Tarquinius
Anzac Day is a time to reflect and remember. Although sometimes referred to as a time to celebrate, there should be no celebration of war, not even for the victors.
Many a valiant word has been said to boost morale and spur men into action. “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.” – George S. Patton
The vanquished are always the tyrants, the oppressors, the foes; whatever you want to call them. Yet history tells us this has not always been the case. Had the winners always been the good guys, most of us wouldn’t have Norse blood running through our veins, not forgetting that one in 200 of all men alive today are related to Genghis Khan. It doesn’t matter which side we’re on, our respective governments will still tell us we’re on the right side, with the majority of people going along with it through some inner requirement to meet a patriotic target or fear repercussion.
War is more often than not an egotistically driven exercise of capital greed by the actions of a few. The benefits are localised but the pain and destruction are widespread – politically motivated for a few fat cats to get fatter. Has your economy stalled? Start a war. Down in the polls? Start a war. Before too long the current war in a corner of Europe will see children in Africa starve from a lack of grain, while the shareholders of Raytheon Technologies enjoyed a 32 per cent return on their investment over the last year.
What would happen if those expected to go and fight actually said no? Is there a worry that if one side says no the other side will roll over them? What if the other side says no too? Do we think the fat cats will come down from their ivory towers and saddle a horse to fight their own wars? Or are memories of the Battle of Hastings still fresh in their mind’s eye, much as the arrow in Harold’s. I guess that’s why they fight their wars by proxy and use banking buddies to steal superyachts.
But then, there is truth in evil triumphing when good men do nothing. So is it right to stand by? I think the options are stand up and fight or conscientiously object. There’s no in-between; you can’t believe in something and not be willing to fight for it, and you can’t fight for something you don’t believe in.
Let not any one pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion. Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing. He is not a good man who, without a protest, allows wrong to be committed in his name, and with the means which he helps to supply, because he will not trouble himself to use his mind on the subject.
– John Stuart Mill
At this time of year I always find myself coming back to a few songs that tell a familiar tale of the lower classes heading off to fight a war on behalf of rich men. They’re tales of heroics, but ultimate loss; none have happy endings.
- ‘The Band Played Waltzing Matilda”
- “Green Fields of France”
- “Paddy’s Lamentation”
- “A Pair of Brown Eyes”
- “The King’s Shilling”
- “Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye” (An interesting song written in Ireland as an anti-recruitment song in response to the Kandyan Wars. Some 60 years later it was rewritten in America as a pro-recruitment song.)
- “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” (An anti-war song rewritten into a pro-war song.)
These are but a few.
One that stands out above the others in light of recent times is “Harry Brewer” (Where are you now Harry Brewer).
Two verses in this song define two groups we have in society right now. The first is indicative of our overlords, with their ‘do as I say, not as I do’ ethos. They sit in their ivory towers and lounge on their beaches, unaffected by the mandates they throw down upon the serfs, while expecting us to wage their imaginary war for them.
There are officers safe in the barracks
And the medics installed by the beds
While the poor fools of war get cut down by the score
And the blood flows out of their heads.
Ah but they gave you a fine decoration
For serving the cause of their nation
And all that you cost was a wee silver cross
And your name on a stone by the station.
The second is a reminder of why we fight these wars. I feel this represents those who attended the freedom camps and marches around the country: those who said ‘no’ to the mandates and those who said, ‘This isn’t right.’ It also gives mention to the triple-jabbed ardent Ardern supporter who was more than ready to beat the drum for her.
So here’s to you now Harry Brewer
I’m not saying you could have known better
There were thousands like you who sailed over the Brew
And came back in a government letter.
There are hundreds who’ll beat on the drums
And thousands who carried the guns
But if you must die at all sure ’tis better to fall
For the rights you hand down to your son.
It saddens me to think that as recently as 1915 and 1944 we had young men and boys in their thousands die on beaches for our freedoms and our rights, yet in the last two years many have been so quick to give up these rights out of fear of being sick, maybe even dying. So many lives lost not that long ago to save but a few today.
Every year around Anzac Day I feel both a sense of guilt and great gratitude: a sense of guilt that I don’t seize every moment of freedom that was fought for me; a sense of gratitude that it was my forebears who experienced the horrors of war and not me. It’s one of the few times in my life I have true empathy, but not for the living.
Yet here we are again, closer than ever to a war while the rich get richer from the safety of their bunkers.
So long as there are men, there will be wars
– Albert Einstein
We need to ensure that those who came before us didn’t fight for nothing – that those who gave their lives didn’t die in vain. We need to ensure that rights won on the battlefield are not easily taken from us by the elected officials who are supposed to represent us. They may think they’re the generals over us, but they’re not. They report to us and it’s time they remembered this. It may be 18 months until we can remind them of who reports to whom. Until then, become ungovernable if that’s what it takes to honour the sacrifice of those who came before us and maintain our freedoms.
Lest we forget.