Propaganda Day
Apr. 25th, 2011 11:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
passionpop When I was 12, I wrote an essay on 'What ANZAC day means to me'. I have never written suck bvllshit in my life and I doubt I ever will again. Basically the essay was to be judged by the local RSL, and knowing this I paused, and thought about what they would want to read and what they would judge to be the winner. I won $10 for this essay, and though I have always felt a bit guilty about lying to them, I am glad that I left no one at the time offended by my opinion, not my teacher, not my class, not my principal and not the RSL. Every ANZAC day however, I feel the need to come clean and tell the truth about what ANZAC day really means to me.
When I wrote the essay, I had noticed something. it was something small, but it shaped my thoughts on ANZAC day forever. in the lead up to ANZAC day 1989, I noticed that there was an increased amount of advertising for the 'defence force' on TV in the lead up to ANZAC day. Now I don't watch so much TV, but then I watched far too much and even during the kids shows, they would promote the good things about being in the Military. The tax free benefits, the free training and education, the fact that it was a guaranteed job with real money. This all at a time when unemployment was increasing and future prospects for a child like me were dwindling.
I saw these ads and thought seriously about joining. I thought that it would be a good idea to join when I was 16 for something to go to after my schooling finished. I did, I seriously thought about it, Then I thought of the consequences of my actions. How would me being in the military be perceived. I know that my intention would be to milk it, but I would never want to go to war. I am a pacifist, I am against war in any way shape or form, however I realised that joining the military would make me naught but a number, a vote pro-war, pro military action, a vote against everything I believed.
I never joined the military, not even as a reservist because peace is something I truly value and I don't think our military share that sentiment.
It is nothing against the people who went to our previous military interventions or are involved in our current wars. These are people who are doing what they are told to do. in some cases. Though far too few, they are doing things of benefit to people. UN Peace monitors and medical personnel are valued, but are too few compared with the sheer weight of numbers behind guns. In the end, it is the guns that lead the politics of the military, not the diplomacy.
The people of the past had different reasons or going to war. Some went for the adventure and to travel in a far away land. Some went due to a feeling of obligation to King and country. Most though were doing what they were told. During the time of WWI and WWII, we were a much more innocent Australia. We still had the White Australia Policy, our indigenous population didn't have the right to vote, actually the didn't count as people when we did our national headcount (or census). Our indigenous population was so innocent that they thought if they went and fought in the white mans war (even going back to the Boer War), they would be accepted as equals when they got home. They didn't get anywhere near that until the 1970's. Strange that seeing they fought in the name of the commonwealth and they got home to this commonwealth country and still didn't have the right to buy a beer.
So our men went to fight because our country, as part of the Commonwealth, was at war. We don't even know who we were at war with in WWI. We apparently went to fight the Kaiser, So we went to Gallipoli. He wasn't there. There were other Central Powers there, But not the Kaiser. Why do we even talk about him though, it wasn't his war. He was only there to let his friends in Austria get a good crack at Serbia to get justice for the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria.
Sadly we learned nothing from WWI. Ninety or so years later, we were part of the 'Central Powers' going into Afghanistan to seek out Osama Bin Laden, in much the same way that the Austro-Hungarian Empire tore into Serbia to seek out the co-conspirators to Gavrilo Princip in WWI. The only difference was that the co-conspirators were believed to be in the legitimate Serbian military, rather than the Taliban.
I am not surprised that we didn't see what we had become when chasing we were the Taliban. We are too busy looking at the returned servicemen as heroes, but we have missed the point. The lessons we learn from war is not got from those that survived, it is from those that died.
I have nothing against the returned servicemen and women, again I point out that they went to Europe because they were told that that was the right thing to do, even though it is not a place when an Australian Military belongs. None of the people that went to Europe though are our heroes because they didn't save us, they endeavored to save Them. The Australian-ness of their act was that they went in to bat for their mate, being mother England, and they were thrown to the lions. what they came back with was the memories of the fallen, and the travesty is that it is the fallen that ANZAC day is meant to be about, however it has been hijacked from them.
The Military's recruitment drive is not the only thing that jumps on the coattails of the fallen. Organisations everywhere are bleeding the ANZAC spirit dry. TV networks milk the cash cow that is emotion-driven TV, biscuit manufacturers have sold commemorative biccie tins, soft drink manufacturers have put an image of a digger on a can, Beer makers encourage you o drink more because it goes to the RSL and the AFL have stolen the day to get 90000 bums on seats at the MCG.
I am not sure what is more offensive, that the AFL declares war in a battle between life long foes on ANZAC day, or that the RSL fights more to protect their pokies, than they do to help the returned service-personnel. Maybe the most offensive thing though is that ANZAC day is the only day other than Christmas that most people bother to wheel grand-pa out of the nursing home and into civilisation.
The treatment of the old and frail in this country is a disgrace, however it is not something that is limited to returned service personnel.
When I wrote the essay, I had noticed something. it was something small, but it shaped my thoughts on ANZAC day forever. in the lead up to ANZAC day 1989, I noticed that there was an increased amount of advertising for the 'defence force' on TV in the lead up to ANZAC day. Now I don't watch so much TV, but then I watched far too much and even during the kids shows, they would promote the good things about being in the Military. The tax free benefits, the free training and education, the fact that it was a guaranteed job with real money. This all at a time when unemployment was increasing and future prospects for a child like me were dwindling.
I saw these ads and thought seriously about joining. I thought that it would be a good idea to join when I was 16 for something to go to after my schooling finished. I did, I seriously thought about it, Then I thought of the consequences of my actions. How would me being in the military be perceived. I know that my intention would be to milk it, but I would never want to go to war. I am a pacifist, I am against war in any way shape or form, however I realised that joining the military would make me naught but a number, a vote pro-war, pro military action, a vote against everything I believed.
I never joined the military, not even as a reservist because peace is something I truly value and I don't think our military share that sentiment.
It is nothing against the people who went to our previous military interventions or are involved in our current wars. These are people who are doing what they are told to do. in some cases. Though far too few, they are doing things of benefit to people. UN Peace monitors and medical personnel are valued, but are too few compared with the sheer weight of numbers behind guns. In the end, it is the guns that lead the politics of the military, not the diplomacy.
The people of the past had different reasons or going to war. Some went for the adventure and to travel in a far away land. Some went due to a feeling of obligation to King and country. Most though were doing what they were told. During the time of WWI and WWII, we were a much more innocent Australia. We still had the White Australia Policy, our indigenous population didn't have the right to vote, actually the didn't count as people when we did our national headcount (or census). Our indigenous population was so innocent that they thought if they went and fought in the white mans war (even going back to the Boer War), they would be accepted as equals when they got home. They didn't get anywhere near that until the 1970's. Strange that seeing they fought in the name of the commonwealth and they got home to this commonwealth country and still didn't have the right to buy a beer.
So our men went to fight because our country, as part of the Commonwealth, was at war. We don't even know who we were at war with in WWI. We apparently went to fight the Kaiser, So we went to Gallipoli. He wasn't there. There were other Central Powers there, But not the Kaiser. Why do we even talk about him though, it wasn't his war. He was only there to let his friends in Austria get a good crack at Serbia to get justice for the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria.
Sadly we learned nothing from WWI. Ninety or so years later, we were part of the 'Central Powers' going into Afghanistan to seek out Osama Bin Laden, in much the same way that the Austro-Hungarian Empire tore into Serbia to seek out the co-conspirators to Gavrilo Princip in WWI. The only difference was that the co-conspirators were believed to be in the legitimate Serbian military, rather than the Taliban.
I am not surprised that we didn't see what we had become when chasing we were the Taliban. We are too busy looking at the returned servicemen as heroes, but we have missed the point. The lessons we learn from war is not got from those that survived, it is from those that died.
I have nothing against the returned servicemen and women, again I point out that they went to Europe because they were told that that was the right thing to do, even though it is not a place when an Australian Military belongs. None of the people that went to Europe though are our heroes because they didn't save us, they endeavored to save Them. The Australian-ness of their act was that they went in to bat for their mate, being mother England, and they were thrown to the lions. what they came back with was the memories of the fallen, and the travesty is that it is the fallen that ANZAC day is meant to be about, however it has been hijacked from them.
The Military's recruitment drive is not the only thing that jumps on the coattails of the fallen. Organisations everywhere are bleeding the ANZAC spirit dry. TV networks milk the cash cow that is emotion-driven TV, biscuit manufacturers have sold commemorative biccie tins, soft drink manufacturers have put an image of a digger on a can, Beer makers encourage you o drink more because it goes to the RSL and the AFL have stolen the day to get 90000 bums on seats at the MCG.
I am not sure what is more offensive, that the AFL declares war in a battle between life long foes on ANZAC day, or that the RSL fights more to protect their pokies, than they do to help the returned service-personnel. Maybe the most offensive thing though is that ANZAC day is the only day other than Christmas that most people bother to wheel grand-pa out of the nursing home and into civilisation.
The treatment of the old and frail in this country is a disgrace, however it is not something that is limited to returned service personnel.
Another point, the RSLs in WA manage to survive without pokies, they have to. Why are they a requirement i the rest f the country?
Getting back to the point though, ANZAC day is being milked and marketed away from the fallen soldiers, soldiers that fell in wars that we shouldn't have been in. Even the battles that were in defense of our nation were largely fought by 'green', injured, old or reservist troupes because our best men were were in Europe in WWII, and not here when Darwin was being bombed. We never had a defence force. To this day we have a Military, a Government approved Militia killing civilians on foreign soil.
From the Boer war, our Military attacked people overseas. In Europe and Africa and Korea and Vietnam to more modern wars like Gulf (I) and even the wars we are in now in Iraq and Afghanistan, they are not our wars but we sent men and women to them and because of this we will always have returned service people to march on ANZAC day. This way the day can always be used as a recruitment drive until we start running out of diggers again and then we just sent more able people to another countries war, and thus the circle continues
We learned nothing from any of the wars we have entered into. In the same way at 12 that I realised that I would be a vote for war if I joined the military, the more we fight other battles for our allies, the more battles they will go into because they know that our government will support them.
We learned nothing from any of the wars we have entered into. In the same way at 12 that I realised that I would be a vote for war if I joined the military, the more we fight other battles for our allies, the more battles they will go into because they know that our government will support them.
The people standing there cheering as the returned soldiers stagger down the street in the parade, or the people who go to a foreign land where the ancestors fought, I wonder if they get the point. It is not about the life, it is about the death. It is not about preserving our way of live, it is about learning from the past and not sending our kids to die the same way. It is not about well wishes to and from people in active duty, it is about there not being a 'duty', or even a sense thereof, for them. It is not about political positioning, marketing or recruitment, it is about peace so our children and our children's children dont have to know the horrors of war.
What ANZAC day means to me isn't the pride that we are told we should feel, but the shame that we are being inundated with the wrong information and the wrong perspective and we are not learning the lessons that the fallen want to teach us. We celebrate this day the way we are told to, the same way they were told that going to war was the right thing to do. In the end, we are celebrating the propaganda and our willingness to let others tell us what to do. However it is only for one day, and tomorrow we will let someone tell us to do something else.