ESSAY CEMETERY

Video 1: Choosing Global War June 1940 - December 1941 During this period, WWII is transformed. In Europe, the dictators are winning. In Asia, the dictators are also winning. There are two separate wars and they merge. The US and Russia are pulled into the war. Fortunately for the democracies, the totalitarian regimes start fighting each other. Berlin Hitler has ideas about race and space, intending to create more space for the race, subjugating Slavs, killing Jews, and if necessary fighting the enemies in the West. In order to do this, they must defeat the British. Italy and Japan reach out to Hitler to form a coalition and parcel out the world. But this runs counter to Hitler's ideas about space and race. In the summer of 1940, the German army tries to assess whether the plan is feasible. They conclude they can beat the Soviets. They're a bit overconfident thanks to their victory against France. In addition, they conclude that contending with the Brits will be difficult: in o...

Analysis It is easy to pop dreams, because they are inflated with pretty thoughts like a balloon. So instead of refuting/rebutting communism… A selfish gene always overtakes a population of altruists (converting private property into public wealth, and substituting co-operation for competition, will restore society to its proper condition of a thoroughly healthy organism, and insure the material well-being of each member of the community. ") Against communal property: entropy; living like pigs in a hotel I can quite understand a man accepting laws that protect private property, and admit of its accumulation, as long as he himself is able under those conditions to realise some form of beautiful and intellectual life. But it is almost incredible to me how a man whose life is marred and made hideous by such laws can possibly acquiesce in their continuance. There is a way around this. Work harder and get your own property. Or was this when there was no class mobility? The note of the ...

In the current state of capitalism, people are forced to live for others, to be altruistic. This happens because poverty is ubiquitous and people are moved to help. These good intentions culminate in negative results: the aid extended maintains the status quo of poverty (the poor make do with what they are given). This does not allow for a systemic change that would solve the root of the problem and not merely its symptoms.  Socialism would amend this by providing a systemic social change. Private property will be made public (communism which he calls socialism), but there should be no government. Along with socialism, individualism is also necessary (also, socialism will promote individualism). Individualism is achieved by not working and pursuing pleasurable pastimes. Very few people achieve this currently. The rest work like beasts and have no time to self-actualize. Maintaining private property is a fuss, and so should be abolished. The poor should rebel against their sorry sta...

Written in 1909 in Italian. Marinetti and his friends are having a fruitful discussion, writing, and feeling proud of being unique in their endeavors. They are distracted by the noises of vehicles going through the street. They rejoice in technology. They are filled with a sense of power and recklessness. They go in the car and shout stuff, and two cyclists disapprove. This prompts the writer to throw the car into a ditch. As fishermen and naturalists fish the car out of the muck, they "dictate our first will and testament to all the living men on earth". Their manifesto promotes: taking risks and being rash rebellion glorifying technology meshing nature with technology technology that brings speed as the end of all things- the future is here war and violence anti-feminism, moralism, museums, and libraries (?) They want to reform Italy so that nothing remains of the past: professors, archeologists, museums, and libraries will be gone. They want daily visits to museums done aw...

Video 1: Challenges to Capitalism and Collective Security Challenges to Capitalism Analyzing guns and money is a great way to start understanding what's happening in a given historical period. The amount of demand is linked to economic growth as well as the amount of money available. In a gold standard system, the amount of money is constant because there's only so much gold. This means that demand can't grow unless more gold is found. "Gold fetters". There are also efforts to raise the amount of money circulating using paper, but that's not our focus. The following countries are on the gold standard: Britain, the US, France, Germany. China uses silver. By the late 1920s, most of the countries are back on gold. When gold started running out of a certain country (meaning the country was buying more than it was selling), countries started raising interest rates (on what?) to bring in more gold. The US, Germany, and England are still recovering from the war econo...

Video 1: Total States WWI is an important event in world history because of how it changes the way modern societies are organized. There's a different feeling to warfare in WWI. The devastation is worse than ever before because of the technology that is able to ravage the land: create holes in the ground that are so big soldiers drown in them; eradicate whole forests; blind soldiers from poison gas. WWI sees the creation of "Total States": States are seeing themselves as large war-centric corporations Governments begin to control national money to make sure they have enough for warfare Government regulates staples The end of the gold standard -- self-reliance instead of international trade Conversion of plants and factories from civilian factories to war factories Creation of new factories for war supplies Governments take control of manpower and industrial resources, controlling which people and how many of them are allocated to factories, farming, and militaries. Libera...