Every year on the second sunday in the uk, people gather together to commemorate their war dead from the two world wars in the 20th century, and other wars they were involved in.
it is a very solemn affair. Royals, and the prime minister and other digniraries all looking very stern, as they lay wreaths and bow their heads as a mark of repect for the people who dided ‘defending our freedom’.
The opposition player, the Germans, or Nazi’s, and their leader a certain Herr Adolf, have always been demonised as the most evil of evil regimes, responsible for genocide, (basically try to eradicate every jew they found from this earth), and countless war crimes.
To cut a long story short, fortunately the good guys won, the end. Everyone waved flags and celebrated,
But I would, if you don’t find it too ‘disrespectuful’ to pop across the channel to that most heinous of nations, Germany, and have a look at this from a different perspective.In Germany, as in Britain, you had leaders, dedicated followers, and thse who couldn’t really care about politics, and were happy to just get on with their lives.
Iam not going to get into european history here, as there are enough books on that to stretch right across the world.
Instead you have to enter the mindset of a typical german worker, or a housewife, or an army chief, soldier, or politician, and try to ascertain what they were thinking!
Itś difficult isn´t it? And anyway, what is all this nonsense about trying to understand those evil ‘Krauts’? They were evil, we killed them and defeated them, the end.
What you have to understand is that people can be convinced to believe something quite easily! All it takes is a subtle idea, planted deep in the subconscious of the people, and feed that seed regularly!
Do you think that german doldiers and even nazi’s would have signed up to murder jews if they didn’t think what they were doing was ‘right’?
Of course not, the same way, the allies were happy to murder as many germans as possible (in the name of freedom of course.) They believed that if the leaders told them what they were doing was right, it must be.
I don’t know how many millions of people were murdered on all sides, but let’s just say ‘a lot’.
And remember remember that the british have been starting wars for centuries, quelling ‘rebellions’ in the colonies, in iraq, in afghanistan, and in india, long before the nazis started invading other countries, just in case you think britain has always been a ‘victim’ and is only a defender of freedoms.
No, they are defenders of land, people and resources that they have conquered, remember that.
But beofre we malign the poor old british too much, remember every country has blood on its hands, every leader, every general, and every citizen is complicit in murder, even if they never picked up a gun in their lives.
No individual citizen however just decides to exterminate all jews, or massacre people because they want to take over the land that the other people inhabit, they would soon be overpowered and dealt with harshly!
But.
A man with an idea is much more powerful than a man with a gun. Now bring the idea and followers together, and give them guns, and you’ve got a whole different story, now you have a group all engaged in coommon purpose – following orders that they believe are ‘right’. And a group armed with that idea is capable of anything, even if as individuals they would never have dreamed of killing anyone in their lives.
The history of the human world is littered with commerations and statues to fallen ‘heroes’ even if they weren’t on the winning side!
How many people have to die for the man with the idea?
According to wikipedia hundreds of millions!
I don’t know how accurate the record keeping was, but millions of people have died in wars, uprizing, purges and cleanses, all perpetrated by leaders, whether monarchs, dictators, or democratically elected ones, and carried out by their servants, you and me, the people!
So next time you commemorate your war dead, start to think of the system that you support through your taxes, the leaders you follow, and ask yourself why you do it?
If your mind gives you an answer in less than a second…’because you see..’ you have been brain washed and are merely emitting a conditioned response, that you have not thought of yourself.
Be careful how you use your mind, watch the flow of thoughts across it, and if it ever suggests an idea that involves invading another country, exterminating certain people, based on some critieria, or picking up a gun to defend your freedoms, bombing a market to make a point, or assassinating a rival…well…
Just let that thought drift away into the cosmos, and just get on with enjoying your very short life on this earth, and let everyone else enjoy theirs…
