Everything They Were Told was a Lie, and That Made Everyone Question the World

World War I was known to many as the "Big Lie" because there appeared to be no real enemy to the soldiers fighting it. When soldiers looked to the men they were shooting at they saw a version of themselves. To them the 'enemy' was a bit of propoganda put out by the press. Everything they were told about war, that is was glorious and great, was all a lie. It was horrendous, and lead to people questioning what was true, and what was right.

After the Great War, the world was given a big slice of humble pie. Beforehand everyone thought they were very civilized and that they could work through anything without war. The sheer destruction and volume of death from WWI shattered that. For the soldiers who lived through this war with advanced technology and old ideals there world would never be the same.


Paul Valery wrote:

"Everything came to Europe," he wrote, "and everything came from it. Or almost everything."

"-- until recently."


People began to rethink the world and the way it worked and after WWI there were major leaps in Science, Phsycology, and changes in Art and Architecture. During this time Einstein came up with the theory of relativity. Freud put out the idea that the subconsious controls more than the concious mind, and new philosphies of life were put out. Ideas that there was no purpose to life, which threatened the foundations of religion. In literature and art there was a negative twist. Art no longer had to be pretty, and writing didn't need to be flowery. All of this was a result of the end of WWI.