The Vulgarity Of Vogue

This set me off.

Those of you who know me in "real life" know that I am a student of WWI history and have a daunting library of books that I continue to collect and slowly read. This post isn't about why I study- this post is about the crass and shallow way in which history is handled in this culture. The above picture started making the rounds today as is often the case in the ever-so-short-attention-spanned-instant-gratification-something-for-nothing Internet of today. It is an artists work- there was no such thing as color photography in the period. Someone felt the need to make it "real" by coloring it. It still isn't as vivid or jarring as the video games of today, and that is the point. Look at what we require to get our collective attention these days.

Where are we as a culture that this should be the case?

There are a series of these photos taken from Passchendaele (or the Third Battle of Yper). Goddamned miserable nasty awful slog that consumed men by the hundred thousands. It was a battle with a fools plan (maybe you can relate a little), and lasted longer than even a cynic would have expected (again- familiar?). All the Yper campaigns there considered, there could be the blood of over a million young men in that field, and that's not good enough. It's not usually taught, so no one from public schools have heard of it, and it's not grotesque enough to captivate the blood lust of today's youth. Meanwhile the Army makes video games that teach and de-sensitize killing. I'm worried for my children and disappointed in (and increasingly afraid of) my fellow countrymen.

Update- I stand corrected on the existence of color photography in the WWI era. Thanks Hammer!