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FOUNDATION FOR THE STUDY OF POLITICAL PSYCHOSIS
Infantryman Coningsby Dawson fought in the First World War and authored two books in 1917, writing:
“In the noble indignation of a great ideal, British soldiers face a worse hell than even the most ingenious of fanatics ever planned or plotted. Men die scorched like moths in a furnace, blown to atoms, gassed, tortured. And again, other men step forward to take their place well-knowing what will be their fate.”
Dawson concludes: “Bodies may die, but the spirit of England grows greater as each soldier speeds along its way.”
880,000 British men died in the First World War, 12.5% of those who served, 6% of the adult male population. The Battle of the Somme, July 1, 1916, was the bloodiest in the history of the British Army. British forces suffered more than 57,000 casualties. Nineteen-thousand soldiers were killed on the first day of the battle alone.
I rephrase Dawson’s conclusion: “Bodies may die but the spirit of England grows greater as each soldier speeds along the way” becomes “Bodies may die therefore the spirit of England grows greater as each soldier speeds along the way.” The growth of the spirit of England was directly proportional—to the number of British soldiers who sped along their way to death. The greater the number of dead soldiers, the greater the spirit of England.
Dawson's understanding of the meaning of British participation in the First World War confirms a hypothesis that I have presented on numerous occasions: "As the Soldier dies, so the Nation Comes alive." See. for example, here and here.
Richard A. Koenigsberg
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