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1/ I'm so excited to see this documentary about The Great War. Most people have little or no knowledge of the first World War, despite it being historically far more significant than the second. It spelled the end of the old European order.
2/ It also spelled the end of the classical gold standard, which had brought prosperity to much of the world during the 19th century. The world had finally escaped the Malthusian Trap only to enter a century of statism, fiat money and mass murder.
3/ Part of the disinterest in the Great War is the antiquated footage we have of the events. We see the past as a series of snapshots of soldiers awkwardly goose-stepping at 16 frames per second, making it harder for us to empathize with their struggles. It seems a caricature.
4/ Peter Jackson's documentary, which painstakingly ameliorates the footage of the Great War, bring immediacy to the conflict and the struggles of those who fought in the war. They now seem real to us.
5/ It's my hope that Jackson's documentary brings greater interest to one of the great calamities that befell the world and the political and economic consequences of it that we still live with today.
