War & Memory

You know that awkward moment when the media attempts to address History and make it comprehensible for the general public, but instead they just end up being disgustingly patriotic and twisting facts?

If you live in Canada and watch television you've probably seen one of those bullshit propaganda commercials glorifying the Canadian victory over the Americans in the War of 1812. If you haven't seen it, you can watch it here. But don't say I didn't warn you about the blatant inaccuracies presented.

Now, before I begin explaining why I despise this video so much, you will need some background information. Last October I wrote this article for my school's newspaper.

Basically, I attended a lecture by Professor Terry Copp who stated that until this year (2012) no one in Canada even cared about the War of 1812, but since it's now the bicentennial, everyone all of a sudden does. However, they are caring about all the wrong things. The Canadian government has pin-pointed certain 'war heros' and latched onto their 'stories' to show Canadians how great we were: how we stood up and valiantly defended our lands (despite invading America, killing their people, and burning down the White House, because, you know, violent actions such as those are totally acceptable when you're doing it for a just cause) and how we allied with our Native neighbours (and then pushed them all onto reserves afterwards and took away virtually all their rights).

As Copp pointed out in his lecture, and as this video illustrates, society latches onto idealized versions of supposed war heros, and in doing so, forgets about the common women and men who fought and died for our country. No one is remembering the people who were slaughtered and left to die in the mud. We only remember people who acted like 'heros' in the face of danger.

We allow ourselves to give into myths about war because we are unable to comprehend the violently brutal truth about reality. No one wants to remember how their grandfather was slain in battle and left to die, so instead of remembering the truth surrounding his actions and story, they latch on to the idea that he was only fighting for the good of his people - that he was helping combat against an external force that was hell-bent on destroying the pure society we live in.

Now, I'm not saying that soldiers didn't/don't have good intentions, because they do. I know plenty of people currently serving in the armed forces, and the love they have for their country is unbelievable. What I'm saying is that we glorify them so much that it obstructs the truth.

In the War of 1812, as in any war, we do not go and fight against barbarians that are trying to destroy our society. We are fighting against other humans who are also trying to protect their own people. Think about it.

If you don't think we glorify war stories, please read the first sentence of this article.

"The men who helped save the world from Nazi terror." Oh really?

Yes, we now know that Hitler wanted to take over the world, and he also wanted to exterminate all Jewish peoples, gypsies, the disabled, and anyone who generally disagreed with his plans. But guess what? Not every single Nazi in Germany knew this. Only a select few of his men knew about his Final Solution - the rest were just out there fighting to protect their country (Germany) because, to the best of their knowledge, the rest of the world was out to get them.

Yes, it's a good thing Hitler stopped slaughtering millions of innocent people, but we didn't save the entire world. (And side note: there are other dictators who did worse actions, and killed thousands more people than Hitler, but no one ever talks about them.)

And the Second World War wasn't actually the glorified battle society wants it to be. Thousands upon thousands of people died extremely brutal deaths and experienced things the average person could not even begin to understand. But that doesn't mean we should ignore these stories.

In this article, the veteran's daughter states that she has never, nor will ever, want to see photographs or experience in any way what her father went through because it contained "some of the worst evils of the murderous Nazi regime."

First off, you can't only identify the Nazis as murderers. Were Canadian, American, British (etc.) soldiers not also murders? They killed people too, but no one wants to recognize that because it makes us look bad. No. We were doing 'what was right.'

Secondly, by not recognizing what veterans did, we are only giving into the stereotypical, idealized stories of warfare. By ignoring the truth we are accepting a version of war that was created for us. Instead of educating ourselves about factual events, we are accepting a lie. Why? Because it's easier to cope with? Or because we are extremely biased and have been bred to only see the good in our country?

Well sorry to be the one to tell you, but Canada is not any better off than any other country. We have gone to war overseas and murdered people there, as well as isolating and murdering our own indigenous peoples here. We really have nothing to boast about, and it agitates me to see the media, and our society as a whole, twisting facts.

It's time we face the truth and understand our history for what it really is.