What is the 20th Century?
The Great Misfortune of the 20th century was the 19th’s willfulness to persist and never end; the concentrated will power to prolong the life of the 19th century has kept it alive and, at times, strong. This will power, the antithesis to Nietzsche’s will to power, was not the driving force for life to move, grow, and change, but an effort to live forever. The 1888 Conference of Berlin symbolized European willfulness when it divided Africa into artificial territories convenient for modern Europe but dooming Africa to a modern nation-state configuration. This apotheosis of European imperialism (along with the French in Indo-China, English in India and Burma, and the Dutch in the East Indies) essentially accomplished two things: 1) the exploitation of resources to keep the 19th century alive with industry & invention & science & wealth (the trumpeted “potential” of the Internet has become an extension of this mentality); 2) exciting nationalisms and rivalries. But these developments also
