Audio Transcript Auto-generated
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the continuous war,
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the age of war never seems to seize since the beginning of time.
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Humans seem to always find some reason to battle and fight.
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Whether it's the ancient romans dueling in the
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colosseum or medieval knights jousting atop horses.
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Battles were always prevalent in many different cultures throughout history.
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The author thomas Hardy got to experience the build up of the first Worldwide War,
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World War One
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with the world on the brink of war.
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This influenced many of Hardy's literary pieces through the two poems,
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drummer Hodge and Channel firing thomas Hardy tells readers how he feels
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about war and anticipates what the future is going to be like.
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To summarize the two poems, drummer Hodge and channel firing.
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Drummer Hodge describes the fate of a young soldier, drummer Hodge,
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who goes out to fight against the Bowers in South Africa and then dies in some battle.
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He was hastily buried by his fellow soldiers.
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Channel firing depicts a graveyard being disrupted by
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the sounds of warships firing out at sea.
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To give some historical context to drummer Hodge and channel firing.
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The two poems were written 1899 and 1914 respectively.
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The primary influence on these poems was World War I, which began in 1914.
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World War One pitted many of the central powers of the world against each other.
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There are around 40 million casualties worldwide,
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many of whom were young men who were enlisted
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and never actually knew what they were fighting for.
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This left the entire world in the state of anger and confusion
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Thomas Hardy believed that more and more war wars
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like World War I would inevitably occur throughout history because
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all nations strive strong to make red war redder
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hardy was almost instantaneously proven correct in his assumptions.
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As World War II quickly ensued.
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Only 20 years after World War I and 10 years after the death of the author.
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Mhm.
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Over 100 years later, Thomas Hardy's predictions still ring true in society.
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In late February of 2020 to Russia's
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President Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine with
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the ultimate goal of overthrowing Ukraine's government and
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claiming the land as part of Russia.
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This invasion lets the fear of a possible world war.
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If Putin's invasion spilled over into neighboring NATO countries,
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NATO,
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a military alliance between 30 countries says that the 30
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countries will band together if a country outside of NATO
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decides to attack a country. In the alliance,
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Russia is not a part of the NATO alliance, but Poland Romania,
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Slovakia and Hungary are all in neighboring countries
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to Ukraine that are part of the alliance.
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So if Putin were to cross over the country lines
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with the intent of invading any of these neighboring countries,
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it was decided amongst the NATO countries that they would go to war against Russia
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with this World War three became a legitimate fear in civilians around the world as
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they all watched as Russian planes began dropping
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bombs on Ukraine and sending in their soldiers
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the Russian invasion not only affected europe,
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but also other countries like the United States.
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When President joe biden
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made the decision to cut off one of Russia's biggest exports oil to the U. S.
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It was a critical step taken to punish Putin for invading Ukraine.
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It severely crippled the revenue going to Moscow but consequently
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raised gas prices to record highs around the country and
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left americans in other countries reaping the detrimental effects of
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the Ukraine war,
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thomas Hardy's message in many of his poems was that war is just
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what humans are going to do and they will continue to do it.
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Over the course of history.
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His poems,
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drummer hodge internal firing spoke of past soldiers in their experiences with war
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thomas hardy told the dead soldiers and
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channel firing that war was going to continue
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in the future and that the world has not learned from their past efforts.
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His assumptions were correct.
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As many wars have occurred since the poems have been written.
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The Ukraine war reflects the messages in
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the poems as another world. War almost broke out
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thomas hardy voices, opinion through the poems,
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drummer hodge and channel firing In these.
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He acknowledged that war was going to be prevalent in the world throughout history.
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He believed that these wars were senseless and almost pointless to society.
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He almost felt bad for those soldiers that came before
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because the world has yet to progress from violence.
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His assumptions about war were proven correct time and time again and now,
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even 100 years later,
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we have yet to learn from the past as war continues on in the world.
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The recent Ukraine War proves many of Hardy's points about
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war as it almost turned into a Third World war.
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The only thing we can do to counteract Hardy's prediction is
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to learn from the past and choose peace over violence.