Thoughts on Remembrance

[Coldicote]

Remembrance is a time of sadness. Throughout history mankind has fought war after war, more often than not arising from some regime's desire for power, or motivated by greed. Wars used to be fought on horseback with spears, bows and arrows; then gun-powder was discovered, explosives, bombs, biological warfare. Now there is terrorism for the sheer hell of it and the fear of nuclear war. Did the departed give their lives in vain? What if anything can we do to make this world a better place, or is it beyond redemption?

[sandyRoe]

The threat of nuclear war was far more real in the 50's and 60's than it is now. I think people are more likely to die in a traffic accident than in a terrorist attack.
The real tragedy of war is that young men die because old men, the politicians, fail.

[123everton]

Be better neighbours.
I think it was Kipling who said.
"If our sons returned and asked why they died,
then tell them because their Father's lied."
If you introduce fear into a community they are easier to control.
Be wary of dishonest malcontents, on 'Question Time' on Thursday one of the panel warned against a world were China was the greatest power, why?
Just to offer us a bland fear of the unknown?
Because it's better the devil you know?
I don't feel China wants to rule the world, I do feel it wants to wipe out the memory of the shame it's suffered over the last 200 years, it wants respect.
Doesn't every nation?
I could be wrong, I don't know enough of China's foreign policies to say plainly it's a threat.

[naomi24]

//What if anything can we do to make this world a better place, or is it beyond redemption? //

Do you mean 'we' as a society, or 'we' as individuals?

[sandyRoe]

As individuals we could do no better than heed Matthew 7:12. Do onto others as you would have others do onto you.

[123everton]

Or we could do as Martin Luther King said, "somebody has to break the cycle of hatred and retribution."

[naomi24]

I agree Sandy - but in reality that can only work if everyone follows that tenet.

[sandyRoe]

However others behave if we followed Matt 7:12 we'd at least feel that we'd done little harm.

[fredpuli47]

Yes, everton, Kipling's exact words are "If any question why we died/ Tell them because our fathers lied". He suffered terrible guilt. His own son had such poor eyesight that he was not fit for the army. Kipling used his great influence, at the highest level, to have his son enlisted. The boy was killed in action in 1915, just weeks after his 18th birthday. But for his father's pleas, the boy wouldn't never have been there. The poem was. of course, written after the death, together with others in similar vein.

Surely there has never been a war with greater casualties, greater consequences and greater lack of reason for being,all at once, than the Great War.

[Coldicote]

There is obviously a lot of deep thinking in these replies. Let us hope that as individuals, or collectively, we can make some contribution to 'peace in our time'. How can we do this without isolating ourselves?