My friend Merrick, a man who holds much the same
opinions as me on many topics, wrote a piece on
remembrance and wearing a poppy. He thinks that,
whatever the attempted militaristic take-over of poppy
day, that we should still wear one, because it's
important to remember the horror of it all.
(Read his thoughts at
headheritage.co.uk]
If wearing a poppy really did evoke the memory of the
horrors of war then I would agree, but consider this -
in a survey conducted in 2004 only 55% of the UK's
population had ever even heard of the notorious Nazi
death camp at Auschwitz, and amongst women and people
aged under 35 the figure was even lower, at around
40%. One perhaps cannot expect a poppy to be a history
lesson in itself, but ask those people why they wear
the poppy, and they will come back with the words that
have been drilled into them - sacrifice, patriotism,
honour - they may not know what the war was about, but
we've made sure they know what's important.... and
yes, you've guessed it, keep the people stupid etc
I watched the two recent BBC 1 programmes 'The Last
Tommy', about the last remaining survivors of the
First World War - at the end Harry Patch, a man who
had lost his friends to a German shell in 1917, went
back to visit the War Memorial at Pilkem Ridge where
they had lost their lives. It was the first time he
had returned since the war, and there, having vowed
never to talk to a German ever again, he met a German
gunner, perhaps the man who had fired the shot that
killed his friends - as they shook hands there were
tears in my eyes. He spoke of the utter stupidity of
it all, that we had waited for four years, until
millions had been killed, before we 'got round a table
and talked it out'. He also said 'Armistice Day, you
remember the thousands of others who died. For what?
For nothing.' Are we really still so ready to groom
our children for such horrors all over again, with
words such as glory and honour and sacrifice? If to
wear a poppy was really to express a revulsion with
war and violence, then I would gladly wear one -
sadly, in my opinion, this is not the case.
(Read more about Harry Patch's war memories at
bbc.co.uk/history/war/wwone/last_tommy]
© Philip Jeays 2006