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Comment by fullshark | Hacker News Reader

The idea that my gov't is totally in control at all times and willing to do evil things is more comforting than the idea that geopolitics is actually chaos, and a few motivated individuals can decide to murder the president or coordinate an attack on citizens to inspire a 20 year war.

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The Powers That Be may be evil but at least they’re highly competent. The real horror is in the idea that no-one is in control.

And it's one of those opinions that (IMHO) is hard to hold for someone with sufficient history training.

The murder of one archduke kicked off a world war. Of course the action of one person in the worst place at the worst time can precipitate unspeakable horror. It's happened before.

>sufficient history training

>action of one person

The murder of the archduke was a literal conspiracy. Involving high-level spooks, too.

Now, I don't know shit about shit, but from what I've tried to read on the subject, a nascent German empire after the Franco-Prussian war was ready to demand its place at the grown up table of France, England, and Russia for years.

So no, not just a single moment of bad luck turning friends into enemies.

>Germany did it.

Keep reading.

Tell me what the /pol view of WW1 is, then.

I wouldn’t know. The Sleepwalkers is a good start.

I have no idea why you are getting downvoted.. but people cannot deal with chaos or "shit happens for no reason". People seek purpose and when none exists, make up one.

Hence all the Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories. People just cannot stand the idea that a single nut could destroy Camelot.

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