Lest We Forget...the medium is the message!
Remembrance Day on 11th November is coming up and I think that Great Britain has come up with a truly remarkable and authentically effective way to commemorate it!
I believe they have brought about a massive change in attitude of a global audienceby using modern photographic and video technology to communicate a message in a new and innovative way in the spirit of Marshall McLuhan.
This comes about through the medium of delivering a message incorporating a dramatic change in perspective thereby creating an authentic emotional connection which has a powerful impact on the audience. Many, if not all, visitors to the Tower (some two million at last count) will go away with a compelling and enduring appreciation of the dreadful cost of warfare in terms of human lives, never mind its sheer absurdity and insanity.......they will never forget!
I am not ashamed to admit that the videos and pics stunned me, and brought about a catch in my throat followed by a copious flow of tears, having a far more dramatic impact than the plaques on a stone memorial or the endless cemetery landscapes of thousands of white crosses!
The sheer vast scale of the Tower of London with what looks like its moat filled with blood took on a new and moving perspective when I read that it was filled with 888,246 porcelain, hand painted poppies to represent each of the British soldiers killed in the Great War!
At last I think we will begin to truly learn from the lessons of the past! An event like this imparts new meaning to the concept of commemoration as well as the ushering in of a new global consciousness. There is hope for us yet!
Watch these videos:
Regards to all,
~Arthur
Recent Comments
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Thank you, you are so right Christa, It is a beautiful and incredible act of love coming at a time when the world needs it most! Thanks for pointing this out! :)
Gods richest blessing to you and yours!
~Arthur
It is a wonderful tribute to our fallen and there has been very little peace in the world and I so hope some lessons can be learned from this but alas there is fighting around the world still. so many forever young men and woman who have lost their lives in the quest for peace.. "Lest we forget"
A very powerful tribute indeed , thank you Cathy for pointing this out!
I do believe that despite our long history of strife and conflict the World is starting to realise that we can resolve our differences through negotiation and by working together!
I believe we can achieve unity, and peace!
~Arthur
I will always hope for peace and it can be achieved but those in charge all need to be on the same page, I have like many others lost family and friends during all the conflicts
WOW. That is truly amazing! I like your comment "a compelling and enduring appreciation of the dreadful cost of warfare in terms of human lives, never mind its sheer absurdity and insanity" I couldn't agree more!!!!! Thanks for sharing this. It IS emotional!
Thanks for your comment Debbi, you are so right about the intensity of the emotional message conveyed! It makes everything very "close up and personal" and had a very strong effect on me.....I felt quite devastated at the enormity of the number of lives lost...studying the history of warfare is one thing but being confronted with the facts in this highly visual and innovative manner is quite another!
~Arthur
Exactly and when you think about all these people that were once someones child or someones spouse and then how it affects all the families that are associated with the person. Such insanity indeed!
You bet Carla,
It made a tremendous impression on me...literally left me stunned and gasping like a fish out of water!
~Arthur
This has a very powerful impact Peter, you have nothing to worry about, your emotions are perfectly normal!.....its just that the sheer enormity of the issue becomes very real and overwhelming ...something has to give!
Thanks for your input!
May I use a quote from Breakfast of Champions by late and great Kurt Vonnegut Jr.:
===
I will come to a time in my backwards trip when November eleventh, accidentally my birthday, was a sacred day called Armistice Day.
When I was a boy, and when Dwayne Hoover was a boy, all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month.
It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another.
I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.
===
Source: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut
Great quote Ervin, thank you!
I love his sci-fi writing and was surprised to discover that he was a pacifist as well, thanks for quoting the link.
I also love this quote of his which resonates deeply with me!
"I believe that reading and writing are the most nourishing forms of meditation anyone has so far found. By reading the writings of the most interesting minds in history, we meditate with our own minds and theirs as well. This to me is a miracle."
I wish I had said that! :-)
Amen!
Kind regards
~Arthur
Amen indeed. Kurt is my favourite author.
I took myself a liberty to make a post out of his quote at Persona Paper: http://www.personapaper.com/article/14611-what-will-you-do-on-november-11th-at-1111-am
Impressive Ervin,
Thank you very much, its good to know you, I will look at Persona Paper more closely later...I like what I see! :-)
~Arthur
Thank you. It is still very young. But promising and transparent and sincere. The level of the content written and published there is much higher as with some other sites.
And it is good to know you :)
Are you asking if PP is my work? I am flattered but no :) I discovered it after the troubles on some other site :)
It is an excellent poligon to hon your writing skills. You know - as Kurt has said - a form of meditation...
we should never forget what the effects of war can cause to the ones left behind all the best
Hi Max,
Thank you for that most cogent reminder...keep well and enjoy the weekend!
Kind regards
~Arthur
Excellent post Arthur. I must say I noticed some of this on Facebook and would never have noticed otherwise without this social media.
Having lost numerous family members, and friends going way back to the Boer War and including WW1 & WW2, and recent local wars, I can truly relate to this mindless sacrifice, in the name of mans stupid, greedy and fearful ego!
Thanks for the links to the videos. Will take a look when I get a gap.
Thanks for this very insightful comment Shawn, again you speak with the authentic voice of experience... ciao for now!
~Arthur
Hi Ken,
Thank you for your comment and just to let you know Ive fixed the second video link...sorry the gremlins got into the works again!
Kind regards
~Arthur
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Thank you for sharing this. We owe our freedom to the brave people who fought for it.
Thank you to them and the ones closest to them who also sacrificed their dearest treasure.
Thank you Edie for your inspiring comment, you so rightly acknowledge that we owe our freedom to those brave soldiers of all nations that fought and died for us in Two World Wars as well as to those who have served or are currently serving in other conflicts past and present in the rest of the world!
Blessings to you and yours!
~Arthur
I cry at Patriotic Events. My 3 brothers are veterans. The oldest served in the 60s/70s at least through the 80s if not into the 90s.He and his wife had 3 children. The oldest and youngest had Muscular Dystrophy and died. Still he served our country.
My other 2 brothers did their part as well.
Our allies are wonderful. Blessings on them!