Thoughts on Remembrance Day
I've seen such a wide variety of comments on Remembrance Day (and/or the various other names it's called by in other countries) on my Facebook feed today. Some are moving, some are thought-provoking, and some are -- well, varying degrees of saddening, and not necessarily in any way their posters intended.
I've always felt conflicted about Remembrance Day. Part of me wants to honour it and part of me feels like there really is an aspect of it that glorifies war in a very unhealthy way. I can't in good conscience echo the oft-repeated sentiments about people who "gave their lives to protect our freedoms" and other similar statements, because that's not what all wars are about. Often, war has more to do with aggression than protection. In particular, for people in the US and Canada, most of the wars we've been involved in have been overseas - sometimes protecting (or restoring) other people's freedoms, sometimes taking them away in the interests of gaining access to resources or political power. Sometimes both.
And yet, I also can't in good conscience join with the people attacking the whole concept of Remembrance Day as a glorification of war and dismissing the idea of people giving their lives in a worthy cause as being purely political propaganda - because sometimes, you really do have to fight. There are people in my family who grew up in Nazi-occupied Holland during WWII, and to make a blanket statement that war is never justified would be to disrespect those who fought in the resistance, and the Canadian soldiers who ultimately liberated Holland (and their equivalents in many other similar conflicts). I've known many people who take a hardline anti-war stance, and I have yet to hear from any of them any convincing suggestion as to how else a situation like that could have been dealt with.
War CAN be about resistance to tyranny and oppression - and it can also be about creating or perpetuating those things. Individual soldiers can be heroes - and they can also be monsters, or simply victims. Sometimes all of these things, in different situations or from different perspectives. As I've commented elsewhere (in many places, really), reality is messy and complicated, and simplistic black-and-white judgments rarely do justice to it. A social phenomenon as complex as war can't be reduced to one simple meaning, positive or negative, and neither can the lives of the people who've fought and died in it.
And there's no simple or easy way to express that, to indicate with a simple pin, icon or any other symbol an acknowledgment of that complexity, or a desire to balance both sides, to respect the people who've died in wars both just and unjust while still working for a world where maybe someday that won't be necessary any more.
Some people have adopted the alternative symbol of a white poppy for peace, while other people seem to find that disrespectful to the dead, for reasons I can't really fathom. I am not sure how wishing for peace disrespects those who've died in wars - in my experience, sometimes the people who've fought in wars, or at least lived through them, are more aware than anyone of its horror. And yet, while I've seen some people on my FB feed wishing they knew where to get white poppies, I've seen others threatening to get violent if they see anyone wearing one, which frankly appalls me.
It seems like both poppies are heavily problematic symbols right now. The traditional red poppy can be seen as a sincere token of respect for the war dead - or as a sign of uncritical acceptance of jingoistic patriotism and the misleading portrayal of war, all war, as something noble and heroic. The white poppy can be seen a sincere expression of desire for peace - or, apparently, as a dismissal of the idea that there is ever anything worth fighting for, or that the deaths of those who've fallen in war have any meaning.
And honestly, I'm not comfortable wearing either one as long as they're that subject to misinterpretation. I don't want to be seen as making any statement I'm not actually making. So no poppy for me, red or white, on my coat or on my Facebook profile, until such time as I feel like I can put one there without risking being seen as buying into one package of dogma or another that I don't actually support. People who want to know my opinions on war in general or Remembrance Day in particular will have to actually talk to me, or at least read this.
Instead, I'll honour the dead my own way... by remembering, and by (as northbard posted earlier today) telling the government to back up its words about respect for those who've fought in wars with actual action in support of veterans, and by trying - not just today but every day - to make a better world, one in which maybe someday war will be a thing of the past.
And also by urging all my friends, online and off, not to judge someone by whether they're wearing a red poppy, a white one, both, or neither. There are a multiplicity of reasons someone could choose any of these, and you don't know what that person's reasons are, unless you ask. The tendency to automatically assume the worst of other people, or define them as "other" based on a simple symbol or the lack thereof, is one of the reasons we're still fighting wars, and if we ever want to see an end to that, taking the time to reach out to someone else, even someone you disagree with, listen to them, and try to understand them is one small step any of us can take in the very long journey to a better world.
I've always felt conflicted about Remembrance Day. Part of me wants to honour it and part of me feels like there really is an aspect of it that glorifies war in a very unhealthy way. I can't in good conscience echo the oft-repeated sentiments about people who "gave their lives to protect our freedoms" and other similar statements, because that's not what all wars are about. Often, war has more to do with aggression than protection. In particular, for people in the US and Canada, most of the wars we've been involved in have been overseas - sometimes protecting (or restoring) other people's freedoms, sometimes taking them away in the interests of gaining access to resources or political power. Sometimes both.
And yet, I also can't in good conscience join with the people attacking the whole concept of Remembrance Day as a glorification of war and dismissing the idea of people giving their lives in a worthy cause as being purely political propaganda - because sometimes, you really do have to fight. There are people in my family who grew up in Nazi-occupied Holland during WWII, and to make a blanket statement that war is never justified would be to disrespect those who fought in the resistance, and the Canadian soldiers who ultimately liberated Holland (and their equivalents in many other similar conflicts). I've known many people who take a hardline anti-war stance, and I have yet to hear from any of them any convincing suggestion as to how else a situation like that could have been dealt with.
War CAN be about resistance to tyranny and oppression - and it can also be about creating or perpetuating those things. Individual soldiers can be heroes - and they can also be monsters, or simply victims. Sometimes all of these things, in different situations or from different perspectives. As I've commented elsewhere (in many places, really), reality is messy and complicated, and simplistic black-and-white judgments rarely do justice to it. A social phenomenon as complex as war can't be reduced to one simple meaning, positive or negative, and neither can the lives of the people who've fought and died in it.
And there's no simple or easy way to express that, to indicate with a simple pin, icon or any other symbol an acknowledgment of that complexity, or a desire to balance both sides, to respect the people who've died in wars both just and unjust while still working for a world where maybe someday that won't be necessary any more.
Some people have adopted the alternative symbol of a white poppy for peace, while other people seem to find that disrespectful to the dead, for reasons I can't really fathom. I am not sure how wishing for peace disrespects those who've died in wars - in my experience, sometimes the people who've fought in wars, or at least lived through them, are more aware than anyone of its horror. And yet, while I've seen some people on my FB feed wishing they knew where to get white poppies, I've seen others threatening to get violent if they see anyone wearing one, which frankly appalls me.
It seems like both poppies are heavily problematic symbols right now. The traditional red poppy can be seen as a sincere token of respect for the war dead - or as a sign of uncritical acceptance of jingoistic patriotism and the misleading portrayal of war, all war, as something noble and heroic. The white poppy can be seen a sincere expression of desire for peace - or, apparently, as a dismissal of the idea that there is ever anything worth fighting for, or that the deaths of those who've fallen in war have any meaning.
And honestly, I'm not comfortable wearing either one as long as they're that subject to misinterpretation. I don't want to be seen as making any statement I'm not actually making. So no poppy for me, red or white, on my coat or on my Facebook profile, until such time as I feel like I can put one there without risking being seen as buying into one package of dogma or another that I don't actually support. People who want to know my opinions on war in general or Remembrance Day in particular will have to actually talk to me, or at least read this.
Instead, I'll honour the dead my own way... by remembering, and by (as northbard posted earlier today) telling the government to back up its words about respect for those who've fought in wars with actual action in support of veterans, and by trying - not just today but every day - to make a better world, one in which maybe someday war will be a thing of the past.
And also by urging all my friends, online and off, not to judge someone by whether they're wearing a red poppy, a white one, both, or neither. There are a multiplicity of reasons someone could choose any of these, and you don't know what that person's reasons are, unless you ask. The tendency to automatically assume the worst of other people, or define them as "other" based on a simple symbol or the lack thereof, is one of the reasons we're still fighting wars, and if we ever want to see an end to that, taking the time to reach out to someone else, even someone you disagree with, listen to them, and try to understand them is one small step any of us can take in the very long journey to a better world.