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November 14, 2006
Remembering
The last few days have been interesting because I have been juggling showing my friemds around my part of the world alongside having, on Saturday, to lead the short service of Remembrance at 11.00 in the Abbey and then to repeat that on the Sunday alongside being there for the Civic Services, Requiem Mass and all the other services. I find the Remembrance Services very emotionally challenging for a number of reasons, not least because I too have lost friends in war - and I feel that it is something I can offer in remembrance of those who served, and those I knew who also served and gave their lives for others in war and in "peace". Some of those died in vain it often seems as I watch what the politically correct and victim culture promoters do with, and to, the freedom that was so hard won for us. It is especially notable that none of these so called Moralists who now dictate our thoughts, our actions and seek to restrict our freedom of choice and action so assidiously - always spouting their mantra of "fairness" and "moral obligation" - have ever served in any of the armed forces or any of the uniformed services that must daily preserve the peace, uphold the balance of law or protect people from their own folly. Not for them that opportunity to "die for the cause" - that "honour" is always accorded to those they inevitably paint as "institutionally racist", "institutionally sexist" or any other "institutionally -ist" that suits theiur particular beef of the moment.
The pursuit of victimisation - everyone in the mantra of the PC brigade is a "victim" of the system, of slavery two hundred years ago, injustice or poverty today - have turned the freedom that our fathers and grandfathers won at such a fearsome cost into a new slavery. If you are a "victim" of something you are in their power as you can then be made dependent on them for "help" intended to "lift you from your victimhood". In reality this only means that they can feel good about "helping" while they continue to hold you in the "victim state" because only if they have a "victim" to help, can they feel they have a goal in life.
We are all, at some time or another, a "victim" of some form of injustice. There is a solution, but it is an individual one. Get a life, draw a line and move on. If you allow yourself to be sucked into the pit of always feeling you are a victim you become one - but you are the opressor as well. In short you make yourself a victim. Those with the courage and the guts to do so, turn away from that and take on a new challenge and usually succeed. Sometimes it takes more than one restart, but it almost always is rewarded.
As I remembered my own family members who served in the wars of the twentieth century and survived or died, I was struck by the example of my grandfather. Wounded at the Somme, he recovered and continued to serve. Then, targetted by the IRA on returning home, he emigrated and carved a new life for himself in a foreign land, never again returning home. Was he a victim? Yes, in a sense he was, victim to the crass incompetence of the commanders of the first world war and victim of the evil men of the IRA that Blair now lauds and honours. But, he picked himself up and built a new life for himself. He was never rich - he was even deprived of his inheritance by the Labour Government of 1945 - 51, but again he never complained about it, he simply drew a line and carried on. Unlike MrBlair's PC lobbyists who insist on being the Victims for everyone else's sins.
I certainly hope that the world wakes up to the insidious poison that lies at the heart of the victim culture that fuels PC - before it destroys us all. Then the act of remembrance and the sacrifice of the millions of men and women who fought for our freedoms will truly have been in vain.
Posted by The Gray Monk at November 14, 2006 08:32 AM
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Comments
There must have been something special about the generation of our grandfathers. Mine started out with very little and became a farmer. Due to political complications he lost his first farm and started anew. He lost his second farm due to WWII and arrived in the Northwest of Germany with his wife and five surviving children but little else. Being too proud to accept any help from the state he somehow managed to acquire an old railway waggon which served as a 'house' for his family. A few years later he was able to build house for real. Apparently my favourite pasttime as a baby was sleeping in the shade of an old apple tree in grandfather's garden. One of his favourite sayings was: "Wo mal was war, kommt auch was wieder." It translates into something like "Where there has been anything there will be something again." A very resourceful optimist who simply refused to be defeated by life probably describes him best.
Posted by: Mausi at November 14, 2006 05:57 PM