Is it just me, or has there been more than usual of the "why bother with rememberance day" conversation around this year? People asking why it matters, when they and indeed their parents weren't born until long after 1918 and 1945, and when no one they know has been killed in war. Perhaps it's because we're a country that's been at war for a decade or so against an invisible enemy, where the conflict takes place in a distant country, and the only effects most of us see are stories about arms traders enriching themselves at public expense and the occassional repatriation parade at Wootton Bassett.
In our world of globalisation and international economies old fashioned values like patriorism seem out of date, smacking of racism. For those of us who deplore BNP/ EDL style demonstrations of hate and fear of difference, it can be hard to reconcile a desire to welcome people of different races and faiths, and yet to appreciate the sacrifiice of so many young men and women who died because they thought they were fighting for the right side.
But I do think there's still a place for remembrance. Perhaps it's because I'm a historian by nature; perhaps it's because I've been to Ypres and Thiepval and heard the Last Post at the Menin Gate. I've seen the remains of the trenches, seen the cemeteries, the gravestones stretching out all around you, seen the memorials to the missing and even found the name of a relative on one. I've read the poetry, seen the photos and the films. I've studied the history of the first and second world wars, as well as many others before that, and I've seen news coverage of quite a few in the last couple of decades. I wouldn't regard myself as an expert on any, but I hope I know what I'm talking about. Once you've seen the cemetaries, the memorials, you don't forget easily.
When I visited Flanders and northern France I was about fourteen. It was a school trip. We weren't naturally the best behaved bunch of teenagers, this was an ordinary small town comprehensive with no selection, and the people on the trip were of varied academic abilities. But no one played up when we were visiting the memorials. There was something about those hundreds and thousands of names engraved on the stone that impressed us all. Of course, not everyone was so impressed- a coachful of French teenagers was visiting at the same time as us, and we were shocked to see their attitudes- climbing all over the memorials and shouting without seeming to care where they were.
But I can understand that the wars of nearly a century ago, of even seventy, can seem distant if you have no personal connection. Perhaps that's why we need a day like Remembrance day to remember. Because there was nothing new about people dying in war, but what the first and second world wars brought- and to a lesser extent the Boer war- brought the industrialisation of war, brought the business of killing into a modern era where it was possible to kill hundreds of men without ever seeing them. Ever since that disconnect has only increased with the development of guided missiles and drones that can kill from hundreds of miles away. Perhaps, in an era where for us in the west war is something that takes place a long way from where we live, and are for causes less straightforward than opposing the Nazi tyrrany, we- or at least our leaders and policy makers- need a day where the true cost of war in human life is brought home.
PS: if you don't understand the title, I suggest you see Wilfred Owen's poem of the same name, available here: http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owen1.html
