Elenmmare
Do you wear a poppy? A fairly simple question, but in my sphere, rather heated nonetheless.
If someone hands me a poppy, like my history teacher, I'll wear it while in his presence so as not to cause too much of a fuss. But quite simply I don't feel the desire to wear a poppy because people tell me I should wear a poppy. I'm not an angsty teenager, and I'll explain.
- Poppies go to charity. Most, at least. But aside from the fact that they're plastic and fake, I have a terribly sharp problem with it being the burden of charity to support the veterans of a war. These veterans, regarded so highly in society (and in the case of some wars, well they should), are having to rely on private charity for support. I can't think of a less nationalist profession, and yet the nation-state itself is failing to provide for its veterans. If I care about veterans, I'll vote for change, not pick up the slack of a government more concerned with say, funding more corporate wars.
- People tell me to. This is a bit of a stretch, and I've heard it uttered before. But it is indeed easy to draw parallels between public pressure to visually demonstrate your remembrance (because plastic brings sincerity, as they say) and public pressure to say, visually demonstrate support for an autocrat.
-I don't believe in nationalistic wars. Now I'd like to clarify that when I say 'nationalist', I literally mean relating to a nation. The Black Hand needn't be mentioned. I'm not a pacifist, because I condone violence in law enforcement or in global peace initiatives. I even condone wars of global intervention like, theoretically, Kosovo. I don't dislike or spit upon the graves of soldiers who fought in the World Wars, but I won't glorify their actions. Every citizen has a choice, I don't buy the bull**** that a billion people were dragged into a war.
Now maybe poppies are about protesting the wars. Yet if it can be interpreted so openly, why bloody well wear it? To show people you're thinking about it? I don't need red plastic to do so, and I don't need to prove that I remember history.
If someone hands me a poppy, like my history teacher, I'll wear it while in his presence so as not to cause too much of a fuss. But quite simply I don't feel the desire to wear a poppy because people tell me I should wear a poppy. I'm not an angsty teenager, and I'll explain.
- Poppies go to charity. Most, at least. But aside from the fact that they're plastic and fake, I have a terribly sharp problem with it being the burden of charity to support the veterans of a war. These veterans, regarded so highly in society (and in the case of some wars, well they should), are having to rely on private charity for support. I can't think of a less nationalist profession, and yet the nation-state itself is failing to provide for its veterans. If I care about veterans, I'll vote for change, not pick up the slack of a government more concerned with say, funding more corporate wars.
- People tell me to. This is a bit of a stretch, and I've heard it uttered before. But it is indeed easy to draw parallels between public pressure to visually demonstrate your remembrance (because plastic brings sincerity, as they say) and public pressure to say, visually demonstrate support for an autocrat.
-I don't believe in nationalistic wars. Now I'd like to clarify that when I say 'nationalist', I literally mean relating to a nation. The Black Hand needn't be mentioned. I'm not a pacifist, because I condone violence in law enforcement or in global peace initiatives. I even condone wars of global intervention like, theoretically, Kosovo. I don't dislike or spit upon the graves of soldiers who fought in the World Wars, but I won't glorify their actions. Every citizen has a choice, I don't buy the bull**** that a billion people were dragged into a war.
Now maybe poppies are about protesting the wars. Yet if it can be interpreted so openly, why bloody well wear it? To show people you're thinking about it? I don't need red plastic to do so, and I don't need to prove that I remember history.
