Posted by Declan on April 5, 2006, at 0:38:59
I want to share something with you. It has nothing to do with today. This is not a coded message. Noone should feel offended; it's from 100 years ago. From Golo Mann's
"History of Germany Since 1789". He is talking about the pre WWI situation.
"The German Social Democrats disliked Russia, and the idea of war against the western powers seemed mad to them; but Russia was France's ally. Even they, although morally by far the sanest and least affected by the vices of the age, knew no safe way out of the vicious circle. But they were more intelligent than the others and there were moments when they expressed their forebodings in eloquent terms. On the occasion of the second Morroccan crisis, in the last speech on foreign policy of his long and glorious carrer, Bebel had said
'What has happened between Japan and Russia can be repeated here. It is possible that one day one side will say: things cannot go on like this. It can also say: stop! If we wait any longer we shall suffer, we shall be the weak instead of the strong. Then there will be a catastrophe. Then the tocsin will be sounded in Europe and sixteen to eighteen million men, the flower of different nations, will march against each other, equipped with lethal weapons. But I am convinced that this great march will be followed by the great collapse [laughter]--allright, you have laughed about it before; but it will come, it has only been postponed [great amusement]. It is not our fault that it will come, it is your fault....you are pushing things to a head....you are undermining your own political and social institutions.....What will be the result? After this war we shall have mass bankruptcy, mass misery, mass unemployment, and great famine [dissent from the right]. Are you denying this? [Intervention from the right: After every war things get better.]'"
There's one other faourite I had in this great book. The subject is the willingness of the Social Democrats to shoulder the burden of government in 1918. I love it for the strength and balance of its judgement.
"Ebert had led the party in the defensive war, as he saw it, and in spite of the independant socialists had kept the majority of the party on the road taken in August 1914. The decision of September 1918 to send his Social Democrats into Prince Max's cabinet was in line with this attitude. He knew then what Ludendorff would force the new government to do. He placed his country above his party and his party, in spite of everything and once again, at such a desperate hour at the service of the country. One thing he did not know: how wicked people can be, how shamelessly the German Conservatives would later reward him for his loyal service. Later? They were busily at work even then."So that's why I read history books. I hope you've found it interesting.
Declan
poster:Declan
thread:629052
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20060322/msgs/629052.html