imogen_blue (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
imogen_blue) wrote2015-11-12 07:50 am
imogen_blue) wrote2015-11-12 07:50 am
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Remembrance Day - Lest we forget the stupidity of war.
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.
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.
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.