What would fallen heroes think of today’s society?
AMID the current publicity and hype concerning the century that has passed since the armistice that ended the fighting in the Great War — the war to end war — has anyone given serious thought to what the men who went to fight that war would think of the society that we have built in the intervening period?
I do not refer exclusively to New Zealand in this.
Those men surely did not go to war expecting incompetent and corrupt local and central governments, elected by illinformed, uninterested electorates who are influenced by propaganda rather than knowledge.
They cannot have envisaged the degeneration of family life, now becoming submerged by the demands of TV, phones and internet, to the extent that many parents neither know nor care what their children are doing; nor could they possibly have imagined the level of breakdown of the institution of marriage.
Did those dutiful men expect that their labours and sacrifice would give rise to a society that demands the right to poison minds and bodies with harmful, illegal drugs, abuse alcohol and have a life of ease, with little or no personal effort? Would they welcome the wave of criminal activity that accompanies these things? I think not.
Without broaching the worldwide problems of global warming, organised crime, corrupt big businesses and dishonest, belligerent governments, these few examples of degeneration that our ‘‘modern’’ society is experiencing, and indeed embracing, will serve to illustrate the horror and disgust that the men of that oldfashioned, and largely honourable, community would surely feel if they could be restored to life in this day.
Let us, please, remember them with genuine respect, with gratitude for their sacrifice, with quiet contemplation for the state of our society and where it may be 100 years from now, and with consideration for how our community can become ‘‘A land fit for heroes’’, which it patently is not at this time. Tony Newton
Mosgiel CHRIS Totter’s column (9.11.18) is poignant and timely. In 2016, we attended the centenary of the Somme and visited Passchendaele and other Flanders sites. The bravery and comrades of the Anzac troops can only be admired.
What cannot be admired is the callowness of those who chose this war. It was avoidable, unnecessary and we live today with decisions that are a result of this inglorious war. My partner’s family have seven young brave men buried in these fields. A high price for one family.
The cost for a nation as small as New Zealand and how it shaped our country, the myths that became fact obscures the truth that we have yet to be told is a price higher than any would wish to pay. Gerry Hill
Wanaka
WHILE we remember Armistice Day, we should especially remember that those who went to the front were fighting for a war fomented to further the interests of certain political leaders of the day.
Wars have been, and nearly always are fought to serve the interests and profits of our political, business and religious leaders, who themselves, remain safely in their offices, cathedrals and bunkers, while we, the citizens, lose our lives fighting on their behalf.
Surely, these wars have little if anything to do with those actually fighting on all sides, and we are hypnotised into fighting these other peoples’ wars by the leaders’ jingoistic propaganda which focuses on stirring up fear, division and paranoia amongst us.
Can there be a greater waste of human endeavour and nature, than war?
In the event of a call to fight in wars, I am convinced it will be every human’s duty to conscientiously reject all such calls and to seek lasting remedies for peace, through justice. Paul ElwellSutton
Haast