I read a lovely post this morning (read it here https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jim-matlock-661506239_veterans-vfw-education-activity-7235291383375290368-xkRw?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop).
The gist is that a US school teacher had 27 veterans bring in the desks for young children just starting school. Her point was that the children only had the freedom to occupy those desks due to the service and sacrifice of people like these men (carrying the desks).
Nice, I thought, well played teacher.
Then I read a few comments. Bad move Neil, donโt read the comments โฆ
The very first one I saw pointed out that โshe had 27 veterans just waiting around all day to bring these desks in? Nah, that wouldnโt happen. I smell BSโ. The next I saw screamed that this was abominable because it was โglorifying warโ.
What the fu*k??!!
What has happened to us?
We cannot read a story and get the point? We scrutinise the details looking for flaws that make it untrue? We โfact-checkโ and denounce the whole thing as lies and unreliable nonsense? Admittedly this is how a lot of โnewsโ and โjournalismโ is done so I can see where we might get this from.
But this is throwing the baby out with the bathwater, in action.
I suspect there were interesting conversations in all those children’s homes that evening. I dare say some have parents or grandparents who have served or are serving now.
But the comments โฆ wow!
Imagine the Brothers Grimm publishing one of their fairytales now โฆ Rapunzel say. A young maiden lives in a tower, lets down her long, long hair and the prince climbs up to save her.
Whoa, hang on a minute, if she was โyoungโ, then she wouldnโt have hair that long. The average rate of growth of hair is x and sheโd have to be at LEAST 60 years old to have hair long enough to be as tall as the average tower in Germany at that time โฆ
Incorrect tales of over-stimulated maiden hair follicles??!! I fact-checked yaโ arse and I denounce you, peddler of lies!!
What the actual fu*k?
They missed point of the tale completely and zoomed in on details and use that to discredit the story and throw away any value it may have had? To appoint oneself the saviour of truth? To take a tiny aspect and extrapolate from that to a glorifying war stance that is simply โฆ wow, words fail me.
How did we end up here. What hope is there for us as a species? Because right now, we look buggered.
Maybe hope lies in my reaction to this and me saying my piece. And you too.
Maybe hope lies in all of us standing up and saying โhold on a minute, I donโt agree with thatโ in our thousands, millions, hundreds of millions.
Billions โฆ
Imagine a world where billions of people just like you and me, clutching their decency and empathy and common sense and respect for others close in their hearts, crying out โwoah buster, not so fast, I donโt agree with that!โ.
My, how things would change quickly.
