Transformações

Optimistic Imagination Minus Reality Equals Severe Trauma

By Bionic Mosquito

Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War, by Paul Fussell

This book is about the psychological and emotional culture of Americans and Britons during the Second World War.  It is about the rationalizations and euphemisms people needed to deal with an unacceptable actuality from 1939 to 1945.

So begins Fussell in the preface.  After touching on the physical damage, he continues:
So begins Fussell in the preface.  After touching on the physical damage, he continues:

Less obvious is the damage it did to intellect, discrimination, honesty, individuality, complexity, ambiguity, and irony.

In chapter 8 of Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace, edited By Harry Elmer Barnes, William Henry Chamberlin addresses this topic.  Chamberlin cites the hypocrisy of Roosevelt and his Atlantic the lies of Roosevelt to the American people leading up to the war.
In chapter 9 of the same volume, George A. Lundberg cites Dr. Charles Beard, listing of twelve examples of the lies and manipulations by Roosevelt before and during the war. There is no possibility of a properly functioning democracy or republic when lying is the means to secure support.
It is the damage done to the psyche of the American and British people that Fussell examines in this book.
Mais