The funeral of the pope, international leaders, and "The Guns of August"

[NNadir]

Reflecting on the extraordinary assemblages of international leaders gathered to bury the Pope, I was reminded of the funeral of Edward VII of England in 1910. One of this most beautiful - and chilling - passages opening a work of history has to be this from Barbara Tuchman's "The Guns of August":

"So gorgeous was the spectacle on the May morning of 1910 when nine kings rode in the funeral of Edward VII of England that the crowd, waiting in hused and black-clad awe, could not keep back gasps of admiration. In scarlet and blue and green and purple, three by three the sovereings rode through the palace gates, with plumed helmets, gold braid, crimson sashes and jeweled orders flasing in the sun. After them came five heirs apparaent, forty more imperial or royal highnesses, seven queens - four dowager and three regnant- and a scattering of special ambassadors from uncrowned countries. Together they represented seventy nations in the greatest assemblage of royalty and rank ever gathered in one place and, of its kind, the last. The muffled tongue of Big Ben tolled nine by the clock as the cortege left the palace but on history's clock it was sunset, and the sun of the old world was setting in a dying blaze of spendor never to be seen again..."

The subject here is that the world was about to tumble in a vast display of stupidity, arrogance, and blank ignorance into the horror of the first world war, one of the greatest tragedies ever to befall humanity.

It was rather strange to see the equally abysmal rulers of the modern world, some as stupid and obdurate as even the pathetic Nicolas II, sitting together for the funeral of the strange reactionary bishop of Rome.

I am very unsettled.

Something wicked this way comes...

[Iterate]

1. The lost opportunity...

There were so many similarities in the times.

And it was only little more than a decade ago that so many people had hope that the time had finally come when nations had matured enough, wars could be rare and local, we could attend to our common problems...

Instead we have yet another world war to make the world safe for democracy, another holy war, another war over ideology, empire. Instead of a few kings leading the blunder, it's a few million US voters and a few thousand radical clerics of all kinds, led by the two failed sons of privilege. And the more one learns of history, the more it seems that it will get much, much worse before this group learns its lesson as well. Too bad for the rest of us.

[NNadir]

3. Too bad for the children.

There were eight years between 1910 and 1918, exactly this distance between my oldest boy and eligibility for the draft.

[Hardrada]

2. I have always loved that book

Have tried to get others to read it too. It's a good introductory book to that era. My own 1910 was 1963 when all the leaders or their ambassadors came to JFK's funeral in a stunnning ceremony.

[NNadir]

4. It's, I'm afraid, a good introductory book for this era.

[Iterate]

5. The effects last for generations

My grandfather fought in WWI, returned and never discussed it, living with what we would now call PTSD. I can trace its effects through the generations at a personal level.

If the primary lesson of that war was simply that concentrations of power inevitably lead to war, through foolishness if not intent, then it looks as if your son will witness no end to it.