(no subject)

[avevale_intelligencer]

Ah, the decline of the yuppie…

There’s a shop in Bath, a little way up from work. When I first saw it, it was selling Ferraris, at pretty much what one would pay for a largish house.

When I saw it again just before I went off sick, it was selling Ferrari keyrings and sweaters and baseball caps, with a few cars in the window round the corner.

Now it’s an estate agent. Sad really. :D

Oh, and since everyone seems to be doing it: here’s to all the people who died before they should have, or lost limbs or sight or sanity, or loved ones or children, for whatever reason or excuse seemed good at the time. Sorry I can’t quite bring myself to believe that it was necessary.

Comments

[demoneyes.livejournal.com]

"Sorry I can’t quite bring myself to believe that it was necessary."

I've been to Dachau.

I believe.

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, I know all that, but Hitler wasn't a force of nature, he was a person, and people made choices to put him where he could do all that horrendous damage. It became necessary for lives to be cut short and families ripped apart on both sides because of those choices.

I can get just as emotional as anyone about the victims of human cruelty, but we all have the choice not to be cruel. In that sense, I wonder if anyone can name a war that was "necessary" from its outset.

The trick (and it's not an easy one, but who said it had to be?) is to know when you're putting in power a person who will cause a war, and not to do it.

[demoneyes.livejournal.com]

Looking at the above, would 'unavoidable' better express your meaning than 'necessary'?

That I could accept as an argument. It *did* become necessary, that I know. Whether it could have been *avoided*, that I know not.

[rdmaughan.livejournal.com]

Good distiction between unnecessary and unavoidable.

Have you come across the seies "What If?" The first one is a collection of essays by military historians on turning points in history based around conflicts. Several of them are WW I and WW II based.

Suppose Hitler had died while on active service in WW I?

One of the best has an obscure failed British politician killed when struck by a taxi in New York between the wars. Churchill was knocked down because he looked the wrong way while crossing the street. Obviously in reality he survived and went on to serve his country once more. Consider WW II without his leadership and those morale boosting speeches.

The second one in the series is not as good but still not bad.

If interested I could bring them over next weekend.

One last (hopefully non-contentious) word...

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

Didn't we have this argument already?

"Wake up, bard, you're not living in a song now..."

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

I don't have anything to add to what I said. Yes, it became necessary and unavoidable. It shouldn't have, and I believe it didn't have to. If you believe in peace at all, you have to believe that there is always another way, even if you don't know what that way might be. Always. If you don't, if you believe that under any circumstances war is the only solution, then you have to accept that we will never, while we remain human, be free of it, and then Remembrance Sunday becomes--no, not pointless, but a forlorn hope at best, and a quaint and curious ritual at worst.

Okay, I did have something to add to what I said. That's the last of it, though. I'm done.