BroYou always sound like you're disagreeing with me! That's OK but I'm curious as to your stance... do you think WWI was a just war? Do you think the rhetoric of the vets sacrificing and serving their country (Canada in this instance) 'so we can be free' is even remotely accurate?
Really I am more concerned with the gap between the reality of war and the sentiment of modern Remembrance Day rhetoric. Here we always honor the fallen, and reflect on the horrors of war - which is all fine and good - but they NEVER EVER examine the REASONS for the wars, nor ever give the slightest hint that maybe the wars were unjust in the first place. The unconscious sentiment is always that they were legit wars that had to be fought, and of course we were on the side of the 'Good Guys'. This is what I have a problem with. This is what imo allows the perpetual war machine to keep rolling. They skew the propaganda from war to war, but yes I do see great similarities in this regard for all modern wars. That's why I mention it in the same breath. In fact, I think that most wars since WWI have actually been concocted basically by the same groups.
Here in Canada, the sentiment for WWI propaganda seemed mostly to be about GUILT. I bet there was a huge effort to make men feel like they should be ashamed if they did not go, as if 'Real Men' would and should all go. If you choose to stay and take care of your wife and kids and farm you should be ashamed. Honestly, I bet most soldiers didn't have a fuckin clue what the war was even about... they just went because of foggy manufactured social pressures.
Do you really think a single average Canadian was presented with any facts about what the war was about, or how it affected Canada? Do you think it was in the interest of the war machine to have the population educated on the issue?
Here is a SMALL sampling of WWI posters of the day. I have a huge interest in war propaganda artwork, have studied several wars from this perspective, and ALWAYS find them to be absolutely ridiculous.
(I dare not even open the vault of US propaganda lol)
Questioning men's masculinity/honor:
lol - if you don't leave your family to go get slaughtered in Europe you will be caught with your pants down:
As if it was a fucking Hockey game:
I wonder sometimes if the line in our National Anthem 'We Stand On Guard For Thee' was a result of some sort of war propaganda:
And if you couldn't actually leave your wife and kids to go slaughter other human beings for god knows why, they guilted people into giving over their MONEY. Who knows what kind of corruption went on here? Where that money actually went?
LOLOLOL:
How much was being taken advantage of ECONOMICALLY via war-guilt? How many industries might have been shifted around, competition eliminated, monopolizations seized, etc etc as a result of using war sentiment to change people's buying patterns?
It would make a very interesting study imo
Lay off the bong
Seriously