties were deeper than just family; Calcutta was a technical powerhouse in its prime. Skilled workers couldn't find work outside the community, which of course moved to East Pakistan/Bangladesh. The numbers were not few, and the fact that the war is officially dated to the first year of Independence, is the start of the most sorrowful tale. Three million women and children were killed or perished. Veterans of that war, ten years ago, suddenly were allowed to immigrate to the UK and America. The UK dropped the prohibition of entry and settlement, of elderly, infirm, uneducated and dependant relatives. I have friends whose futures were ruined, as the burden, despite having free healthcare and extremely generous benefits, if you have cooperative society, which in a majority ghetto concentration, you can rely on as friendly, my friends watched younger siblings lose education and housing chances, the family resources depleted entirely. Caring for unwell elderly is not compatible with the part time jobs which young mothers and school age children forwent to be on hand to attend often multiple great grandparents and even aunts and uncles. THE EFFECTS ARE CATASTROPHIC the strictly patriarchal Bengali society was obedient to elders who alienated the younger population from general society. The youngest are growing up in houses no longer bilingual, but Bengali only for avoidance of offense to the elders. The elder men collect voting cards. Twenty five, in my friends family. I see families suffering from organised indignities. I see racial discrimination in sensitive positions like social workers, who are largely another race altogether. Unusual in i predominantly, 80% Bengali area. We have frightening frequency of forcible adoption and removed from mothers and the most amazingly brazen aggressive and fraudulent routine abuse of Family Division of the High Court. I experienced this obviously through friends but then with my mother because I fought in Court Pro bono and started winning the kinds of cases that sicken me to know many go unchallenged. I became unwell as a result.

airfreak 8y ago

I really learned to appreciate the scale and horror of the war after listening to Dan Carlin's 6 part podcast series on it. I highly recommend it though it isn't for the faint of heart. https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-50-blueprint-for-armageddon-i/ https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-50-bluepr...

thrower123 8y ago
This is a fantastic series, and it's worth noting that it is free to download. Buckle in for a wild 24 hour ride... Ghosts of the Ostfront similarly cannot be recommended enough.

logifail 8y ago

>> ‘The politicians are the guilty ones,’ said one cavalry officer. ‘I am all for revolution after this bloody massacre. I would hang all politicians, diplomats, and so-called statesmen with strict impartiality.' This section was the stand-out for me. Some things haven't really changed very much, have they?