Remembrance Day
It has been a few years since I have attended a full Remembrance Day parade. This year our children were participating in the parade as part of there extra-curricular activities, so we went with them to the local Parish Church. Which, is incredibly local to us.
Both of them didn't seem to mind the autumnal cold that accompanied the parade marchers from the church to the war memorial. It is only a few hundred metres away, but it was a little like a wind tunnel today.
They, our children, aren't particularly old so they don't have the sense or understanding of what all of today means. Over time I am sure they will be fed the usual stories at school. Our history curriculum, if like mine, will feed them full of WWI and WWII history. The English obsession; our military prowess in the 20th Century, to the detriment of our other incredibly rich periods that can easily be chosen from.
However, the 20th century has been a horrific hundred years for the world, and remembrance is incredibly important to prevent the mass killing of humanity we seem, as humans, to be especially fond of to further the political aims of kings and nationalists. It just so happens we have found an industrial way of decimating people.
As you can see from the figures below.
123 million people dead from conflict. 41 million victims of genocide & mass murder. 37 million military deaths. 18 million dead from conflict-related famine. As they grow older they will begin to see and understand the above. Hopefully they will also become persuaded that needless death through war is something that we must turn away from. I do have to say that judging by some of the very basic incompetent's that hold political power I may be over optimistic.
Though for today. They seemed to enjoy being a part of this collective introspection. The secret will be to maintain this contemplative aspect, and not be subsumed by the jingoistic, neo-patriotism that can swiftly build up around such things. This is, after all, very much the cause reason we have remembrance days.
Dolce et Decorum est pro patria mori.
Both of them didn't seem to mind the autumnal cold that accompanied the parade marchers from the church to the war memorial. It is only a few hundred metres away, but it was a little like a wind tunnel today.
They, our children, aren't particularly old so they don't have the sense or understanding of what all of today means. Over time I am sure they will be fed the usual stories at school. Our history curriculum, if like mine, will feed them full of WWI and WWII history. The English obsession; our military prowess in the 20th Century, to the detriment of our other incredibly rich periods that can easily be chosen from.
However, the 20th century has been a horrific hundred years for the world, and remembrance is incredibly important to prevent the mass killing of humanity we seem, as humans, to be especially fond of to further the political aims of kings and nationalists. It just so happens we have found an industrial way of decimating people.
As you can see from the figures below.
123 million people dead from conflict. 41 million victims of genocide & mass murder. 37 million military deaths. 18 million dead from conflict-related famine. As they grow older they will begin to see and understand the above. Hopefully they will also become persuaded that needless death through war is something that we must turn away from. I do have to say that judging by some of the very basic incompetent's that hold political power I may be over optimistic.
Though for today. They seemed to enjoy being a part of this collective introspection. The secret will be to maintain this contemplative aspect, and not be subsumed by the jingoistic, neo-patriotism that can swiftly build up around such things. This is, after all, very much the cause reason we have remembrance days.
Dolce et Decorum est pro patria mori.
Comments