Another anniversary

So, maybe most important for me as a European – 11 November 1918 – 90 years ago was the Armistice (of Germany or Compiègne) of the First World War. By some called The War. And by some called “the start of it all”….

In my book, The war with the ending in the influenza pandemic – The Spanish Flu, the start of the time when more than 60 million people of the population of Europe died within 5 years. (Estimate 50 millions during the Spanish flu 1918-1919and 16 millions in the war 1914-1918… and add on the people in Russia during their Freedom war and the Finnish liberation….) Like the plague in the Dark Ages, but different. One major factor that the pandemic hit so hard was the war. The war had left people very fragile and susceptible for infections. And of course, we did not have the antibiotics* yet.

And the times directly following this was the “happy 20ies”, at least in the Allied countries. The situation a bit different in Germany, that gave away most of its assets as it was “the main cause of the war” according to the Versailles treaty, and in all of them when the 1929 hit low bottom.

My country was starting the urbanization at this time. We might not have been active part in the First World War but we had our own small revolution in 1914 with “the Courtyard Crisis” [Borggårdstalet] where our King made the last intervention in Parliamentary politics. (He is still Head of State, but can not interfere in politics….) and we had some people dying in the pandemic, although we weren’t part of the war.

I am digressing. What I wanted to remember, apart from the appalling images of the trenches and the staggering number of [young] men dying, is that in the aftermath of it all, something very important happened. Important to the point that Europe stood before a new world war within 20 years from the ending of the old, the countries were not only suffering from a financial crisis and economic harsh time but also lacking in people and having a tough time with hope**.

And at the moment we are waiting for a pandemic (it is overdue, should have been here a few years back), some countries (like the US and UK) have been fighting in wars that have put a toll on both economies as well as people, the financial crisis (I don’t really have to explain that one) and the decreasing amount of antibiotics working against our most common bacteria to cause lethal diseases… a dystopian cocktail. And on top of that, a hefty dose of scapegoats, or Boogey men, to throw into the mix.

I think it might be the best to happen if we learned from our past, the history, and really tried not to repeat the same sad mistakes again.

Then I remember the folly of it, since I am a scientist who do actually repeat the same thing over and over again and do sometimes see a different result. That of course, is what we in science call, things that happen that we can not explain. I do not think that it is wise to apply it to the outside world and expect the same result. So far history has shown me that repeating mistakes only leads to even bigger mistakes in the long run.

With that I will go back to trying to understand why the experiment I repeated did not give the same results as expected….

*It is important to remember though, that even in this day and age – with antibiotics and all the treatments available in the world – the mortality during influenza seasons and complications like secondary pneumonia is still fairly high. And add on top of that, the antibiotic resistance spreading and we might not be so convinced that we are in good hands the next time the pandemic influenza comes around.

**I don’t necessary think that the President Elect will make all the promises he made, nor that he can but the idea of making people believe in themselves, in their country and the future – that might not be a bad thing at all. Hope instead of Fear. Not a bad thing…