Remembrance Day - Lest we forget the stupidity of war.

[imogen_blue]

11th day 11th month 11th hour.
The signing of the armistice.

I go to the service for all the lost horses and dogs that died in WW1. There were hundreds of thousands. 80,000 horses went over from Australia alone, none returned.

I don't go for the soldiers.

The cult of soldiers-are-heroes that has infected society these days revolts me. You're not a hero until you have done something heroic. Going to war because it is a career or a lark or you were offered that or prison doesn't make you a hero. Particularly when it's on the whim of a government that should know better. Every month there's a new rape or violence case at our defence academies. These are the people we're sending out to warzones to protect women and children at risk, the ones no-one is watching out for. How do humans behave when they think they can get away with something, anything, everything? Ignore the propaganda and give kudos where it's due. No-one is automatically a hero. Being a hero is special - these people are the better part of humanity and what we should all be aiming for. That achievement should never be dimished by any propaganda.

Comments

[imogen-blue.livejournal.com]

As a history teacher I cannot respect any of it. I know too much of the truth. I've read war records, copies of letters. I've waded through the national archives. I've read personal accounts of the men who returned from these wars, they didn't consider it a sacrifice, they considered it a farce. They thought they were betrayed.

The returning soldiers suicide rate is increasing daily. The glorification of war and their 'sacrifice' is a big part of that. They leave letters for their families, telling them the truth of what has happened, even now in the Middle East and so many of them say it's because the families wouldn't listen when they were alive. That they kept banging out on how they were heroes.

It's easier to live in this world if you forget the past & accept the propaganda of the moment. Which most people have done. 'Lest We Forget' isn't about what happened anymore, it's about how the government and advertising has glorified war.

[imogen-blue.livejournal.com]

fiction
The Regeneration Trilogy by Pat Barker
(this is very well researched, but don't read it when you're feeling depressed.)

non-fiction
World War 1 - A History in 100 Stories by Scates, Wheatley & James

The Western Front Diaries by King

This first book is okay, but it's very hard to find books where they haven't picked over the letters and diaries to find the bravest and most heroic extracts. the second book by King is mostly about the Australians who got the VC. But they're still good to read as long as you realise they'll try to be positive & uplifting about the people at war. They won't publish anything that makes Australians look bad.

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/awm4/
War Diaries & Intelligence summaries

http://ww1.sl.nsw.gov.au/diaries
More diaries.

The National Archives have original diaries, letters, military papers.

This is just WW1. There's so much information out there, it's such a slog to work through it all though. A lot of the books are romanticised or biased, which is why I prefer the letters and diaries. But, it's really interesting & so different from what we're told. It makes me very sad for everyone over the last 100 years of war and makes me wonder what lies we're being told today. In another 100 years will people look back at us and wonder how we could be so oblivious to reality?

[imogen-blue.livejournal.com]

It is very depressing, don't read any of it if you're feeling down.

What we learned in school was just one step up from Horrible Histories. It resembles the reality, but with a lot left out and much dramatisation. Kind of like the ABC program "Small Hands in a Big War" - children doing heroic things during WW1 that show you the war, but couldn't possibly have happened. But we only realise it as adults. It's not fair really. I'd rather have the truth.

[sidhe-uaine42.livejournal.com]

I also remember the poor ship's cats as well as the collateral felines that lost their lives due to human bollocks. Hell, there was one feline who pretty much kept his shipmates alive/well while they made their way between Mainland China and Taiwan only to perish on his way to/waiting for admission to England.

[imogen-blue.livejournal.com]

That is so sad. =( I didn't know about the cats.

[sidhe-uaine42.livejournal.com]

There were several cats that ended up being on the wrong end of human bollocks. Simon, the one from the infamous skirmish on the Yangtze River that I mentioned, succumbed to an infection.

Another rather famous cat, Mrs. Chippy, was the ship's cat on board the Endurance (yes, Shackleton's Endurance.) Shackleton ordered his crew to shoot Mrs. Chippy as well as the sled dogs after they had abandoned ship (the ship got caught in the ice surrounding Antarctica, ending up splintered and/or sunk from the massive ice.) Personally, I would have shot Shackleton for being such an inept jerk but that's my humble opinion.

There are/were hundreds more felines that went to sea, including one on the Titanic on its maiden voyage (there's debate about whether she was saved or if she went down with the ship.)

[imogen-blue.livejournal.com]

I would have shot Shackleton too. What an utter moron/monster/grrrrr.

Humans are so good at using and discarding. =(