'Britain’s commemoration of the Great War has lost all sense of proportion. It has become a media theme park, an indigestible cross between Downton Abbey and a horror movie. I cannot walk down the street or turn on the television without being bombarded by Great War diaries, poems, scrapbooks and songs.'
---Simon Jenkins.
Lest we forget. Huh, what was that again? The great irony being, of course, that Britain has been involved in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, conflicts in occupied Palestine, Libya and Syria, as well (allegedly) as in the transfer of people to 'black sites' (torture chambers). 'Involved' is putting it politely since it's been one of the main actors and instigators, lest we forget.
So, what are the "lessons" we should take from the war to end all wars? Who knows! But I doubt you'll be reading in the papers, or watching any programmes on the t.v., arguments which draw your attention to the fact that most of the violence committed over the last century was by state power (the Trenches, the Gulags, the Camps, not to mention Vietnam, Iraq, etc., etc). And since we're talking about history, wasn't the first use of the word 'terror' employed in discussing state power (the totalitarian state)?
Light the candles, dress up or down, feign some kind of sobriety, read some trench poetry with tears in your eyes, play Barber's mournful flutes and remember that when it comes to the dead, only one's own dead count-and even then, only if they had double-barreled names. The leaders want to get off on the memory of the violence, even as they are busy filming the next scene!
~~~
They throw in Drummer Hodge, to rest
Uncoffined – just as found:
His landmark is a kopje-crest
That breaks the veldt around;
And foreign constellations west
Each night above his mound.
Young Hodge the Drummer never knew –
Fresh from his Wessex home –
The meaning of the broad Karoo,
The Bush, the dusty loam,
And why uprose to nightly view
Strange stars amid the gloam.
Yet portion of that unknown plain
Will Hodge forever be;
His homely Northern breast and brain
Grow to some Southern tree,
And strange-eyed constellation reign
His stars eternally.
--Hardy.
~~~
To the poetic sensibility the reality of dreams is another kind of dream.
To the poet-shaman everything is connected. Only the philosopher-king introduces distinctions, the hard edge of logic.
~~~
'What makes the present moment distinct is the phalangist-like organization of the right-wing thugs, who feed off incitement by politicians, including members of the cabinet, the Knesset, and other figures within the Israeli establishment.'
---David Shulman in an eye-opening piece for the NYRB.
The full article is here
---Simon Jenkins.
Lest we forget. Huh, what was that again? The great irony being, of course, that Britain has been involved in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, conflicts in occupied Palestine, Libya and Syria, as well (allegedly) as in the transfer of people to 'black sites' (torture chambers). 'Involved' is putting it politely since it's been one of the main actors and instigators, lest we forget.
So, what are the "lessons" we should take from the war to end all wars? Who knows! But I doubt you'll be reading in the papers, or watching any programmes on the t.v., arguments which draw your attention to the fact that most of the violence committed over the last century was by state power (the Trenches, the Gulags, the Camps, not to mention Vietnam, Iraq, etc., etc). And since we're talking about history, wasn't the first use of the word 'terror' employed in discussing state power (the totalitarian state)?
Light the candles, dress up or down, feign some kind of sobriety, read some trench poetry with tears in your eyes, play Barber's mournful flutes and remember that when it comes to the dead, only one's own dead count-and even then, only if they had double-barreled names. The leaders want to get off on the memory of the violence, even as they are busy filming the next scene!
~~~
They throw in Drummer Hodge, to rest
Uncoffined – just as found:
His landmark is a kopje-crest
That breaks the veldt around;
And foreign constellations west
Each night above his mound.
Young Hodge the Drummer never knew –
Fresh from his Wessex home –
The meaning of the broad Karoo,
The Bush, the dusty loam,
And why uprose to nightly view
Strange stars amid the gloam.
Yet portion of that unknown plain
Will Hodge forever be;
His homely Northern breast and brain
Grow to some Southern tree,
And strange-eyed constellation reign
His stars eternally.
--Hardy.
~~~
To the poetic sensibility the reality of dreams is another kind of dream.
To the poet-shaman everything is connected. Only the philosopher-king introduces distinctions, the hard edge of logic.
~~~
'What makes the present moment distinct is the phalangist-like organization of the right-wing thugs, who feed off incitement by politicians, including members of the cabinet, the Knesset, and other figures within the Israeli establishment.'
---David Shulman in an eye-opening piece for the NYRB.
The full article is here
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