The 'war advances technology' thing is basically just the fallacy of the broken window, is it not? If all the money and effort spunked away on killing tens of millions of innocent people had instead gone into something else (even if it took a few more decades), we'd have had all the same advances and hten some, except more of them would have been in fields that aren't just about killing. And, y'know, millions of people would hae been able to contribute to society instead of shooting at each other. Just look at the number of creative industries that became super-prosperous once major wars in europe stopped - if we were still invading each other every decade, there'd be no video game industry, barely any tv, hardly any movies, loads of our artists and scientists would have marched out to die or build bigger bombs instead. It's just a stupid waste of resources. You know what else spurred innovation and unnaturally fast development? Stalinism. But do people bang on about how that advanced society? Do they arse. It's not worth the price, and that's before you even consider the effect it has on human relations - how many racist arseholes are that way because their granddad lost a leg in the war to a german rocket? How many Japanese hate americans because their parents died horrendous deaths from radiation sickness in Nagasaki? And these are only the major wars - what good came from the unfashionable wars in Croatia or Somalia, exactly? One of my housemates spent his childhood diving under the table whenever he heard a loud noise after invading armies took to showering his town with grenades. People would be sitting around minding their own business when suddenly a grenade would crash through the window, and then they'd all be dead. What fucking good did that do anyone, and would you really say having the internet a few decades earlier is worth doing that to millions of people?
It's not worth the price.
Anyway, i don't bother with the silences thing, as I don't feel the need to act sanctimonious once a year just so I don't have to think about what dicks we've all been the rest of the time. A really decent memorial would be to stop supporting governments that do exactly the same things as the German, Italian and Japanese governments did during and before the wars, namely being fascist, imperialist cockrags. Some people stood around being quiet for a bit? Great, thanks. Meanwhile, our taxes are still going to kill poor people in Iraq for no good reason, North Korea is still run by a tyrannical lunatic, and the Congo is still fucking hell on earth. But at least there are no more wars and our freedom of speech is no longer under threat, right?
Old soldiers - mostly not actually motivated by freedom and democracy and all that jingoistic bullshit, but by the desire to keep their friends alive and come home safely. They went through a hell of a lot and ultimately we benefitted as a result, yes. I appreciate that insofar as someone who hasn't lived through war can, but I'll do it in my own time and in a way that actually matters, not by bowing my head and scowling at anyone who dares speak when it's time to act like you give a shit.
_________________ Lonely as a Mushroom Cloud
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