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imogen_blue11th 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.
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no subject
Date: 2015-11-12 12:45 am (UTC)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.