"It is autumn. There are not many of the old hands left. ... He had fallen forward and lay on the earth as though sleeping. Turning him over one saw that he could not have suffered long; his face had an expression of calm, as though almost glad the end had come." Erich Maria Remarque.
"Put the guns into our hands and we will use them. Give us the slogans and we will turn them into realities. ... You plan the wars you masters of men plan the wars and point the way and we will point the gun." Dalton Trumbo.
One hundred years ago today, at the eleventh hour, the guns fell silent in the greatest war in history till then. The European hegemony was over. But past was prelude and the worst was yet to come, due to economic disparity, isolationism, imperialism and nationalism giving rise to a whole class of people left feeling hopeless, ready to take an insane gamble on lying demagogues such as Hitler and Mussolini who with reckless promises of a return to greatness, transformed the displaced into cultists. Thus the mindless, chanting masses became fervent fascists thanks to the control of information by the state, whereas the real press became the enemy of the people.
President Trump cancelled a scheduled trip to lay a wreath at the Aisne-Marne American cemetery of fallen Marines and soldiers 50 miles from Paris yesterday due to some rain, and instead spent six hours of free time at his suite doing nothing. Meanwhile world leaders Macron, Merkel and Trudeau made trips to cemeteries and battlefields a similar distance away to pay respect to their fallen soldiers.
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