The narrative of "history" depends on denial of the unconscious. The narrative of history requires denial that human beings are the source.
What a strange dream in which human beings are immersed! Everyone know about the massive destruction and self-destruction that has occurred (it's written up in the history books).
Yet we pretend it has nothing to do with us; as if it happened in a domain of existence going on by itself without human intervention. "That is not us." |
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Please scroll down to the table below before reading this text. Summarize the data on the First World War: 65 million troops were mobilized, nearly 9 million killed, 21 million wounded and nearly 8 million men were prisoners or reported missing in action.
Thus, an extraordinary total of 37 million casualties, 56% of all men mobilized.
What an extraordinary event, a massive, monumental ritual destruction or self-destruction.
Yet historians write about the war without flinching--as if nothing special had occurred. Omer Bartov observes that the main trend of modern history is to "domestic the fantastic and to normalize the unspeakable."
The narrative of "history" depends on the denial of the unconscious. The narrative of history requires the denial that human beings are the source of what has occurred.
What is at the root of the tendency to “normalize the fantastic and unspeakable”—to conceive and write about horrific episodes of collective destruction and mass-murder as if these events are neither extraordinary nor pathological?
Psychic determinism: human actions do not happen by chance. This concept applies to collective human activity as well. The First World War did not happen by chance. It was not an "accident." Human beings willed the events into being. The First World War enacted collective fantasies of destruction and self-destruction.
What a strange human activity or desire: destroying one's fellow-human beings in massive numbers. What an unusual fantasy in which human beings are immersed!
We all know about this massive destruction and self-destruction (it's written up in history books). Then we pretend it has nothing to do with us. It happened by itself. By chance. We are possessed by the fantasy of a domain of existence that goes on by itself, without human intervention. "That is not us."
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| Countries |
Total
Mobilized |
Killed
& Died |
Wounded |
Prisoners
& Missing |
Total
Casualties |
Casualties %
of Mobilized |
| Allied Powers |
| Russia |
12,000,000 |
1,700,000 |
4,950,000 |
2,500,000 |
9,150,000 |
76.3 |
| France |
8,410,000 |
1,357,800 |
4,266,000 |
537,000 |
6,160,800 |
76.3 |
| British Empire |
8,904,467 |
908,371 |
2,090,212 |
191,652 |
3,190,235 |
35.8 |
| Italy |
5,615,000 |
650,000 |
947,000 |
600,000 |
2,197,000 |
39.1 |
| United States |
4,355,000 |
126,000 |
234,300 |
4,500 |
364,800 |
8.2 |
| Japan |
800,000 |
300 |
907 |
3 |
1,210 |
0.2 |
| Romania |
750,000 |
335,706 |
120,000 |
80,000 |
535,706 |
71.4 |
| Serbia |
707,343 |
45,000 |
133,148 |
152,958 |
331,106 |
46.8 |
| Belgium |
267,000 |
13,716 |
44,686 |
34,659 |
93,061 |
34.9 |
| Greece |
230,000 |
5,000 |
21,000 |
1,000 |
17,000 |
11.7 |
| Portugal |
100,000 |
7,222 |
13,751 |
12,318 |
33,291 |
33.3 |
| Montenegro |
50,000 |
3,000 |
10,000 |
7,000 |
20,000 |
40.0 |
| Total |
42,188,810 |
5,152,115 |
12,831,004 |
4,121,090 |
22,104,209 |
52.3 |
| Central Powers |
| Germany |
11,000,000 |
1,773,700 |
4,216,058 |
1,152,800 |
7,142,558 |
64.9 |
| Austria-Hungary |
7,800,000 |
1,200,000 |
3,620,000 |
2,200,000 |
7,020,000 |
90.0 |
| Turkey |
2,850,000 |
325,000 |
400,000 |
250,000 |
975,000 |
34.2 |
| Bulgaria |
1,200,000 |
87,500 |
152,390 |
27,029 |
266,919 |
22.2 |
| Total |
22,850,000 |
3,386,200 |
8,388,448 |
3,629,829 |
15,404,477 |
67.4 |
| Grand Total |
65,038,810 |
8,538,315 |
21,219,452 |
7,750,919 |
37,508,686 |
57.6 |
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