Saturday, August 31, 2013
We weren't always squeamish
Following on this entry.
This bit of text is from the Journal of Home Economics, 1920 volume, p.411 of the PDF. The article was mainly about the availability of new dyes for fabric. Author began by explaining why we had new dyes:
Note that the author is not whining about moral imperatives and unacceptable weapons and international law. He's just telling Americans that we were not ready for WW1, and we needed to learn from our errors. (Which was still marginally possible back then; now it's absurd to even suggest it.)
Admittedly WW1 was a war of choice for Americans; we were not attacked and we shouldn't have bothered with the whole mess, just as we shouldn't bother with the current mess.
IT. IS. NOT. OUR. FUCKING. PROBLEM.
But when we're truly forced to fight, we have to be prepared to answer bullet with bullet, fire with fire, atom with atom, gas with gas, rape with rape, torture with torture. "Moral purity" is pure suicide. The "moral high ground" is a deep grave.
¶ 1:30 PM 
Note that the author is not whining about moral imperatives and unacceptable weapons and international law. He's just telling Americans that we were not ready for WW1, and we needed to learn from our errors. (Which was still marginally possible back then; now it's absurd to even suggest it.)
Admittedly WW1 was a war of choice for Americans; we were not attacked and we shouldn't have bothered with the whole mess, just as we shouldn't bother with the current mess.
IT. IS. NOT. OUR. FUCKING. PROBLEM.
But when we're truly forced to fight, we have to be prepared to answer bullet with bullet, fire with fire, atom with atom, gas with gas, rape with rape, torture with torture. "Moral purity" is pure suicide. The "moral high ground" is a deep grave.
¶ 1:30 PM
