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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Remembrance Narrative
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Snags
Utterly socially unrealistic
# 15351
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Posted
This is one of those "Is it just me?" posts, as I'm genuinely unsure and want to know if my memories are accurate, or merely what I want them to be.
To the best of my knowledge the point of remembering on Remembrance Day/Remembrance Sunday has always (generally) served a two-fold purpose, at least in the UK:
a) to remember the fallen - particularly but not exclusively 'ours' - be grateful for their service & sacrifice, and to offer support/acknowledgement/succor to their survivors, i.e. a respectful acknowledgement of military reality
b) to remember how bloody awful it is, as an exhortation for those in power to find better ways to settle things in future than opting for mass slaughter, i.e. a hopeful encouragement to a more peaceful world
Is that right, or am I deluded? Because increasingly, and this year in particular, it seems that (b) has largely faded away and even quite moderate, non-guns'n'ammo types have gone much more down the "Our brave boys keeping us free to enjoy our liberty" narrative, with a subtle but nonetheless greater emphasis on the militarism and glorification, even whilst speaking against glorificationof war.
And I'm not particularly comfortable with that, especially in the wider political context in the UK (USA, Europe).
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Vain witterings :-: Vain pretentions :-: The Dog's Blog(locks)
Posts: 1399 | From: just north of That London | Registered: Dec 2009
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Jolly Jape
Shipmate
# 3296
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Posted
To be honest, I think that the militaristic overtones have always been there, even if the main narrative is as you have described it. I haven't noticed any particular shift rightwards, though I suspect it depends on the views of those organising events at a local level. If you are in a garrison town, your viewpoint is likely to be different to that of an inhabitant of, say, Accrington (of Pals fame) or Coventry, where international reconciliation is , by all accounts, a way of life.
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To those who have never seen the flow and ebb of God's grace in their lives, it means nothing. To those who have seen it, even fleetingly, even only once - it is life itself. (Adeodatus)
Posts: 3011 | From: A village of gardens | Registered: Sep 2002
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Martin60
Shipmate
# 368
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Posted
I imagine this will be consolidated with the prior Remembrance thread.
But it's inevitable as the Church is silent, acquiescent, passive in the wrong way. Scared. The Church does not oppose war, the state monopoly on violence and MORE, far from it, it never has.
The earliest Church myths recount multiple assassinations by God the Holy Spirit and the wrath of God is integral to the Gospel, fulfilled in the sacking of Jerusalem, raved over in The Book of Revelation, essential to penal substitutionary atonement even in Jesus' human understanding and in Judgement. State monopoly of violence is endorsed by John The Baptist and Paul.
Pacifism is and always will be a marginal and textually heterodox understanding of the trajectory of God in Christ. Society has no chance.
[ 14. November 2016, 14:28: Message edited by: Martin60 ]
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Love wins
Posts: 17586 | From: Never Dobunni after all. Corieltauvi after all. Just moved to the capital. | Registered: Jun 2001
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Barnabas62
Shipmate
# 9110
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Martin60:
I imagine this will be consolidated with the prior Remembrance thread.
Indeed it will. Please don't post any more entries here while I copy the three posts across.
Thread now locked.
Barnabas62
Purgatory Host
[ 14. November 2016, 14:42: Message edited by: Barnabas62 ]
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Who is it that you seek? How then shall we live? How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?
Posts: 21397 | From: Norfolk UK | Registered: Feb 2005
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