Absurdity

Okay so I am getting more and more tired of the culture surrounding the poppy every year. It's becoming more and more about being a display of remembrance than actual remembrance. People putting it on earlier and earlier, and getting so easily offended or righteous about anyone not wearing 1 or wearing a different one. Which I think kind of ties into soldiers as heroes idea, where we nearly worship them above all else. Where speaking out or saying we need to stop fighting is seen as disrespectful to the individual and not the organization. The idea should be remembering, but thinking and pushing for never again, not keep fighting and killing and murdering.

Seems to be, as everything else in life nowadays, more about being divisive than uniting. People keep bringing up freedom of speech(expression)and yes people are free to say what they want, and we are free to criticize them for their remarks, and their employer is free to fire them for those remarks. Freedom of speech does not mean people can't talk about what you said, that you can just say whatever and expect everyone to agree or remain silent. Imagine if we all had to remain silent when people can just say anything they want.

I do think the idea of remembrance kind of romanticizes war and makes it into theatrics and heroics. Note it was written early in the war when people still saw it as a gentlemanly thing to do and didn't recognize it for the horror that it is. To me the red poppy is about remembering the soldiers, those who participated, and to the poem to push on and keep fighting, to carry their flame. The white poppy to me symbolizes honouring all the victims of war, not just soldiers, and saying not to keep picking up arms but throw them down and give peace a chance.