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For this ANZAC day we did an eight hour round trip to a little town north of Portland to visit an avenue of honour commemorating three of my wife's ancestors who had served in Europe in WW1. Two remain buried there. For those who have visited Hotspur will know how small the town is, in fact we drove through it and out the other side before realising that that was all there was. The avenue has lost many of its trees although there had been some replanting. The names had all disappeared from beneath the trees however a commemorative plaque has been recently placed at the end of the avenue listing all the names.

http://www.ballaratgenealogy.org.au/hotspur/avenue.htm

Of the 40 names of those who served, fifteen did not return. On our drive down we passed through many towns with the memorial flags at half mast and flowers of relatives at their bases. It is reasonable to assume this kind of loss was experienced in many of these communities and that in lieu of any graves these shrines of marble and bronze or the avenues of honour mark a place where the relatives of those lost could gather to remember their lost ones.

That this has been burned indelibly into the Australian psyche should not be a surprise nor unfortunately should its appropriation by some, especially politicians, to enhance the heroism while distancing the loss.

However that appropriation should not diminish ANZAC day, nor should the way successive generations have wanted to clothe it differently. Underneath it is a decent, heartfelt day when the thoughts of the living turn towards those lost well before their time.

The tribalism expressed on this day in each of these little towns is something I see as a positive and one I think we would be poorer without.

Pericles,You seem to finally realising the gravity of the situation.It took me months to come to terms with this betrayal.
It is no longer in the realm of theory.This is the reality.

An elite of lunatic power brokers have been caught out,of which many are obsessive compulsive lunatics of power.They have played this to the end game of no return.Either they win,or nobody wins.

They have emulated Hitler who took Germany to the brink,and now will not release their grip on power without devastation.

So we have a corrupted US Congress with it's Corporate shills, screwing the US public into poverty in the name of stimulus packages/bailouts,while they rape the real productivity of the USA via Fed Res loans and interest.

I try to be positive,but this will not end well.

Dear csteele,

Thank you for your post. When we were in separate tribes, tribalism served us well. We fought other tribes, and those tribes that survived became stronger. Shared ritual created common bonds. A shared belief also provided a common bond. Religio is the Latin for 'to bind'.

However, we are no longer living in tribal conditions. The powers that be push us into war for their own ends, economic or whatever. The religion that bound us is a divisive force because we are crowded together with people of different beliefs. The nation state is a false tribe as was the British Empire.

I feel the tug of tribalism - of attachment to religion, to a nation state to a culture. The culture and religion of my youth is precious to me even though I no longer believe in the religion and am in a foreign country. I am aware of the positive values of tribalism. However, in our time in the world as it is I think the negative aspects of tribalism far outweigh the positive aspects.

We will be poorer without tribalism in certain areas, but we will also be richer in creating bonds that extend over tribal barriers. I hope that the nation state which has a shared narrative we can glory in will be transformed to nothing more than a convenient administrative district. That will be a great step in getting rid of the madness of war.

Dear davidf,

Thank you for your response.

You are of course correct, the nation state has to figure predominately in any reflection on the madness of war. Often only it has the capability to mobilise millions to the battle against another, to drive its industry in arming its forces, to carry the press and therefore public opinion to the cause, but this is not always the case. An example is your own country whose civil war was so tragic and brutal.

But I would argue that the nation state also provides some means of contagion. That there were ultimately such constraints on Hitler for example is something many would be thankful for. They can also bring disparate groups together, sometimes successfully like Canada, other times not, as seen with Yugoslavia.

I think there have been great strides toward the diminution of some historical tribal hostilities over the last couple of hundred years. Class tribalism springs to mind. What where once fiercely delineated boundaries have been spirited away in many countries. Some people with justification point to WW1 and its great cost as a pivotal moment in the erosion of class barriers.

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I would claim equity fought through social justice reforms had a greater part to play. The same inequalities, perceived or otherwise, between nations are a huge driver of conflict. Just as revolutions were employed to, often violently, correct class inequities within states, war attempts the same between them.

To rail against those inequities as I know you do, would have to be far more productive than railing against tribalism.

You made the point “A shared belief also provided a common bond.” but with the the ANZAC day commemoration, especially in smaller towns, it has always seemed to me more about a shared grief. To see all the flags at half mast on Sunday was not to see a statement of triumphalism but one of reflection, acknowledgement and loss.

As you have in the past corrected some of my misapprehensions of aspects of the Jewish faith (I know I will never truly understand your often delightful tribe) in that same spirit may I invite you to attend a couple of Dawn Services, ideally both big and small, before passing final judgement on this country's annual ritual.

Dear csteele,

The dawn services are not unique. They have their analogues elsewhere in the world. In Israel they have services to remember the Holocaust, to remember those heroes who fell in the War of Independence and the other wars that Israel has been in. In the United States they have had Memorial day services to remember the dead in the various wars the US has been in.

Along with a shared grief comes a resolve. It is a resolve to follow in the footsteps of the fallen- to be as heroic as they have been. The dawn services are not unique.

There is a tremendous spirit of shared resolve in the US and in Israel. It makes for a dedicated and effective military.

I see dead bodies. I see dead bodies on both sides. We commemorate our fallen. However, many of the fallen were doing their best to slaughter people wearing different uniforms. The people wearing different uniforms have people in their country commemorating them. Their services don't commemorate those on our side who their side slaughtered. Our services don't commemorate those on their side who our side slaughtered.

I am not just passing judgment on Australia's annual ritual. I am passing judgment on all such rituals and grieving for their dead in all countries.

Until we fully realise that in any conflict there are humans on all sides and those dead deserve remembrance as well as our heroes the bloodbaths will continue.