18A048 After 11/11 by Jim Davies, 11/27/2018    

One hundred years ago, the guns stopped firing in France and the most disastrous war to date came to an end. Important Pols from the combatant states met in Paris this month and told each other such a war must never happen again; but took no steps to abolish government, its only source. Surprise!

Those states, in 1914, began the slaughter for no good reason, and killed 16 million people. In 1917 the Germans beat the Russians to a standstill, but in the West the battle line moved to and fro a few miles while nothing much was gained or lost. The governments operating that war were incompetant, even in their specialist function - for "war is the health of the State." Since they can't even do that right, why would anyone trust them to do anything else?

But after 11/11/1918, they prepared to make peace, with an agreement. That date marked only an armistice, a cease-fire, not a final settlement. For seven and a half months, the terms were drafted; nobody from Berlin took part. Come June 1919 in Versailles, the terms were presented to the Germans present as a diktat. Sign, or be invaded. Since large numbers of Germans were already starving due to the continuing British naval blockade, they signed. But they didn't forget.

So those seven months demonstrated that after miserably failing to prevent a needless war and failing to prosecute a successful one (for either side), the participating governments (UK, French and US) culpably failed even to conclude a lasting peace. The diktat blamed Germans for starting it all (which was simply not true; they were all to blame) and heaped upon the losers the immense burden of paying its costs while depriving them of substantial tracts of territory. The drafting was a disaster, and sprang from a thirst for vengeance, especially by the governments of France and Britain. Wilson of the USA was less bloodthirsty; as an academic he proposed more honorable terms but was brushed aside. Hatred had, in Europe, been worked up to such a fever pitch that only revenge was politically acceptable.

Under the terms of the November armistice, German forces withdrew to their homeland and demobilized, so were helpless to resist the following June. Among the soldiers sent home was Corporal Hitler, who had fought with great courage, earning an Iron Cross decoration twice. He joined, and within three years was leading, a political group dedicated to reversing the terms imposed at Versailles and restoring the dignity of the nation. That much was inevitable; that it should develop into a second round of warfare in 1939 was not quite inevitable (it could have been avoided) but very nearly so. Four times as many lives were then wasted, as in "the war to end all wars."

Such was the cost of the vengeance crafted by governments after 11/11. They blundered into war, but they also blundered into a doomed "peace" which ended in a bloodbath four times worse.

With the big advantage of a hundred years of hindsight, it's not very hard to see why, provided one actually looks. Most people don't; least of all those sucking at the public trough. First, vengeance does not work; it's a savage sentiment that almost inevitably engenders a further round of violence. Yet vengeance is the root characteristic not just of international relations but of justice systems within each nation, operated by the respective governments. You break one of their laws, they punish you. That is vengeance, simple and unadorned. It's all they know. It's called "justice", but bears no actual relation to true justice, which is about restoring lost or damaged rights.

Then second, lying doesn't work either, or not for long; and governments lie by long habit. In 1919, they lied when blaming Germans for starting the slaughter, when in truth they were all to blame, almost equally. Eventually, truth will out; few historians now endorse that verdict. But "now" is far too late.

Thirdly, while the victors deserve the blame for lying at Versailles when they were themselves just as culpable as the loser, the systems they represented made it extremely difficult for them not to lie. Clemenceau and Lloyd George spoke for tens of millions of French and British people, who had suffered immense hardships and the loss of a whole generation of young men. More than half a century later, when I lived for a while in Paris, every Métro car had seats reserved for "victimes de la guerre" - and the referenced war was that of 1914-18. As well as 1.4 million Frenchmen killed, there were 4.3 million wounded. All of those suffered because governments lied; they lied about the need to begin the war, and they lied afterwards about who began it; and because most of the population believed the first lie, their spokesmen at Versailles were heavily pressured to tell the second.

"Populations", then - voters - are not free of blame. Participants in the government scam give it the appearance of legitimacy; yes the prime culprits are the lying, murderous politiicans but they would be powerless to do harm if not supported by public approval; and in 1914 there was plenty of that going around in favor of war - and, in 1919, plenty in favor of blaming and punishing the losers. The entire system is mad and evil, from head of state to first-time voter.

Therefore there can be no question: human survival requires that the entire system be scrapped. Government cannot be "reformed", it must be abolished. While politicians drive the evil, the rest of society tags along, and occasionally controls it; the victors at Versailles could not have shown mercy towards the vanquished even had they wished, and 20 years later Nevile Chamberlain, after his blunder of March 1939, was unable to avoid declaring war in September, for that Summer public opinion reversed itself and clamored for war. Had he refused, he would have been replaced - probably by Churchill, who would have declared it with gusto, not reluctance. War fever had taken over.

That fever needs a cure, and as all society is infected, all society must take the cure. Once taken, government will cease to exist. That cure is to learn what its nature really is, and therefore to decline ever to work for it. The learning mechanism is ready.