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poliphiloWhy so solemn around the war dead?
I'm sure most of them liked a laugh when they were alive. I'll bet most of them said, "Fuck". I'll bet most of them said it a lot. I'll bet most of them hated being soldiers. I'll bet most of them liked singing "Mam'selle from Armentieres" better than they liked singing hymns.
Why transubstantiate them from cheeky chappies and working stiffs and aspiring poets and good husbands and bad husbands and all the other things they were into these gloomy ancestral ghosts?
I know the answer. And it's not a whole lot to do with them.
It's to do with a combination of grief (fair enough) and survivor's guilt (which doesn't do anyone any good)- and the desire to keep on polishing the War Machine.
I'm sure most of them liked a laugh when they were alive. I'll bet most of them said, "Fuck". I'll bet most of them said it a lot. I'll bet most of them hated being soldiers. I'll bet most of them liked singing "Mam'selle from Armentieres" better than they liked singing hymns.
Why transubstantiate them from cheeky chappies and working stiffs and aspiring poets and good husbands and bad husbands and all the other things they were into these gloomy ancestral ghosts?
I know the answer. And it's not a whole lot to do with them.
It's to do with a combination of grief (fair enough) and survivor's guilt (which doesn't do anyone any good)- and the desire to keep on polishing the War Machine.
