In Memoriam....

Sunday, November 11. 2012

How best to mark Remembrance Day?

Having just watched the ceremony on the BBC, it occurred to me that the "Great and the Good" who were giving the eulogies and laying the wreaths were exactly the same sort of "Great and the Good" who sent the young men (and these days women) to die, and it then occurred to me that this was a sort of official ceremonial whitewash of their past sins. Maybe a lot more of the people who actually fought, and a lot less of the Great and the Good should be present?

And maybe a bit more of Siegfried Sassoon and "Dulce et Decorum est" and a bit less on the honour, glory etc etc....

Reminds me of Erich Maria Remarque's book "All Quiet on the Western Front" where the soldiers decide that in future all politicians who want to start a war have to enter a bullring and fight each other, rather than sending young men to fight. Or at least be on the front lines, as the Ancient Greeks demanded.

Posted by Alan Patrick in Odds and Sods at 11:11 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

2429 hits

< Election Punditry and other Fact Free Analysis | Of Social Media, Truth, and BBC Scapegoating >

Trackbacks

Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments

Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

No comments

Add Comment

Name
Email
Homepage
In reply to
Comment	Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (word), underscore are made via _word_. Standard emoticons like :-) and ;-) are converted to images. E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications. To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly. Enter the string from the spam-prevention image above:
	Remember Information? Subscribe to this entry