Dandelions in a meadow outside Thunder Bay, ON

Dandelions in a meadow outside Thunder Bay, ON

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

To End All Wars

Today is a day to reflect on the meaning of World War I and to make sense of the lives lost in the horror that was supposed to end all wars. When I was younger I rebelled against the words "hero," "service" and "sacrifice" in a context where people - and animals used in war - had no choice in the matter. I was enraged by the arrogance that permitted humans to drag innocent animals into a carnage of their making. Now that I'm getting old(er), I have come to realize that a sacrifice need not be voluntary; most, in fact, are not. But I still insist that it must not be wasted, and today I have been reflecting on what this means.

At this point it is customary to show your credentials. Russia pulled out of WWI to attack itself and thereby made it much easier on Germany (a bad thing to do), but my grandfather served in the Soviet air force during WWII (a good thing to do), so these contributions even themselves out. This says absolutely nothing about my own virtue or glory. My grandfather taught me how to be systematic and not make empty promises, but I did not defend Moscow in December 1941. My husband, born and raised in Germany, had no hand in starting WWII. We both left behind the countries of our birth because of irreconcilable differences with them, and because Canada really is unique in its benevolence and capacity to bring out the best in people. Still, I don't wear a poppy on this day: as the literal-minded person I am, I must first figure out exactly what it means.

It is common knowledge that as a Russian in WWII my grandfather fought for freedom and against evil. Interestingly enough, so did my husband's grandfather, a fighter pilot with the Wehrmacht - so he was told, so he believed. Everyone wants freedom, everyone knows it's a good thing. The word works miracles, for better and for worse. This magic word is indispensable if you're going to put the burden of an emperor's wayward madness on working grunts and have them destroy working grunts of a different nationality. If your emperor won't give you freedom while you live, you can at least die wishing for it and blaming a foreign land for taking it away. Those other guys had it right: World War I was supposed to end all wars. It didn't, and there will likely be more. The best I can wish for is that we stop dragging freedom into this sordid affair to make it look prettier than it is.

The nature of today's wars is already very different. We may not be dying for our country or even someone else's, but a distant war is never entirely foreign to us. What worries me is the carelessness with which Canada is extending its naive benevolence to victims of the war in Syria. Such promises are not to be made lightly; these people are not an opportunity for us to feel pleased with ourselves. I am afraid Canada is unprepared for such a commitment because I see on each volunteer trip to a First Nations reserve how badly it has failed to understand a different culture already living here, and to coexist with it into the present day. To this day the white man is simply afraid to speak to native folk as to grown people, preferring to treat them as perpetual children to be placated rather than taken seriously. To assume that the newcomers will just melt with gratitude in the warm glow of our benevolence is nothing short of arrogance, a 21st century version of the white man's superiority. I do not know what the practical solution to this is, but I firmly believe that charity begins at home, and must be our priority until the very word "charity" becomes obsolete.

29 comments:

  1. I always learn so much about you reading your blogs. I want to share two things. I, having never even met a military person ( until I met my roommate in college) always had participated in local Remembrance ceremonies. It was something we had to do as children and I guess continued. Then I met Dan. He told me he was going to Afghanistan. I didn't know what to think we just started dating and lived an hour away from each other. So to start I just saw less of him. Then I headed to Trenton to check on his place. The town never slept. Everyhwere I went people were saying goodbye, crying , welcoming home daddy's and mommy's. Pregnant women assuring their spouses everything is fine, trucks loading and unloading every plane the airfoce had. A wall at the local Tim's had an ever growing list of fallen soldiers. I was in a haze. Then I came upon my first experience of a repatriation ceremony. And I don't doubt every member of the town was lined along the road as the solider came home. That was someone's "Dan" heading down the hwy of hero's . I cried. I cried for days. I never missed another ceremony after that. I held hands with strangers and watched solider after soilder cone home. I know now better what wearing a poppy means yet I still do not truly know what it feels like and hope I never do. I didn't ask for this life, but I will never be that person that I was 8 years ago that never gave the military a second thought. I wish we could wear poppy's everyday, especially now. Our pain and struggles don't just come to the surface once a year. They linger , follow us daily and influence every part of us. I cry when random people thank my husband for his service. I cry when he hears bag pipes and hides his tears. I have heard all his stories yet I will never know how he truly felt overseas, just as he will never truly know my story. But everyone should know our story and every other veterans story. And seeing a poppy on someone makes me think they are trying to hear it. Secondly. Being first Nations but looking to like the " white man" I am somewhat undercover. Almost daily I am reminded by others about how shameful my people are. I am visibly white but my heart is ojibway. My heart breaks for how we are treated. Saying I'm native isn't met with intrigue or compassion. It's hushed voices and a total lack of realization that we are in fact just as Canadian as anyone. I wish as you mentioned that people realized the culture , the wonder and richness that this entire population of indigenous peoples has to offer. All the short comings the Canadian people and government have is nothing compared to the slap in the face that bringing in refugees is. Stepping over your own people that have never been respected and compensated breaks my heart. Yes a lifeless body of a child washing up on shore is terrible but there is generations of women who were never allowed to raise their own children. Forced to assimilate, forgetting your own language , being relocated and then "freed" and forgotten. ( my grandmother was the first women in the family to raise her own daughters. She married a white man as she was told to do. Still dyes her hair blonde and will not share her real name with us. )Stop trying to please the world superficially Canada. Take care if your people. Take care of your heart and it will take care of you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Don't break your heart in vain, Erika. This world is not based on justice, and that's that. But there is a Law of Retribution and, believe me, it works. The wrong done to you will come back home to roost. The same as the right. There is no other justice in this world.

      Delete
  2. What can I say without sounding like a cliche? I am so deeply touched, Erika. Your incredibly generous spirit reminds me to be a better person. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  3. "Russia pulled out of WWI to attack itself and thereby made it much easier on Germany (a bad thing to do), but my grandfather served in the Soviet air force during WWII (a good thing to do), so it kind of evens itself out."
    I read it once, and twice, and thrice, and then I rubbed my eyes.
    So what exactly kind of evens itself out?
    A very unfortunate expression was still there. Alas.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I was referring to the contributions of my forbears to the cause of good vs. evil. And I was being just a bit sarcastic. Thanks for pointing out the lack of clarity; things that are obvious to me may not be obvious to others.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you very much for your explanation. Doubt still lingers but let it lapse although you have not improved on your text, rather the opposite.
    What really touched me to the quick was the way you, with condescending benevolence, treat the two sides to the conflict of 1939-41. In your interpretation participants on both sides fought, or at least thought they fought, for freedom and against evil. I quote: "It's common knowledge that as a Russian in WWII my grandfather fought for freedom and against evil.Interestingly enough, so did my husband's grandfather, a fighter pilot with the Wehrmacht - so he was told, so he believed." Let's see, so did your husband's grandfather, meaning he also fought for freedom and against evil. Curiouser and curiouser. What a preposterous thing to say, really. But so he was told, so he believed. This abject disclaimer does exactly nothing to save the situation. Subjective perceptions of actors are no excuse for their objective wrongdoings, surely you know that already from high school.
    With respect I urge you to rephrase a very risky proposition which may cause considerable offence among those who still remember and know what was what.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Addendum to my reply below: there is only one thing of which I am guilty in my post. That is not mentioning my other grandfather and his exceptionally brave fighting in WWII. That, and the berries he planted for me in the garden, is unfortunately all I know of him, so I did not feel I had a right to invoke him in my post. But your response has made me rethink this - although you were asking for something very different.

      Delete
  6. That was exactly my point: rhetoric about freedom, good, evil etc. is just that. There is no way it can justify the destruction of lives. As long as we continue to accept this rhetoric (and unfortunately I see more rather than less of this), wars will continue to be acceptable. Believe it or not, I already toned down this post from what I'd originally written. Call me a pacifist? Maybe, except that it's a pointless stance unless each and every one of us is prepared to be a pacifist.
    I learned many things in high school, many of them good and true that still serve as my moral compass. I wholeheartedly agree with the notion, made unpopular by its association with communism, that working people of all nations cannot possibly be enemies and that it takes monstrous evil to use them as pawns in conflicts between tyrants.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Violence and aggression are an inalienable part of human nature and behaviour.
    Throughout millenia of history.
    War is only an ultimate expression.
    To end all wars you have to do away with humankind.
    That is exactly what it is doing to itself.
    Nothing can stop it.
    So it is written.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That sounds a bit pessimistic even to me :-) But I do believe that our entire civilization is an exercise in dealing with the inherent flaws of the human species. I can't think of another animal that needs to make such an effort to learn the business of living.

      Delete
    2. Yes, even to me it sounds a bit pessimistic.
      I do believe that our entire civilization is an exercize in pandering to the inherent flaws of the human species.
      I can't think of another animal that needs to make such an effort to learn the business of living in peace and harmony with each other.
      And we must also remember that Death Wish is quite a match for Lust for Life.
      A living cell (except a cancerous one) is programmed for self-destruction.
      Ergo, only cancerous civilizations can survive.
      Trouble is they are not human any more.
      Quad erat demonstrandum.

      Delete
    3. I am impressed by your ideas and inspired by this discussion.
      Full disclosure: civilization (allopathic medicine, more precisely) saved my life twice when evolutionary pressure would have made short work of it, so I can't bitch too much about the pandering. We are a comfort-seeking species, actively miserable in the absence of comfort, with some of us able to sublimate that misery into creativity. And yet, there is that Death Wish you speak of. Maybe it's our way of compensating for the safety we have swaddled ourselves in, and instinctively paying our dues to the inexorable laws of nature.

      Delete
    4. By inherent flaws I meant what religion castigates as mortal sins and what in common parlance are better known as vices. All sorts of innumerable human incapacities are in another category altogether.
      I reluctantly suspect that humanity will always drag all its vices along with it on its inexorable path to its natural and, alas, inevitable demise.
      Our exchange has been both interesting and instructive but also a bit depressing. So let me shift the ground in favour of something entirely different.
      The other day I had to talk to my frying pan. We are not exactly friends but rather long-standing companions. To encourage my frying pan I talk to it sometimes, although not too often, to keep proper distance, you understand.
      So, I washed my frying pan after using it to roast my favourite pork cracklings and stood it against the wall to drip-dry.
      Almost immediately I heard an unmistakable metallic clang.
      I tried again with the same defeating result.
      Aha, say I to my unruly disobedient frying pan, you as much as presume to oppose your unquestionable master, a supreme creature of Universum for about a million light years in every conceivable direction?
      The frying pan was silent, obviously apprehensive and unsure of what to expect from its angry master.
      I'll show you, than, say I.
      And I shoved my disobedient iron servant right behind the door against a wall and wedged it there rather firmly.
      It' not fair play, the frying pan ventured to grumble weakly.
      No, it isn't, I said triumphantly. But it works!
      Which briings me to a sad conclusion - the World is patently unfair but it works. works,

      Delete
  8. Please delete "works," at the end.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Consider it done, in spirit (I can't edit your message).
      Yes, talking to your frying pan is an art and a balancing act. Too much encouragement, and you give it all sorts of ideas. Too little, and you have a mute piece of metal unfit to provide companionship. I have to admit that mastering this art is not a priority for me right now ;-)

      Delete
  9. This Frying Pan Discussion makes me laugh,.really.
    To speak of ending all wars at the time when WWIII is creeping up on us? Are you serious? What is, may I ask, the mysterious source of your optimism? Your personal well-being, or what? Tell us, please.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Optimism? No way. The title of the post is an echo of those words, not a "How To" formula. I'm interested in what causes people to continue glorifying wars. And since I don't see that practice ending any time soon, I'm not much of an optimist on that score.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Woman is the reason for war, if you ask me. Not to mention Troyan war. Recent times, I mean. What caused Napoleon to attack Russia? He had no business there, none at all. But the fella was riled 'cause Alexander refused him the hand of both his sisters, one after another. Imagine doing that to a Frenchie! Never mind he was a Corsican. Worse still. He was regular mad, he was, stark raving mad. He was so crazy he was all mixed up in his brain and mistook Moscow for Russia's capital. That's what woman can do to man.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Squabbles over women make an excellent excuse for war, I'll give you that.

      Delete
  12. In this meandering and sometimes tortuous multilogue I'd like to compliment Dr V on her gracious and skillfull way of dealing with various, somitimes rather strong opinions expressed here. Full marks, Dr V !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! No surprise there - I have diplomacy in my blood. And I actually enjoy it ;-)

      Delete
  13. That yarn about Napoleon and Russia is bonkers. Same as suggesting Hitler attacked Stalin because he refused him the hand of his daughter. Fat chance, that. Think again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Women made and broke Napoleon, no doubt about that. Josephine de Beauharnais was his lucky star before he stupidly divorced her in 1809. Since then - twelve years of decline and ultimate inglorious end in former stables (what a twist of English vengeance).

      Delete
  14. Let Napoleon rest in peace. Are you colour blind? The sky around us turns a brighter shade of red. Bear-baiting - you know whom I mean - may turn a very poor joke and backfire badly not with a whimper but with a bang. Before you have time to say Oh Calcutta!

    ReplyDelete
  15. I congratulate Dr V on her sober appraisal of Canada's commitment to refugees. Careless is the word. The problem requires much more rational and far-sighted approach. To avoid all sorts of unpleasant hiccups in the near future.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Stalin made a colossal stupid blunder in 1941. He showed Hitler that he was afraid of him. The worst he could possibly do under the circumstances. And of course Hitler struck. National Catastrophy writ large followed. Since then Russians loath to show white feather. It's in their blood. What I mean provoking them is very dangerous.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hello hello this is Frying Pan Calling - What we see you know where is sheer brinkmanship - So called interests are always one or two jumps ahead of common sense - Death Wish and Lust for Life strangely turn into each other and even, sometimes, look like one - Why don't we join hands and all together jump into the fire? - As we already did so many times before - We are notoriously bad at balancing acts - Oh it's too hot here where I am - We'll meet again you know Where you know When - Sweet dreams - Roger and out - Your Friendly Frying Pan

    ReplyDelete
  18. I notice you are a poor joker, Frying Pan. What about some bacon and eggs instead.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I suggest that if this discussion needs/wants to continue, the participants acquire user names other than "anonymous." It's getting just a bit weird having a circle of people in virtual Guy Fawkes masks... There, I've put my moderator foot down.

    ReplyDelete