My son and I have been reading All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. In today’s reading, the author appears to explore the absurdity of the reasons given for most wars — and the political ambitions behind them. In Chapter Nine, Remarque’s characters — low level soldiers in the field — talk politics. They don’t get everything quite right. For instance, we would all have a “home-country” even without a State. But I present the rest without further comment: Tjaden reappears. He is still quite excited and again joins the conversation, wondering just how a war gets … Continue reading Erich Maria Remarque: How a War Gets Started