Here in the Philippines today is
a national day of prayer for peace. We, along with the whole school, stopped
lessons at 11.00am to pray the rosary for peace. It was not just a two minute
pause, everyone stopped for twenty minutes of prayer.
11th November has no
historical significance for the Philippines. The First World War was a very
European war fought a long way away. The Second World War was, of course, very
different. The Philippines lost 800’000 lives, of which 750’000 were civilians.
Today (11th November)
is not a day on which soldiers are honoured or remembered, it is simply a day
of marking the cost of war, of mourning, and of longing for peace.
This of course contrasts with the
UK. Over recent years (in the UK) the 11th November has drifted from
being a day on which we lament the cost of war and pray for peace towards being
a day on which we celebrate our military in a very partisan way. Wearing
Poppies has subtly become understood as supporting our soldiers at war rather than remembering all the victims
of war regardless of political allegiance. Unquestioning support of the
military is now main-stream, to criticise soldiers has become a form of heresy.
(If you take offense at me expressing this opinion then that illustrates
exactly my point)
All of this is nothing new, in
the 1930s there were significant numbers of First World War veterans who felt
that their experience, and the deaths of their comrades, were being used as a
justification for future uses of violence. These men rejected attempts to give
retro-active meaning to their (as they saw them) pointless military
experiences, or to the (as they saw it) pointless death of their fellow
soldiers, and spoke against a cheap military jingoism which was beginning to grow
amongst a younger generation who hadn’t experienced the horrors of the Somme or
Paschendaele.
Today’s time of prayer for peace
has been quite eye-opening. It has allowed me to see a different, perhaps more
life-giving, way of marking Remembrance Day.
A day to free ourselves from the partisanship of only mourning our own
dead; a day to rid ourselves of the immediate assumption that what is ‘us’ is
always righteous; a day to be very cautious in declaring any war worth the
price; a day to question ourselves as to the ways in which we can be builders
of peace; and above all a day to let the indescribable pain of war overwhelm us
and in the midst of this pain to allow ourselves to be inspired to change.
If you
could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie;
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie;
Dulce et
Decorum est Pro patria mori.
I think this a very good and challenging post. I share your unease at the the way wearing a poppy is being subtly being associated with supporting current military action. We have much to learn from the Philippines, but I fear our feelings of superiority with respect to others will get in the way.
ReplyDeleteThis is certainly thought provoking,but I might dispute the assumption that we are all, collectively, only remembering and "glorifying" our own British war dead and somehow the implication that we therefore endorse and justify recent and future wars. Individuals surely have their own personal, private take on Remembrance Day and what it signifies and makes them feel about war, suffering, loss and mourning?
ReplyDeleteI am not suggesting that everyone who marks Remembrance Day is by doing so implicitly supporting current British Military Action around the world. I apologise if I gave this impression.
ReplyDeleteThe post refers my perception of a social trend in the UK. I believe that the attitude to Remembrance Day has over the last decade moved away from a focus on remembering the dead of all wars to being focussed more specifically on British Military deaths. This perception is based on media coverage, facebook comments, twitter tweets, newspaper coverage, private conversations and countless other social interactions experienced over recent times. Things certainly seem very different from how they did a decade ago. As with any social trend there is a spectrum of thoughts and ideas there will always be people who fall, to differing extents, outside of the dominant trend of the present day.
As with any perception what I have written is an honestly expressed opinion. There is never any objective truth concerning these matters, only a variety of opinions. Far too often opinions are expressed as truths and to be silent in the face of this is a form of acquiescence. If I have fallen into either trap I once again apologise.
Absolutely no need to apologise - it set me thinking which is a "Good Thing"! Perhaps I am rather naive or have had my head somewhat buried in the sand. Certainly the media coverage this weekend lends some support to your theory. (Guardian quote from Cameron: From the trenches of the first world war to the deserts of Afghanistan our armed forces have proved they are the bravest of the brave and the very best of what it means to be British".)
ReplyDeleteYour post did prompt me to listen to a programme on radio 4 last night (Saturday 8pm) which traced the history of "Remembrance Day"; well worth a listen.
However, I still think the "silence" is more widely observed now than at any time I can recall since my school days (mid 195os / mid 1960s). The supermarket I was in came to an absolute standstill. Even if only a small percentage of people are reflecting on the futility of war then perhaps that is a hopeful sign. We just need the media to reflect that sentiment as well.
A very interesting post. I agree with your analysis - I think there's even a sense that people with white poppies are deserving of criticism...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ppu.org.uk/whitepoppy/white_trouble1.html
I've been thinking about this topic for a while, and I agree with you Matthew (for once! ;-)) I'm disturbed by the increasing focus on the military, and also by the acceptance of many Christians that soldiers are by definition heroes. I agree with Barbara that I think more people are respecting the 2min silence now, but are we praying for peace and mourning the cost of war during that silence - or are we silently giving support to war? I read an article recently - I think it was in the Tablet - which observed that one of the things the Nazis liked to do was take Christ off the cross by removing the crucifixes and replacing them with Christ as a soldier with a sword. What kind of Christianity are we endorsing, I wonder?
ReplyDeleteDuring the recent controversy concerning footballers wearing poppies on their shirts (or not) it was interesting to hear a BBC journalist ask one of the footballers if they felt proud to wear a poppy. That struck me as a strange question to ask, proud isn't really the right word, it implies a kind of celebration. I think that it is very important to remember, wearing Poppies very much has a place but something to take pride in, not really.
ReplyDeleteThe use of the word pride suggests a value judgement, that to remember is necessarily to agree with. If one understands remembrance in this way then it is completely political, exactly what all and sundry were telling FIFA it wasn't.
I think it is wrong to assume that everyone who chooses to remember also by doing so chooses to agree with.