CONTENTS - ouroboros ponderosa

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ORIGINS AND MEANING OF WWI
World War T, in Jan Patocka's words, "That tremendous and, in a
"'nsc, cosmic cvent'" was a watershed in the history of the West and the
II,ajor influence on our century. Regarding its causes, nearly all the
discussion has concerned the dcgree of responsibility of the various
I',,,vcrnments, in terms of the alliance system (ultimately, the Triple
":ntente of England, France and Russia and the Triple Alliance of
Austria-Hungary, Germany and Italy) which, it is alleged, had to
eventuate in worldwide war. The other major focus is thc Marxist theory
of imperialism, which contends that international rivalry caused by the
need for markets and sourccs of raw material made inevitable a world
war. Domestic causcs have received remarkably little attention, and when
the internal or social dynamics have been explorcd at all, several
mistaken notions, large and small, have been introduced,
The genesis of the war is examined here in light of the social question
and its dynamics; the thesis entertained is that a rapidly developing
challenge to domination was destroyed by the arrival of war, the most
significant stroke of counterrevolution in modern world history. If the
real movement was somehow canceled by August 1914, it is clear that the
usual reference (in this case, Debord's) to "the profound social upheaval
which arose with the first world war'" is profoundly in error.
Some obselvers have noted, in passing, the prevalence of uncontrolled
and unpredictable violence throughout Europe prior to the war, perhaps
the most telling sign of the haunting dissatisfaction within an unanchored
society. This could be seen in the major nations-and in many other
regions as well. Ha\(!vy, for example, was surprised by the 1913 general
strikes in South Africa and Dublin, which "so strangely and unexpectedly
cut across the feud between English and Dutch overseas, betwcen
Protestant and Catholic in Ireland." ] Berghahn saw that Turkey as well
as Austria-Hungary "were threatened in their existence by both social
and national revolutionary movements.'" Sazonoz's Reminiscences refer
to the sudden outbreaks of rioting in Constantinople, and to the
Dashnaktzutium, Armenian radicals, of whom it was "difficult to discern "
if they were more directed against Turkey or intent on fomenting a
revolution at home. ' And Pierre van Paascn's memoirs tcll of a social