Friday 6 April 2012

War Horse and the madness of men

Went to London for a couple of days. Went to see Scott of the Antarctic exhibition at the Natural History museum. He was mad but doing what some men seem to have to do - to go off and leave their women and maybe children and do risky scary things. Then I visited the War Horse exhibition at the Army museum. I then saw the War Horse on stage. It was stunning, they use large scale puppets. I just broke down at the end of the first half and cried and cried and I cried again at the end. My dad survived World War Two. Many of his mates did not. It was arbitrary. No true God would save my dad and let others die.

The First World War was another kind of male madness going off and doing scary risky things and sometimes killing other men. And for what? Sometimes men aimed away from other men or shot themselves instead. The women handed out the white feathers and shamed the men into fighting. I know the Second World War was a bit different and Hitler and his madness needed stopping.

And it goes on. Tell me why we are still in Afghanistan. It's not helping anyone as far as I can see. We are told the usual recycled lies. We all now that when we pull out there will be a Taliban government. You can't impose democracy!

So war just keeps happening. When will enough of us ever learn? War is over if you want it? Well not enough the killing goes on. It must be in all of us.

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