This week was the 100th anniversary of the battle of Vimy Ridge. Overall, individual Canadians do a good job of honouring veterans or, at the very least, many of them try to do a good job. In Canada, you’ll see everything from local quilters making quilts to show their appreciation, to a packed Parliament Hill on Remembrance Day.
Among many other things, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at the event “One hundred years later, we must say this, together. And we must believe it: Never again.”
This is something that is often said but rarely is much consideration given to what this means in practical terms. It’s easy to all agree we shouldn’t have more war; it’s harder to realize and actualize what’s required to minimize (complete avoidance is overly optimistic at best) further armed conflict.
The underlying causes of war are often misunderstood. Broadly speaking, internally or externally, the main cause of war is a divide between haves and have-nots.
Reading studies on the causes leading up to Vimy Ridge, the causes of World War I are often sold as nationalism, imperialism, militarism or alliances. However, labelling any of these as the causes of war is as to blame a high cholesterol for heart disease when the actual cause is something closer to the lines of poor diet, or little exercise.
The industrial revolution was well over, but in the United States for example, by 1900 most industrial workers still worked 10 hour days earning between 20 to 40 percent less than the minimum deemed necessary for a decent life (The Struggles of Labor, Library of Congress). These inequalities led a push towards nationalism to distract the proletariat from their ongoing plight.
From 1900 until about 1950, the top one per cent of earners had a comparable level of the total income as the top one per cent does today in countries such as the U.S. (see Capital in the Twenty-First Century, by Thomas Piketty if you’re really interested).
As a consequence, the world is once again seeing an increase in nationalism, from the U.K. leaving the European Union to the increasing prominence of extreme right parties.
With automation set to take away large amounts of jobs, it’s hard to see how inequality will not continue to rise, resulting in stronger nationalist tendencies, more extreme leaders and further armed conflicts.
If we take anything away from the 100 year anniversary of Vimy Ridge, other than honouring our fallen soldiers, it’s that governments are going to need to do some serious work to prevent more armed conflicts. Let’s hope that it’s more than just pretty words coming from Trudeau when he says “Never again.”
