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Michael Kupperburg's avatar

What passes for "Realism" is anything else but. Given human nature, getting all you can from a situation will in time lead to others doing the same to you, knowing there is nothing other than meanness, greed, and pride on your side.

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NagsHeadLocal's avatar

I regret asking this but what is an "18b-ers" as mentioned here?

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Charles Knapp's avatar

I recall reading that the indemnification the Germans sought was based on the indemnification Napoleon imposed on a prostrate Prussia. That was supposed to be, as they say in England, “fair play”. Loss of territory (and occasionally sovereignty) was an accepted fact - again, Napoleon serving as the relevant precedent.

One might argue that a significant factor to the First World War was France’s irredentist desires on Alsace and Lorraine. The indemnity was rather rapidly paid off thanks to France’s industrial might.

But, as the Treaty of Versailles showed, the tit-for-tat of indemnity payments continued apace and, had Orwell revisited his article after the end of WWII, he might have commented on Germany’s loss of territory to the East.

It’s all ugly and brutal, but human nature is very difficult to change.

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Kathy Stoia's avatar

The cure will kill you quicker than the disease.

Old hospital 🏥 maxim.

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