..because it celebrates death by concentrating on a single act in a persons life.."
Once again it is that time of year when one cannot walk down a high street or turn on the TV without having the Red Poppy waved in ones' face. This celebration of death has sadly taken hold again in recent years after it all but died out, that it comes at a time when the UK State is again involved in military adventures abroad is no accident.I was a child when veterans of WW1 were still thick on the ground, my own grandfather one of them. Unlike WW2 veterans and their war, I never heard a single one of them say WW1 was worth a single grenadiers life, nor there being anything honorable about being slaughtered like helpless lemmings. Indeed their attitude seemed to be much like those who have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, fuck king and country, we fight for each other and them we go home.
My own Granddad who was not political, he regarded all politicians as shysters and from what I could gather his thoughts about WW1 were those of hatred, contempt and bitterness and not for the Germans and Turks he had fought.
One bitter cold winter afternoon when he was ploughing a field, and I clung to the mud guard of the Massey Ferguson tractor with which he hauled the plough, he told me he had never attended a remembrance day and never would, as he had no wish to be in the company of the types who sent him and his mates to fight in a senseless war, to kill blokes much like himself who he had no argument with.
One of the good things about the Irish is their tradition of in death celebrating peoples lives, poppy day is a monstrosity because it does the exact opposite and celebrates death, all be it dressed up in the same type of jingoistic language which lead to the slaughter of a whole generation during WW1. It is ghoulish in the same way as the English death town of Wotton, highlighted and partially manufactured by the very State which stole the lives of the young men who fought in WW1.
I have no wish to insult peoples' beliefs, but I would say celebrating the deaths of countless young people whilst the UK State is currently involved in a similar useless war, is playing a very dangerous game, as it cannot but encourage the war mongers that govern the UK.
Those who support the Royal British Legion's poppy day keep using word’s like 'sacrifice,' and 'our boys,' if they also mentioned the futility and obscenity of most of the wars the UK State has been involved in, I might understand them, but they do not. What was the point of WW1, beyond the elite of the great powers fighting over new markets, etc. The European great powers set the peoples of one nation against another using the most flimsy pretext and then used the most obscene propaganda to instill hatred. Now who does that remind me of?
This word sacrifice is used in this context as some sort of noble act, perhaps someone could explain to me what was noble about going over the top at the Somme like lemmings to the slaughter. Please do not misunderstand me, by saying this I mean no insult to the dead of that war, lions led by donkeys is a just description of these poor souls.
There is an element of blooding in the manner the MSM and the politicians it serves use Poppy Day. If you refuse to agree with the blood sacrifice of countless young people in unesesary wars it is implied you are not only being disloyal but are also insulting the young people who have had their lives stolen in the UK’s military adventures.
Whenever these reactionaries begin to loose the argument, they wheel out WW2, true it was a nesessary war, one of the few the UK State has ever engaged in, but even then it came about due to the crass stupidity of those who led the UK after the end of WW1, when they refused to sign a just peace with Germany, prefering to grind the German people into the ground.
Whilst I respect the reasons given by some for wearing the red poppy, especially if they have lost loved ones whilst serving in the UK numerous military conflicts, I feel we need a better and more inclusive way of commemorating ‘all those’ who lost their lives in wars, as things stand we have a hierarchy of victims headed by and including only the dead of theUK armed forces.
To understand the depth of how powerful elements within the UK use the poppy to make a political statement about current events should take note of the following. Given the history of the North of Ireland, where the poppy is seen by the nationalist population as a sectarian symbol, one would have thought wiser heads within the police force there and the politicos at Stormont would have suggested that an impartial police force, as the PSNI claims to be these days, should avoid wearing poppies in catholic, nationalist and republican areas, not least because they evoke memories of the despised RUC officer, machine gun in one hand, baton in the other, poppy on the helmet.
Apparently not, it seems those within the force and at Stormont who support the wearing of the poppy on the PSNI uniform won that argument. In West Belfast, this resulted in police officers patrolling the streets, where their welcome remains tentative to say the least; with the poppy on show, two weeks before the official appeal kicks off. *
Myself I will remember the unnecessary slaughter and maiming of generations of young people in the UK’s military incursions by joining the Stop The War Afghanistan: Time to Go; national demonstration in London on November 20th.
Although you would not know it by watching, listening, and reading the MSM, like my granddad, many former servicemen and women feel very uncomfortable with poppy day, especially the way it is celebrated these days. In the letter below a group of them point out,
“A day that should be about peace and remembrance is turned into a month-long drum roll of support for current wars.”
Read the full letter below.
* More here.
Dear Editor
The Poppy Appeal is once again subverting Armistice Day. A day that should be about peace and remembrance is turned into a month-long drum roll of support for current wars. This year's campaign has been launched with showbiz hype. The true horror and futility of war is forgotten and ignored.
The public are being urged to wear a poppy in support of "our Heroes". There is nothing heroic about being blown up in a vehicle. There is nothing heroic about being shot in an ambush and there is nothing heroic about fighting in an unnecessary conflict.
Remembrance should be marked with the sentiment "Never Again".
Ben Griffin (Northern Ireland, Macedonia, Afghanistan, Iraq)
Ben Hayden (Northern Ireland, Macedonia, Afghanistan, Iraq)
Terry Wood (Northern Ireland, Falklands)
Ken Lukowiak (Northern Ireland, Falklands)
Neil Polley (Falklands)
Steve Pratt (Dhofar, Northern Ireland)* More here.
www.organizedrage.com/2010/11/poppy-day-is-monstrosity-because-it.html
http://theangrycheese.blogspot.com/2008/10/poppy-day-paradox.html
http://theangrycheese.blogspot.com/2010/09/sir-peter-tapsell-is-he-liar-is-he.html