analysis Flashcards
1
Q
We were aware that the visible earth is made of ashes … that ashes signify something.
… that a civilisation has the same fragility as a life.
A
- can be seen as the many wars in which have taken place on Europe’s continent has tinted its soil so much, much of it now covers major areas of the continent.
- the ashes do signify something as they represent of those that had passed due to the wars but also all the buildings and forestry that had been burnt to the ground due to the many bombs and other incendiaries that caused the destruction of the area around them - many landscapes had been destroyed forever at that point
- civilisations may be made with many structures that keep them up and running but that stability can be so easily removed from them, it can be destroyed in an instant but also can be killed off one by one just like any member of the civilisation can be
2
Q
We have seen conscientious labor, the most solid learning, the most serious discipline and application adapted to appalling ends.
A
- many of the great minds of the continent were used to great efforts of removing the existence of each other
- so much of a countries war effort was the man power of said country, many put all of their efforts into their craft and that craft was unfortunately the destruction of their very continent
- a country builds up their great minds in the most important sectors or disciplines so they are always ready to be at the top and be the best but those minds can also be used for such despicable things as well - they spent so much of their lives learning and honing their crafts to then be set upon each other in times of war
3
Q
Much science was needed to kill so many, to waste so much property, annihilate so many cities in so short a time; but moral qualities … were also needed. Are Knowledge and Duty, then, suspect?
A
- the scientific knowledge that was developed during the great war sling shotted its advances many generations ahead than it possibly should’ve been - the fine line of scientific advancements but at what cost do they come to
- the introduction of so many of the war machines engineering would later help develop many of the European nations and their future wars but at that time these national developments came off the back of the many thousands of men that had to be killed off for them to get there
- questions were called to those with the knowledge and the subsequent duties to create these war machines, were they just as guilty as those that sent the machines off to kill, it was after all their knowledge and expertise that made it possible for them to have these - if it wasn’t that particular person with that knowledge it would’ve just been someone else with the exact same abilities carrying our their duties to their countries
- the people during the Great War were not immoral they just were doing exactly what was needed of them - they were doing their bit for their country and we cannot judge them through a modern lens without considering what they were up against - those scientists wouldn’t use their knowledge for such evil without great necessity - no man unless they are pure evil would want to watch the annihilation without great need
4
Q
That she was about to lose consciousness, a consciousness acquired through centuries of bearable calamities, by thousands of men of the first rank, from innumerable geographical, ethnic, and historical coincidences.
A
- can be viewed as Europe on the brink of collapse, throughout all the tumultuous periods in which she has gone through this is going to be one that kills her off in the end
- she has seen battles and wars that could be dealt with at the end of it, it saw many deaths but it didn’t almost cause Europe to be on the brink of self destruction - this is what the Great War has brought to the table
- she has stayed awake and bared witness to all of the coincidences that have appeared throughout her long history but this is what does it for her - this is the beginning of the end of what Europe was previously known for
5
Q
Never has so much been read, nor with such passion, as during the war
A
- the increase of press is normal in a time a crisis - all newspaper companies are fighting to be those that have the biggest headline, the newest information to be presented to the public
- journalists typically write articles to make something that is perhaps rather dull due to not a huge amount going on in their city or area but in times of war there is no need to fake the passion and to stretch the truth due to it just being this interesting and the passion of the front line is translated to those reading back home all across the continent each with its one little spin on it
- people that maybe don’t typically don’t read the newspaper or pay attention to the headlines are now fixated on them due to the war affecting so many people they now need to pay attention to the news to see what is happening to their loved ones on the front line
6
Q
The military crisis may be over. The economic crisis is still with us in all its force. But the intellectual crisis, being more subtle and, by its nature, assuming the most deceptive appearances (realm of dissimulation)…this crisis will hardly allow us to grasp its true extent, its phase.
A
- the crises that the European continent faced were either very overt or they were more hidden away
- it is known that the military crisis is over due to the ending of the war but the economic problems that come with funding a war will be around for a while - it isn’t easy to fix an economic crisis over night
- the intellectual crisis will prove to be the real killer in the future, it is a device that can’t ever be seen until that person shows their hand - nations can have all of these great minds at their disposal developing and creating the next great war machines (allied nations after the Great War with the development of the submarine for example)
- future ideas can be held in the minds of a countries greatest mathematicians, scientists etc until they are then picked up by the higher governments
- due to intelligence and the nature of its subtlety we will never know the whole extent of its power until quite frankly it is too late for us to change something
- we are unable to know if it is a short phase of intelligence or if a country will slowly develop a sectors intelligence for years waiting for the perfect moment for it to be revealed
7
Q
The illusion of a European culture has been lost
A
- due the empires of Europe spreading across the entire globe the vision and said illusion of what European culture is has been lost due to the brutality that was the Great War - the traditional view of the European superpowers was that of elegance and grace it has been replaced to that of a more brutal image that those had gained independence from the powers would understand
- however can also be seen as the fact that the world may have just seen the European continent as sharing just the one culture - use of the wording of a singular European culture shows that the war has divided them up to the rest of the world - they aren’t just some united continent but all of the countries have different versions of culture they just happen to share a border with one another
8
Q
science is mortally wounded in its moral ambitions
A
- it is known that the scientists during the war were constantly trying to improve and advance all industries and technology that was available to them but that also came with a bad side with the constant want for improvements starts to have a lack of morals tied along side it - they want to improve machines so quickly that they have lost sight of what these would do to those that these would be put upon in the trenches
- developers were so ambitious during the war to make advancements but in the end all it was wound its credibility to be able to help people - it was too ambitious to make advancements that in the end it just made it self take a step back
9
Q
and knowledge has been proved impotent to save anything whatsoever;
A
- many would see the use of immense knowledge would be used for good - to help advance an economy or its infrastructure not to destroy each other in war as they have done
- instead of saving the hundreds of thousands of lives that were lost during the war that could’ve been saved by the great minds of a country they were instead ruined by ego and the power of the bigger man
- nothing was saved during the war with more people being killed of during the war than saved - truly nothing was saved with the knowledge that was available to them
10
Q
Idealism is barely surviving, deeply stricken, and called to account for its dreams; realism is hopeless, beaten, routed by its own crimes and errors; greed and abstinence are equally flouted; faiths are confused in their aim
A
- many societies are built upon the ideals of having a dream, work hard enough and its yours - they pursue the unrealistic views of life placed upon them to have the most perfect life - after the war this view is struggling to still resonate with people due to the many deaths that happened in communities that had the capability to remove the structure that that community once had
- realism is the acceptance of ones situation - taking a situation face on and accepting that this is how it is and there is nothing to change it one just has to deal with it when it comes - accepting a situation how it is would get them killed during the war they couldn’t just accept first what is happening to them and secondly that they just accept that this is going to happen and there’s no point in trying to change it
- in the early 19th century faith was still very strong within many nations at the time and dictated many of the lives in many nations but the introduction of war can change all of that
- many people saw god as either saving them or not and if something bad had happened to them it is due to their moral failing that it means they need to repent and wash their sins
- on the battlefield the presence of god is still of course but they can no longer blame their own moral failings for the atrocities that happen to them - where is god when those around them are being shelled to death just because they are fighting for their country and by duty - why are they to be punished due to just doing what each nation thought was to be morally right
11
Q
The swaying of the ship has been so violent that the best-hung lamps have finally overturned…
A
- the nations on the European continent had been coasting through pretty smoothly for a while, each nation has fought in wars across the years but they have mainly been those across the seas or within their own borders it had become relatively rare they all of them were to come together to fight each other
- things that had been so firmly put into place have been turned over due to the intensity of the rocking of metaphorical ships - things that had been once so stable have been tossed on their heads with no end in sight
12
Q
The prophet is in the same boat as the historian.
A
- the prophet is a religious thing - the prophet is god in many religions, the omnipresent being in all religions that reign over nations and communities guiding their every move with what is moral and godly is life so what does it suggest with the historian, this normal being in the same station and level as the godly present
- historians have been seen as having quite controlling powers - it is known in a controversial way that they do sometimes control the narrative of the past - what is published and made aware to the public but also what they have decided shouldn’t been and only made aware by a limited and select amount of people should know about certain aspects
- so in a way historians have just as much control over communities and groups of people as god has but in a different way
- they are now on the same level in terms of control of what they have on people - one more of the past meaning god and the control and guidance that it has had on people and the more present control from the historian that is now going to dictate what information is going to be made available from the events and battles that happened - if there is information that is not favourable then they can quit easily omit it
13
Q
And what made that disorder in the mid of Europe? The free coexistence, in all her cultivated minds, the most dissimilar ideas and contradictory principles of life and learning. That is characteristic of a modern epoch.
A
- each nation has come to their own identity they have their own culture that has separated them all out - they aren’t together in how they do things
- they are allowed to be theirselves but also co exit with the rest of the European continent but everything came to a boiling point with the beginning of the Great War
- coming into the new century each countries top minds are developing leaps and bounds but that is also where the problems can start
- they develop differently in how they think and believe, what they think is right and how their countries and empires function are insanely different
- they all live in such close contact with each for centuries but they all have developed such different ways of living - their governments are different, the people live in different ways and how they function but this is the characteristics and the ways of life that the modern era is made of, there is no need for a singular way of life throughout the continent they are allowed to live how they love
14
Q
How much material wealth, labor, planning it took, how many centuries were ransacked, how many heterogeneous lives were combined, to make possible such a carnival, and to set it up as the supreme wisdom and the triumph of humanity?
A
- the resources that were once used in what was a useful place in a countries development now has to be shifted and rearranged into what will be most useful for the war effort
- so much was sacrificed for the Great War to happen, for it to be funded on the 50-50 chance that they would one day win the war but it wasn’t all so bad with the resources that were sacrificed for it
- the many centuries that came before the Great War for many of the empires were periods of as much peace as much as an empire can provide but many lived in peace along side each other - how periods in history have been completely ruined due to the war and the destruction that it caused in Europe
- but with the descent into the war it meant the combination of cultures and identities were joined together for the aim of winning this war - the differences that they in terms of identity and culture have been put aside (they aren’t as different they might have previously thought)
15
Q
The peace is the kind of war that allows acts of love and creation in its course … a more complex and obscure process than war properly so-called, as life is more obscure and more profound than death.
A
- periods of war are hard on everyone but it is a niche period of times in a countries history, they are times of evolution and development of certain sectors but also the development of the countries people, they are the ones that can change a countries landscape for the future
- it allows for the creation of machines that would never have been thought of until this period of time
- the creations/developments and life that is happening in the background is what makes a war - there is the obvious aspects of the battlegrounds and what is happening aboard but there are the problems and lives that carry on on the home front are some quite important parts of history and what can define certain wars in different centuries
- life will always be more obscure than death - death is such a finite part of life, it is going to happen its just how its going to is the question and when in life it will be but the journey and duration of life is a different question
- there are so many ways in which life can take you either by the choices that you make for yourself or what the environment you are surrounded in descends into
