A hundred years ago the world caught fire in what was later called the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918). Nearly 16 million souls were lost. Unfortunately, it was not La Der des Ders (The War to End All Wars). For the 100th commemoration of the armistice, I dug up my two oldest science magazines. La Science et la Vie N°4 (July 1913) and N°39 (July 1918). What stroke me when I browsed them, yet again, is that they contain way more belligerence than science. And most of the science is an alibi to praise war machines and subtle technologies of death. Sure it would be unfair to judge our fellow humans with the benefit of hindsight, a century later. Good learning for me when reflecting on the period, is to always question propaganda, especially if it is a consensus. And question it even more if it is for a nation’s upper interest. In his play Die letzten Tage der Menschheit (The Last Days of Mankind), written between 1915-1918, Karl Kraus critics WWI via a plethora of life slices, all crunched by madness and destruction. It is humbling to witness what a satiric journalist was able to see, and what science journalists simply could not. Another World War later, Europe was born, preventing us to lose our humanity again. At least, until now.
