My source of deeply scary and chilling things is German and French authors from the interwar period (twenties and early thirties). The state of mind at the time was essentially optimistic. "After the great war, and the advent of large-scale international commerce, another war is simply unthinkable." "English and French students go to spend the summer in beautiful Germany and vice-versa; everybody has actual friends all around Europe." "Modern armies are so powerful that nobody in their right mind would ever think of them fighting for the currently well-delimited pieces of land in western Europe." "Moreover, why would you go to kill people in the neighboring country which is full of friends of yours?" "We are in 1930, not in 1910 where countries were so isolated." "Each country depends essentially in products produced by other countries, any war would be a net loss for everybody so it won't happen." You can read thousands of pages of such drivel, which is chillingly similar to what you can read today. More chillingly, you will realize that the exact same zeitgeist happened at the turn of the century, way before the great war.
There's lots of writings on the subject. The most out-worldly chilling stuff I've read is still Écrits sur l'Allemagne by a young french philosopher Simone Weil (sister of celebrated mathematician André Weil), describing her experiences in Germany in 1932-1933. Basically, she says that shit has already shit the fan and that it is already too late to avoid major conflict in Germany. Notice that, at that moment, many German jewish scientists like Einstein were still working in Germany. She expresses her dismay that modern citizens of Europe are so confident in permanent peace that they have forgotten the lessons of the previous century. Incidentally, a few years later she joined the International Brigades (alongside George Orwell) to fight the fascist uprising in Spain.
I agree that, overall, modern life is much better, especially thanks to our knowledge in biology and medicine. The human victories against smallpox, polio, etc. are major things to be proud of. Technology is a double-sided sword, but undoubtedly has had a positive influence. But we have not yet "grokked" history, and we seem set up to repeat the errors of the past, and this is sad.
There's lots of writings on the subject. The most out-worldly chilling stuff I've read is still Écrits sur l'Allemagne by a young french philosopher Simone Weil (sister of celebrated mathematician André Weil), describing her experiences in Germany in 1932-1933. Basically, she says that shit has already shit the fan and that it is already too late to avoid major conflict in Germany. Notice that, at that moment, many German jewish scientists like Einstein were still working in Germany. She expresses her dismay that modern citizens of Europe are so confident in permanent peace that they have forgotten the lessons of the previous century. Incidentally, a few years later she joined the International Brigades (alongside George Orwell) to fight the fascist uprising in Spain.
I agree that, overall, modern life is much better, especially thanks to our knowledge in biology and medicine. The human victories against smallpox, polio, etc. are major things to be proud of. Technology is a double-sided sword, but undoubtedly has had a positive influence. But we have not yet "grokked" history, and we seem set up to repeat the errors of the past, and this is sad.