Lessons from the First World War
For decades after the First World War ended, historians filled libraries wondering how on Earth something so pointless and destructive could possibly happen. For four years beginning in 1914, armies equipped with modern weapons but hampered by outdated military doctrine, chewed each other to bits on fronts all over the world. Millions were slaughtered for no reason or gain. No territory, resources or ideology were primarily at stake.
An entire generation of young men was almost wiped out in Europe. It was mind-boggling.
Only recently, as a full century has passed, have we groped toward an understanding of how Western civilization stumbled into that horror through ignorance and overweening pride.
Then, even though all the major powers swore they would never allow a repeat, we did it all over again 21 years later.
At least in the Second World War, there was a consensus that the Axis powers represented nothing less than slavery, hate and brutal oppression and that they had to be stopped lest naked barbarism be permitted to roll back all human progress.
There was, and there remains, no such consensus in regard to the First World War.
Sunday marked the 100th anniversary of the armistice that finally ended the carnage. Millions of Canadians visited cenotaphs to pay their respects to those who fought in that war and in all of our wars. It’s a sombre commemoration that’s actually become more popular recently. So what did the First World War mean? Its aftermath marked a transition to the modern world, at least in the West. Warfare had become mechanized and society followed, as cars took over our cities and airplanes grabbed our imaginations. Women got the vote and fashion got a lot less stuffy. Mass media was born. Old symbols of authority were diminished by their roles in the slaughter. Canada is said to have forged its modern identity on First World War battlefields. The U.S. emerged from the war a nascent superpower and Britain’s hegemony began to fade. Russia descended into chaos and revolution, transforming into the Soviet Union. It was dubbed The War to End All Wars, because at the time another war seemed inconceivable. It didn’t work out that way.
So why do we do this? What drives humans to such bloody destruction? Why does it continue to happen? Perhaps the only answer is that some form of evil lurks in all our hearts. It can manifest as hate or envy, rooted in a mentality that pits us vs. them. Mix that with the kind of ignorance that leads some of us to just go along with what our political or religious leaders tell us without question or doubt.
Once a society gets to that point, justifying violence and war isn’t much of a stretch.
Could it happen again? Sure it could. Can we prevent it? We would argue that we have prevented it since 1945, through a common understanding that another world war would be more catastrophic than either of the first two. That hasn’t eliminated all war, but it has rendered another global conflict unthinkable.
What we can do is our utmost to uphold an old-fashioned, sadly forgotten principle: human solidarity. If we work to understand and empathize with each other, it becomes harder to hate. And we can remember.