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Pro-war politicians and often-hysterical media -- on Remembrance Day in Britain and ANZAC Day in Australia -- demand "respect" for the fallen as a means to push a blood-stained nationalism to justify fresh wars. In other words, they offer those who died in wars pushed by politicians and the corporate media in the past no respect at all -- just cynical exploitation. But there is another way to remember those who fought and died in wars -- remembering it as a tragedy and waste of life, whose promises of "freedom" and progress vanish when the firing stops. That is the tale told in "The Old Man", written by Scottish folk singer Ian Campbell <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Campbell>. Set in the last part of the 20th century, an old working class man from Britain towards the end of the 20th century looking back over a life punctured by bloodshed in war and poverty and struggle in peace. The song was recorded in 1979 by Irish folk band The Dubliners, sung by legendary gravel-voiced singer Ronnie Drew. Beginning with the death of the narrator's father at the turn of the 20th century in the Boer War, it travels through World War I and then the hardships of the 1926 General Strike, Great Depression and the rise of fascism. Not ever the defeat of fascism in World War II brings respite -- the old man's American-born-and-bred grandson is sent to fight in Vietnam. Living on a meagre pension, the old man bitterly concludes his whole life feels like "one long bloody war" -- before insisting there must be change. https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/60621 -- “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is humanity’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” — Oscar Wilde, Soul of Man Under Socialism “The free market is perfectly natural... do you think I am some kind of dummy?” — Jarvis Cocker _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
