Monday, December 8, 2014

The Christmas Truce of 1914: Every Silver Cloud Has a Fecal Lining

It's a famous story, now. Here is it charmingly depicted in a commercial:
The commercial is a pretty good depiction of what happened.

On one website, it was called a heartening proof that the soldiers' essential humanity remained. They saw the event as uplifting. But every silver cloud has a fecal lining.

From an article in the November, 2014 issue of National Geographic:

"No one there wanted to continue the war," [author, Stanley] Weintraub said. But the top brass did, and threatened to punish troops for shirking duty. As the new year began, both sides "went on with the grim business at hand."

Absurd, is it not? This is how the many are herded, lead and eventually slaughtered at the whim of the few.

So, let's all cheer war like it is a football game. That will get us far. Some day they are going to give a war and...we'll just keep doing what we are told.

2 comments:

  1. The advert's had a mixed reception over here. Some love it, others feel that WW1 shouldn't be used as a marketing opportunity (also, it's a rip-off of Paul McCartney's 'Pipes of Peace' ;) ).

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    1. Steerforth -- I am glad to see that some English folk still object to things they simply see as inappriopriate. That reaction has been all but eradicated in the American mind, as far as I can see. It's something we would be wise to recapture, though, I am not optimistic. Also, I had forgotten completely about "Pipes of Peace" and had to go back and watch it. Three times.

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