In 1914, hostile states politely declared war on each other. Euphoric and heroic, workers, farmers, artists and intellectuals followed their commanders and went into the First World War. But the era of heroism was long gone, millions of soldiers were slaughtered for the first time by an industrial killing machine.
After the end of this madness, a pandemic was added to the mix, claiming millions more victims among the weakened population. Karl Kraus was fighting on his own front at the time. Armed only with the "Fackel", he exposed the war propaganda and later published a collection of his findings in the book "Die letzten Tage der Menschheit".
When was the start of the Third World War? 9/11, the financial crash in 2008, the declaration of the pandemic in 2020? No one has made official declarations of war. In 2024, there will no longer be any classic battlefields, only "armed border incidents" (Ukraine means "on the border" in German) or "fighting terror at home" (Gaza Strip). The weapons industry - including Big Pharma in the age of bioweapons - is earning more than ever.
The real theatres of war in 2024 are in every living room and in every workplace, wherever our smartphones connect us to the internal world of propaganda media. While propaganda was a means to an end in previous wars, propaganda in the mass media - TV, radio, newspapers, the internet - is now the actual theatre of war, the current Third World War. Here and now, always and everywhere, we are bombarded with the war propaganda of the respective country.
Only a few see through the propaganda. Only a few manage to escape this propaganda and hold the torch of ethics high. Only a few try to end this "tragedy for a Martian theatre" with enlightenment. There have always been times when critics of propaganda were ridiculed, arrested and condemned by those in power. And so it is today: anyone who tells the truth in a world of lies is condemned and imprisoned in open dictatorships and prejudged and locked out in closed democracies.
Karl Kraus, Aphorisms: "Journalists write because they have nothing to say, and have something to say because they write."
"You should only collect style blossoms if you are an enthusiast. Weeding them out is evidence of bad taste, of someone who wants only correct phrases to grow in the newspaper. Style blossoms are the happy exceptions that we encounter in the desert of knowledge. And isn't it symbolic of the earth when a newspaper manages to write: 'Dying, she was taken to hospital, where she gave life to a dead child. Isn't that what happens to our common favourite, culture? Dying, she was taken to the editorial office and gave birth to the phrase. Oh, who would give life to the dead child! He would save the mother."
"Sex education is justified to the extent that girls cannot learn early enough how children are not born."
Immanuel Kant: What is Enlightenment? (1784): "Enlightenment is man's exit from his self-inflicted immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one's intellect without the guidance of another. This immaturity is self-inflicted if the cause of it is not a lack of understanding, but a lack of resolution and courage to make use of it without the guidance of another. Sapere aude! Have the courage to use your own intellect! is therefore the motto of the Enlightenment.
Laziness and cowardice are the reasons why such a large proportion of people, after nature has long since pronounced them free from external guidance (naturaliter maiorennes), still like to remain immature throughout their lives; and why it becomes so easy for others to set themselves up as their guardians. It is so comfortable to be immature. If I have a book that makes sense to me, a counsellor who has a conscience for me, a doctor who judges my diet for me, etc., I don't need to make any effort myself. I don't need to think if I can just pay; others will take care of this annoying business for me."
