Art is culture, right?

isn't always sarcasm or irony, soontobe. Sometimes it simply means 'hmm...'

(Just to confuse you even further!)

And usually just means 'I am confused'. What's hard about that?

Ana

Precisely.

jingl
Trouble is, in rl, I am hopeless at getting irony, sarcasm and jokes in general.
So I am slightly struggling on this forum.

I said that that was (or could be) the perception by those who think it was unnecessary and insensitive to put a child of 13 on public display like that. POGS.

We're all allowed to have our opinions on here!

I'm a bit cross actually.

I don't think badly of girls and boys who are in the cadets of any of the services. Personally I take my hat off to them.

Why a politicians child was put forward beats me.

It's a bloody sorry day when a 13 year old child is called cannon fodder in this country.

Yes I've got my knickers in a twist and if you want to confirm that be my guest.

You ask about irony and sarcasm. So you obviously get it.

Can I just say that I dont get the s and s done by lots of gransnetters.
Is there something I am not getting?
Like, is their irony or sarcasm or something, that I am finding it hard to understand?
[will quite accept that I am being very thick about this!]

Well, I'm hardly likely to think they invented army cadets' uniform just for that ceremony! I have got a smidgen of intelligence thank you.

I did find it a bit bizarre.
But I think I understand what they were doing.

I dont think that in this country that there is much coersion to join the national army.

Unlike what it was or is like in the USA.
Where there are or certainly were recruitment places deliberately opened in high unemployment areas.

There was a documentary, Michael Moore?, where he could only find 1 senator? who had a child in the army.
The rest didnt seem to like the idea.
Cant think why?
So I certainly didnt like the idea of army promotion, but thwy wouldnt have their own kids anywhere near it.

I don't think anybody missed the point!

Praise the Lord.

I get your point I think, jingl. Cannon-fodder in waiting.

Have you completely missed my point? Never mind.

Yes, I know that.

Army cadets do wear army uniform, Jingl. It is part of the thing, not invented for the ceremony.

Actually, a child was fine. It was the army uniform thing that was so crass. It was like lining him up for future 'use'.

He was thirteen years old FGS. A child. It was horrible. And wrong.

Why not a politician's child?

I didn't think it was sick Jing, though I know many people did.
According to the newspapers, the boy's great great (maybe another great) uncle died in 1918 and the boy (who is a cadet so the uniform wasn't make believe) was selected to form a link between the generations.

I wonder how many other people have found this year's commemorations particularly poignant, because so many of us are fortunate enough to have the verbal histories of WW1 and 2 from loved family members.

No I didn't find it at all 'sick'.

Why make believe uniform, wasn't he a cadet.

Each to his own.

Does anyone else think it was sick to have that young boy "army cadet" in his make believe soldier uniform, to place the last ceramic poppy at the Tower?

Many more where they came from?

POGS Thanks for pointing me In the right direction. I look at these poppies flowing out of the window in the tower and it immediately reminds me of blood flowing. Read about 75% of the posts on this thread. I too am finding my feet with regards to GN etiquette. But it is stimulating to at least understand how a cross section of the population perceive the memmorial.

Thanks Eloethan for the words from Willie McBride, a song often heard in folk clubs I went to in my youth. How can this verse be omitted?
Your comments about this remembrance Sunday in particular, being a time to remember the many lives lost because of wars and this countries involvement in the arms industry

In the I today, it is reported that Joss Stone has recorded a song called "No Man's Land" as part of the Poppy Appeal.

The writer of this anti-war anthem, Eric Bogle, is apparently very unhappy as he believes his song has been "sentimentalised" because the last key verses have been omitted. The last verse is:

"And I can't help but wonder, Willie McBride,
Do all those who lie here know why they died?
Did you really believe them when they told you the cause?
Did you really believe that this war would end wars?
Well, the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame
The killing, the dying, it was all done in vain,
For, Willie McBride, it all happened again,
and again, and again, and again, and again."

I wonder if Mr Bogle gave permission for his song to be used and, if so, on what terms.

My own feeling is that this should primarily be a time to quietly remember the thousands upon thousands of lives that have been cut short by all these wars. But I think it should also be a time to question why we are content to look the other way while our governments increasingly champion the vile arms industry.

The war was freedom from a country. Not necessarily from an employer.

I guess they only have to wear them when they are on air. They are BBC employees and the BBC has standards to keep up. They are being paid, so they have to abide by the terms of the job, while they are doing the job.