Remembering

[da]

I was all set to be off to work without much more thought, but I refreshed my LJ one more time, and the pile of Canadian posts on Remembrance Day caught me short. I need to remember, that when people ask a difference between the US and Canada, that I say, Remembrance Day here is not much like Veterans' Day in the US, it's quite like Armistice Day as Kurt Vonnegut wrote:

I will come to a time in my backwards trip when November eleventh was a sacred day called Armistice Day. When I was a boy, all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering each other. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.

Armistice Day has become Veterans' Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans' Day is not. So I will throw Veterans' Day over my shoulder. Armistice Day I will keep. I don't want to throw away any sacred things.

-Kurt Vonnegut, in Breakfast of Champions.

Comments

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

In the UK, 11/11 is Armistice Day; the Sunday before 11/11 is Remembrance Sunday. The first is meant to remember "the Great War" (what a disgusting phrase!), the second all the dead from every conflict from and including WW1. But they too seem to merge, and as those who remember the first world war die, that is likely to continue.

I find it hard to reconcile my strong dislike for war with a desire to honour those who fought. I think such conflict is common, particularly with the wars we are involved in today: the soldiers deserve respect, but the wars they are fighting do not.

[madcaptenor.livejournal.com]

An opinion piece in the New York Times today talks about how observations of this day are different in different countries.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly.

This year I feel well-equipped to go be part of a minute of silence, whereas I do not feel equipped to wear either a red or white poppy, and explain to people why I'm wearing either.

[dawn-guy.livejournal.com]

So that's where your "eleventh minute" came from. It has been one or two minutes on the eleventh hour for as long as I can recall.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, it must have been, because I don't remember being confused about that in the last few years!

[c0d3-m0nk3y.livejournal.com]

I think "great" in this context is meant to be understood as remarkable, of outstanding significance, or extensive. All words that can be used to describe World War I.

Inasmuch as war itself allows us to plumb the depths of our disgust and disgusting behaviour, the use of the adjective in this case is apropos.

It's easy for those of us in these modern times with so many "armed conflicts" littering our collective consciousnesses, but for those who experienced first-hand that first truly modern mechanized global conflict it was literally like visiting hell on earth. It was probably the most life-changing and singular moment for many who lived through it.

All previous wars, including the disastrous Napoleonic campaigns (which had the dubious distinction of being the largest armed conflict to date) paled in comparison (so far as we can measure these things, which by their nature are almost unquantifiable) in every single way one can compare such things.

This, of course, is not to minimize experiences elsewhere since. World War I was pretty much the first conflict waged on such a scale. A scale so great that at the time those who experienced it found it nearly impossible to fully comprehend.

(An ironic postscript: the CAPTCHA that came up for this comment is based on the world "soldier.")