“Vorticist Manifesto Long Live the Vortex”

If find this peace so interesting because it attacks and defends what makes everything, everything. To put it another way it attacks and defends the essence of each nation. The part of this manifesto that truly gets me is “mercenaries were always the best troops” (1093). I distinctly remember reading Machiavelli’s The Prince and the discussion of why princes should never use mercenaries. The main reason is that mercenaries are for hire and therefore do not have loyalty to the land. Yet here there seems to be an opposite effect. Another part of this piece that I find to be interesting is the defense of art. The manifesto makes it out that art is what almost truly defines a nation and by extension England due to much of the original thought originating from there. Because of this there is a sense of elitism that is brought forward from the English over the likes of the French, Latins, and to an extent Americans. This elitism is what drives the first part of the era. Before World War One there was a massive arms race over battle ships due to a history book written by Alfred Mahan. The idea was that for a nation to be powerful it must have a strong navy. This lead to the Washington Arms treaty but the ground work was set over the elitist ideals that would dominate this era. This is why after the Great War there is a rise of fascism and nationalism. In many ways this manifesto captures the ideas of many nations and their belief that they are the true rulers and holders of power throughout the world. I truly like how forward this piece is.