The Blame Game

Like many other fans of Bulldawg Nation, I really liked our chances going into last year's football season. We had so many things seemingly going in our favor; good offense, solid coaching staff, and the media "experts" ranking us @ #1 in the preseason rankings. I must say I bought into the hype... looking back I must admit I believed it too much. When I saw the cover of Sports Illustrated for example, I decieved myself and chose to buy into what "society" was selling. Well, the "experts" were very wrong. We ended up a very less than stellar 10-3 team that had way too many defects. Who's to blame for last year? The players? I do not think so. The Coaches? Probably not. I believe that the fan base, who too eagerly bought into the hoopla, was to blame. In this same way, the German people bought into the hype of German conquest and annexationism, which in turn fueled this German drive to fight a war with (nearly all of)Europe, ultimately an unsuccessful one in the end. Just like last season's UGA Football team the same question arises: Who is to blame? In the article "Germany and the Origins of the First World War," David Kaiser blames Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg and his eagerness to buy into the hype of expansionism for the glory of Germany. I disagree with Kaiser. I believe that the blame for Germany's entry into WWI and subsequent failures falls onto the shoulders of "Society" and to an extent Bismarck's fault as well. Whether it was King Wilhelm II or it was the paper boy on the street-corner, nearly every single individual in Germany bought into this idea that they had to fight an upcoming war against their European foes. This misplaced sentiment was then what the Chancellor unwittingly drew upon to make decisions; he bought into the hype too. In the end however, part of the blame also falls on Bismarck because he created a system of governance that was far too complicated and difficult to manage for those who came after him to handle. If he had made a less rigorous form of goverment for Germany, perhaps domestic and political tensions would have been able to be corrected, thus not creating a false belief that a European conflict was unavoidable sometime in the near future. Perhaps like those German soldiers who sorrowfully trodded home after their WWI defeat, dawg fans have no one to blame but themselves for setting the bar too high and then having to deal with the bitter thought of what might have been.