Remember what?

Remembrance Day. The eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. Red poppies, [in Flanders Fields](http://www.inflandersfields.be/)  … All this has been around longer than I have been alive.

I don’t know what war is like. I can imagine – I’m good at that – but there’s no way for me to know. Thank God. I am part of a generation that doesn’t know what war is. I’ve seen pictures, read news, seen films – but all the while, the words of millions of soldiers are in the back of my head: “you have no idea what it’s really like.” And I don’t. It’s not possible for me to know.

So, what am I to remember today? Remember how bad war is? I can’t remember that, because, as I’ve said, I don’t have anything to remember. Should I remember people I know who have died in wars? I haven’t got any of those either. Remember people who have died in general? Well, I’ve got some of them, but it doesn’t seem appropriate today.

Perhaps it’s not for me to remember, but to appreciate. Give thanks to the selfless people who did what they did to ensure continued freedom in the face of tyranny and oppression. Give thanks for having been born in a great, free and democratic country, thanks for the ability to move to another one on the other side of the world.

But to appreciate war? Appreciate bloodshed? I am aghast. I can’t get behind that. Is this a case of the end justifying the means? If so, what does that mean for the tyrannical and warmongering “leaders” of our time?

Am I reading too much into it? Is it simply a reminder, like Berlin’s Kaiser Wilhelm Church, that we should never again consider a global conflict as a solution to a problem? If that’s the case, it’s preaching to the converted. If politicians, who by their age would be in a position to truly remember, really understood this, there would be no war. Furthermore, it seems blatently disrespectful to dismiss this day so lightly, a tourist attraction in November. A fundraising occasion for veterans’ associations. Good publicity for the poppy.

Remembrance Day is a confusing event, an important day that is losing its identity through the march of time and the changing attitudes to armed conflict. The weight of history is heavy, and I’m not sure we’re equipped to carry it. That worries me. Two World Wars were more than enough, thanks.

We can’t afford to forget why we can’t remember.