Cycle or Circumstance?

After looking at everyone's podcasts, I think it is safe to say that the time period after WWI was definitely a time of growth and change. New technology was being invented, new ways of providing entertainment, new ways of self-expression through the arts, new philosophies on life, new views about women's status, new borders and new economic problems. It seemed as though everything during this time period was revolutionary. I can't help but compare this to today, where whenever we blink it seems as though something new is being invented, thought of, or made. Now maybe because we are a part of this time, but I can't seem to pinpoint a catastrophic event such as WWI to which we can blame this current 'revolution.' So I was wondering what all of you thought: were the supposid effects of WWI really all caused by WWI, or do you think maybe there is a cycle and some generations just bring about change more than others?

Flags of Our Fathers

The book I read was from a very interesting perspective. The man who wrote it was the son of one of the six flag raisers in the famous picture taken on the island of Iwo Jima during the Pacific War in WWII. I thought the book was interesting because I could get the before and after effects of the war. James Bradley (the author) focused not just on the battle of Iwo Jima, but who the six soldiers were before the war, so we could understand what they did during the battle, and then for the survivors, how the war effected the rest of their lives. Before reading this book, I never really understood why veterans remained quiet about a life changing experience. The story revealed specific examples of how painful their experience might've been, like his father found his best friend, dead, tortured by the Japanese. The book really showed how the war effected family and the rest of the soldiers lives.

The Lost Generation

I thought it was really interesting how WWI appears to be the beginning of more humanistic ways of living and thinking. I think this is probably because they lost all faith in the more conservative and religious-based views of the past, like Hemingway said "abstract words such as glory, honor, courage or hallow were obscene." This generation saw so much pain and suffering through the war, they felt shafted by the older generation, whose ideals, they thought, caused the war in general. Their reaction to the pain was change. This time period saw more change than any other previous time. The way people thought, dressed, spoke, and entertained were all being revolutionized. While today we look back and see this as a positive change, many people were still hurting, for example Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and many other great artists of the time. So my question is was all the suffering worth it? Would all the social pay-offs and advancements in society have been possible without the eye-opening effects of the war?