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The Forum > Article Comments > Happy Anzac Day? > Comments

Happy Anzac Day? : Comments

By Catriona Elder, published 25/4/2012

If Anzac Day is a national day that takes place in public space then it needs to be open to debate, critique, argument and counter-argument.

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My advise to you is slab the face of the next person who say "happy" ANZAC day
Posted by cornonacob, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 2:42:46 PM
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The title is enough to put me right off without reading any further.
Posted by 579, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 3:11:10 PM
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I'm afraid I agree with you. These two points:

1. I do not agree with you regarding having children in the parade. I think that is fine.

2. What annoys me and why I turn away from this is because it gives excuse to start saying rubbish like bring back National Service. When that starts, which it did today, I turn the whole thing off and go and do something else.
Posted by Big M, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 5:03:55 PM
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You may be in a minority, Catriona, but it's a fairly sizeable one.

Perhaps if Australia had been involved in more justifiable wars over the course of its history, the day would be more readily embraced by all Australians as a genuine day of remembrance and gratitude - instead of the mawkish media/tourism/national identity circus it's become.

Side by side with our Anzac history is an equally proud but mostly suppressed history of protest against Australia's war involvement. One significant 'Anzac' story that has been surgically removed from the mainstream narrative is that Australia in WWI was deeply and bitterly divided over our participation. A strong anti-war movement flourished during WWI, definitely dwarfing that of the Vietnam era, and was ruthlessly suppressed by draconian censorship, arrests, prison sentences and deportation under the War Precautions Act. Yet it survived long enough to fight and defeat the two conscription referendums of 1916 and 1917, which saved 10s of thousands of more young Australians from being sent to the killing fields of Europe. It's a colourful and dramatic period in our history, that sadly young Australians never learn.
Posted by Killarney, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 5:20:01 PM
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'I do not agree with you regarding having children in the parade. I think that is fine.'

Well it's definitely not fine with me!

Too many millions of children have lost their lives, families, homes, and countries, and been horribly crippled, mentally and physically, in wars that adults declared without their knowledge or blessing, simply to score diplomatic advantage and to win petty power struggles, with little to no thought of the catastrophic destruction they were letting loose on people's lives.

I see this latest babes-and-medals trend in Anzac propaganda as a totally unacceptable form of brainwashing the young to believe that if you fight in a war you're a somebody, and if you die in a war you're a saint. How can they grow up to question our war involvement, when they are taught from the earliest age to believe that soldiers are glorious people who live on a far more exalted plane than the rest of us mortals?
Posted by Killarney, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 5:37:05 PM
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Killarney
"I see this latest babes-and-medals trend in Anzac propaganda as a totally unacceptable form of brainwashing the young to believe that if you fight in a war you're a somebody, and if you die in a war you're a saint. How can they grow up to question our war involvement, when they are taught from the earliest age to believe that soldiers are glorious people who live on a far more exalted plane than the rest of us mortals?"

Well, returned soldiers generally are on a far more exalted plane because of what they faced. If you hold bravery, courage, valour, discipline, and strength in high esteem, then returned soldiers embody all those virtues and so deserve the accolades. If, on the contrary, you hold meekness, passiveness, and similar things to be virtuous, then obviously retuned servicemen isn't going to be high on your list.

It may be "brainwashing" to an extent, but what isn't when you're young? I bet if we indoctrinated young people with "equality," "meekness," and other lefty stuff it would be okay, wouldn't it?
Posted by Aristocrat, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 6:39:46 PM
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