I think it was more complicated than that. Most people have a blindspot about where they are from. How many Americans can’t see the faults of their country’s foreign policies? Also, people’s awareness of what their government was doing and why was much lower back then, even among intellectuals like Scheler. We are spoiled by the mass media we have today into thinking everyone always had such political awareness as we have access to today.,

It’s worth pointing out that Scheler wrote Ressentment shortly before the war and by the end of the war, had lost his naive support of the war. I can’t fault someone for being duped, only if they choose to remain duped when contrary evidence is presented.