Randolph Bourne Crying Out Against the Betrayal of the Values of Civilization :: Randolph Bourne Writers Essays

Randolph marches Crying Out Against the treason of the Values of Civilizationfanny Dos Passos wrote, that if ever a humans had a locomote it was BourneA tiny twisted unscared ghost in a scurrilous cloakhopping along the grimy nonagenarian brick and brownstonestreets still left in downtown New York,crying push through in a astute soundless giggleWar is the health of the state.Dos Passos, 1919 (N.Y. Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1932), pp. 105-106.When public War I erupted it came as a surprise to the overwhelming bulk of American intellectuals. Its barbarity stuck them as anachronistic and they tended to view the conflict as a temporary sidetrack in the march of civilization, an expression of equaliser animal instincts. The dawn of the Enlightenment and the grand progress made in the Nineteenth Century made state of war seem quite untypical (in their view) of humanitys evolving nature.Of course, they saw themselves as important and subservient in defining and handsome tuning that nature. On the leading keenness of political and social brilliance, ivy-league educated, innate(p) to lead and with the silver spoon in the mouth to prove it, they were socialists. And when chairperson Woodrow Wilson (who had been re-elected as a peace candidate, on a lower floor the slogan, He kept us out of war) opted to throw the panoptic weight of the countrys resources into the atomic number 63an conflict, they rallied to his support.Randolph Bourne, who was to go through in the flu epidemic unawares after the Armistice, cried out all against the betrayal of the values of civilization by his fellow writers. He and his clip paid a heavy determine and, of course, he did not proceed to see the backlash following the war. The misemploy had been done the stage was curing for the idiocy of the conditions at Versailles, the ascendency of Adolph Hitler, the insufferable horrors of National Socialism, and the destruction of the cities of Europe within the next thirty yea rs.Randolph Bourne Crying Out Against the lese majesty of the Values of Civilization Randolph Bourne Writers EssaysRandolph Bourne Crying Out Against the Betrayal of the Values of CivilizationJohn Dos Passos wrote, that if ever a man had a ghost it was BourneA tiny twisted unscared ghost in a black cloakhopping along the grimy old brick and brownstonestreets still left in downtown New York,crying out in a shrill soundless giggleWar is the health of the state.Dos Passos, 1919 (N.Y. Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1932), pp. 105-106.When World War I erupted it came as a surprise to the overwhelming majority of American intellectuals. Its barbarity stuck them as anachronistic and they tended to view the conflict as a temporary sidetrack in the march of civilization, an expression of residual animal instincts. The dawn of the Enlightenment and the tremendous progress made in the Nineteenth Century made war seem quite uncharacteristic (in their view) of humanitys evolving nature.Of course, th ey saw themselves as important and instrumental in defining and fine tuning that nature. On the leading edge of political and social brilliance, ivy-league educated, born to lead and with the silver spoon in the mouth to prove it, they were socialists. And when President Woodrow Wilson (who had been re-elected as a peace candidate, under the slogan, He kept us out of war) opted to throw the full weight of the countrys resources into the European conflict, they rallied to his support.Randolph Bourne, who was to die in the flu epidemic shortly after the Armistice, cried out alone against the betrayal of the values of civilization by his fellow writers. He and his magazine paid a heavy price and, of course, he did not live to see the backlash following the war. The damage had been done the stage was set for the idiocy of the conditions at Versailles, the ascendency of Adolph Hitler, the unimaginable horrors of National Socialism, and the destruction of the cities of Europe within the n ext thirty years.