BlackHat's Journal: All the young boys are dressing like sailors

The anatomy of the beast of sorrows, News, Quote, and the texttoon. Far more of less.

Continuing on the subject of Nations, Nationalism and Patriotism. As I mentioned in the previous JE this new, yet old, idea had become gigantic. Why did it become some powerful? Marx and his gang claim the Capitalists and Monarchists in league with the Church(et al.). The Anarchists and Pacifists point to the ignorance of the people. The Upper Classes point to the peasants and the townsmen. And so on down the usual suspect list. Each pointing in the other direction, never inwards [critics aside, as seen below].

This idea that the most patriotic expression one could/can make, as being --"He died for our country", did not arise out of nowhere. Nor did the notion of engineering ones own nation into a utopia just evolve. It was sold, resold and bundled with unrelated goods. Say hello to; the think-tank, the well heeled armchair general, the MIC sales guy with a 50k smile, and the yellow press to make it all look like it's really happening. For a price, of course.

Quote:
One of the best known of these pressure groups was the Alldeutscher Verband (Pan-German League). Its membership was quite small -- only about 22,000 in 1900 -- and did not increase much thereafter, but it was vociferous and influential, particularly in the right-wing parties and in the world of business and education. Its main theme was that Germany must expand from being a mere continental power to a world power, if necessary by means of war. Non-German elements in the Reich and the Danubian basin were to be 'Germanized', and German elements everywhere supported. A 'Greater Germany' was to be created initially by economic and commercial links, from Berlin to Baghdad.

Central to the League's propaganda was the call for a great navy to protect Germany's expanding overseas trade and to win British respect. Several well-known ex-soldiers, including Generals Liebert and Keim, were prominent in the League's activities.

Many of the League's policies were half-baked, indeed it was viewed with suspicion and even hostility by the war and navy ministries. The League, in short, was an ultra-nationalist opposition faction which bitterly condemned the government whenever it appeared to fall short of the League's high standards. Hence its disgust at the kaiser's apparent attempt to mollify Britain during the Boer War; at the moderate nature of the Naval Bill in 1906; and at Germany's humiliation in the two Moroccan crises.

Another nationalist league, the Wehrverein, was founded in 1912 mainly to campaign for greater preparedness for an imminent continental war. Within a year it had recruited 78,000 members and some 200,000 corporate members. Its main platform was to denounce even the largest army increases introduced from 1911 as utterly inadequate. General Keim and other members of the Pan-German League played a leading part in its activities and by the outbreak of war it had acquired an extremely strong public position.

The nearest British equivalent to these German pressure groups was the National Service League, founded in 1902 to counter the military -- and national -- weaknesses as revealed in the Boer War. Its fundamental aim was to secure the introduction of some form of compulsory military service in peacetime, say a year's training for every able-bodied white man in the empire.

Its pamphlets and journal (The Nation in Arms) stressed that military service would follow the democratic Swiss rather than the autocratic Prussian model. Like the Swiss militia its main role would be home defence against invasion.

The League was slow to make an impact and had only about 2000 members by 1905. Then it received a tremendous boost when Britain's most famous soldier, Lord Roberts, resigned from the CID to assume its presidency. It also throve on the Anglo-German naval competition and the torrent of invasion-scare literature which this spawned. By the outbreak of war the League claimed a total membership of over 200,000, including many famous people such as Milner, Curzon, Kipling and Wolseley, which was a remarkable achievement in antimilitarist Britain. It was not, however, despite considerable support in parliament, within sight of its goal of compulsory military service.

Paul Kennedy offers some penetrating reflections on theses ultra-patriotic leagues.

First, that despite the emphasis on their non-party nature, their political support was in fact drawn overwhelmingly from right-wing parties. Thus, for example, the National Service League claimed to have well over one hundred MPs as members, but only three were liberals. Similarly it was virtually impossible for a left-liberal to subscribe to the tenets of the Pan-German League.

Secondly, the various leagues' claims to be 'non-political' were widely held to mean that they put national interests above party politics; but it could also denote a more sinister contempt for party government. There were certainly individuals who held such authoritarian beliefs in the German Navy League and the Pan-German League. Thirdly, the leagues in both countries made their major appeal to the working classes, for example, by painting a lurid scenario of what would happen to ordinary families if their country was invaded, defeated in battle, or subjected to a long blockade. A fourth point which deserves special emphasis is the determined efforts made to 'militarize' youth.

Many or these movements, like the most famous of them all, the Boy Scouts, arose after the Boer War in part from a high-minded desire to improve the nation's health by a new interest in outdoor life and activities. But a militarist undertone was detectable from the start. Thus youthful readers of Scouting for Boys were urged to avoid the example of the Romans who lost their empire because they became 'wishy-washy slackers without any go or patriotism in them'.

The Boy Scout motto was not merely a vague admonition: Baden-Powell exhorted members to 'BE PREPARED to die for your country ...so that when the time comes for you may charge home with confidence, not caring whether you are to be killed or not'.

The Boy Scouts alone had over 150,000 current members in 1913 and there were numerous similar organizations including the Boys Brigade, the Church Lads Brigade, the British Girls Patriotic League and the Lads Drill Association. By no means all their activities were overtly militaristic in purpose, but their emphasis on patriotism, loyalty and comradeship undoubtedly laid secure foundations for the real things.

At the heart of the National Service League's campaigning was a belief that Britain was suffering from moral decay which could easily be remedied by instilling discipline in the nation's youth through the imposition of compulsory military service. Lord Roberts's speeches on this issue are filled with references to moral training, character reform, self-discipline, patriotism and the evils of urban life.

[snip]

By the turn of the century the popular press, feeding upon an expanding semi-literate readership, was playing an increasingly significant role in fanning the flames of self-righteous jingoism. Contrary to what contemporary critics alleged, both German and British governments lost what little control over the arch-patriotic press they had ever enjoyed.

In Germany the popular press was literally plus royaliste que le roi, claiming to speak for the Hohenzollerns in denouncing every sign of moderation towards Britain and her foreign policy. Similarly the British right-wing press found its main target in the liberal government, but also became increasingly irritated with the conservatives, led by the aloof and philosophic Balfour, for failure to grapple with internal and external enemies.

Even The Times, then and subsequently regarded as a semi-official government organ, refused all threats and blandishments designed to modify its consistent Germanophobia in the 1900s. It seems fair to conclude that the right-wing popular press played a significant role in publicizing international conflicts and preparing their readers for the impending crisis which could only be resolved by war.

Liberals like Lord Bryce were surely justified, at the height of newspaper jingoism during the Boer War, to feel apprehensive about an England 'intoxicated with militarism, blinded by arrogance [and] indifferent to truth and justice'. --Brian Bond

There is a localized parallel, in this period, to the global Atomic arms race and that is the Dreadnought race of 1880-1910. A 16+ inch gun could hit most, if not any, town in England from off shore. As we see above; the press, people and governments of the day were quite aware of the implications. This may be one of the reasons why for the British the mania, fear, and doubt sold so well [as it did in the coldwar, and terror does now].

The cost of taking England [soon anywhere] was greater than hurting it and everyone knew it. Sub warfare, the air threat, and nukes only added extra FUD potential. In time, most industrial nations will become pattern cards of the English Problem [I like your hat Terry].

I might also note here that the middle section of Bond's rap above has a passage that I put in my JE for 27 Aug 2003. Three more quotes to go on this. Until then.

News fit for a king:
RNC pre-game show. Thousands of opponents of US President George W Bush have taken to the streets of New York to demonstrate against his foreign and domestic policies. The protest, which organisers say drew an estimated 250,000 marchers, comes a day before New York hosts the Republican Party convention. A massive security sweep has virtually sealed off the convention venue. Police officers with dogs, bomb-detecting equipment and riot gear have closed off surrounding streets.

Tory shoo fly. Good god man, you're real conservatives! Get out! Before the sheep see you and clue in. Awww hail Mammon!

Old and busted war. At least seven people, including two US citizens, have died in a powerful blast in central Kabul, Afghan officials say. The explosion occurred in an upmarket area near the office of a US security firm reportedly used by Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Alu Alkhanov takes the prize. I should do a JE series on Chechnya one of these days. Interesting history filled will all kinds of people from the great to the vile. And some funny ones too. As for now --Politics not bombs. That means you too Putin!

More on Howie[heh] and the day of the door knob.

The wind is shifting? Reports from Thailand say a candidate from the main opposition party has won election as the new governor of the capital, Bangkok. As counting continues, Thai television stations say Apirak Kosayodhin of the Democrat Party has a commanding lead. It is being seen as a setback to the party of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra ahead of next year's general election. And it looks like the GGAC branch of the GNAA is out stumping too. More than 20 people contested the election. At least one candidate went too far for the liking of the election authorities. Candidate number six was disqualified after it was deemed that her campaign rallies, complete with green-wigged transvestite chorus girls, were more entertainment than politics. Six for Two! BSU.

ARISE, SIR SHEEP DIPThe enthralling developments in Cape Town today prompted the Backbencher to wonder aloud how, and when, Mark Thatcher became a Sir. It turns out that the daring expatriate inherited the title when his father died last year, thanks to a rare sort of baronetcy conferred on Denis by John Major. Indeed, Mr Major was questioned on just this topic when he gave evidence to a Commons committee in May. "There were a sequence of very powerful arguments made to me at the time," he explained. Yes, the Backbencher receives those in her inbox all the time - most recently from a business associate of Yukos. Meanwhile, in the unhappy event that Mark is stripped of his peerage, the title will presumably pass to another hard-working expatriate. Thatcher the Third is the founder of Atlas Preservatives, a New Zealand-based sheep dip and weedkiller manufacturer - "later expanded to include paints and boiler descalers", elaborates Burke's Peerage. Sheep dip, eh? Well, it should keep him out of trouble.

OYAITJ:
44176 : US President George W. Bush on Tuesday sounded to Palestinians as if backtracking on his promised vision of a two-solution of the Palestinian - Israeli conflict when he put the Palestinian anti-Israeli occupation resistance on the same footing with the terrorists the United States is waging war on since September 11, 2001. Bush on Tuesday -- ignoring completely the Israeli extra-judicial assassinations, Israeli non-compliance with the "roadmap" to Middle East peace plan, and the 36-year old Israeli occupation -- called on all leaders in the region, and the Palestinians specifically, to starve support from extremist groups who target Israel with violence. "Now is the time for every true friend of the Palestinian people, every leader in the Middle East, and the Palestinian people themselves to cut off all money and support from terrorists and actively fight terror on all fronts," he said in a speech in Missouri Tuesday., plus If ever there was a Labor Day for American workers to celebrate, this sure isn't the one. It's now 30 years since the end of the "golden era" for American labor, which by most accounting ended in 1973. Over the past 30 years the productivity of the people whose brain and muscle creates the wealth of the world's richest nation has grown by 66 percent. But the wage of the typical employee -- the median wage -- has grown by only 7 percent., and less [now reg'ed only and! broken links, grrrr].

Texttoon:
Ink on paper/two color-black & purple on white stock/scan/jpg : A line of elephants in flattop hats, coats, and dresses, standing on their hind legs. A table at the side with some bunting and a washtub filled with purple liquid. A unflattering rendering of Karl Rove and Katherine Harris holding the ladle. Karl is passing the front most elephant a half filled paper cup. A few palm trees for the background, in rough strokes, and a caption at the bottom; "RNC 2004: Back'in the Bush, again."