…means a happy one for me

It seems that almost half of the military “think regularly of handing in their resignations.” This is similar to a greater trend in the American military, which is presently facing a major crisis due over the proportion of troops intending their current span of service to be their last. They have dealt with this reluctance to renew commitments through decreasing the standards of their filtration of recruits, resulting in gang infiltration that has now lasted for years. It seems that groups as diverse as New York street gangs seeking out trained urban gunfighters to white nationalists desiring free training for the forthcoming race war are exploiting this new leniency and the full consequences of this are still to be felt as most involved are largely still serving. Once their terms are concluded the outcome could be truly brutal.

Less dramatically but equally insidiously here in Britain the approach is instead one of aiming for the young. In an article titled “Gordon Brown promotes gun crime” Lenin outlines the methods used: the poorest are made targets of recruiters (the army will always have more to offer them) and the MoD has used sock-puppet groups in an attempt to bend young minds towards jingoism.

I have little time for public sector unions which embrace Marxism to the extent that NUT has but their efforts concerning this matter have been admirable.

By the looks of things the brutal extravaganza of the Iraqi occupation may have left the military on both sides of the Atlantic in such a tattered state that the notion of a war with Iran will be ruled out on the grounds of logistics rather than desirability. It is perhaps an irony of sorts that even former neo-conservatives are realising fully America’s status as an Empire just as its imperial majesty looks set to collapse in on itself. Britain’s retreat from total immersion in the military struggle may allow it to sustain its status as Atlanticist lapdog for a time, but it is unquestionable that any return to more active engagement would result in the already sinking morale of the troops being totally submerged in gloom.

Just to make this an even better week for the MoD they were forced to settle for nearly £3 million with the family of a torture victim who died from his beatings. This is a shrug’s worth given their vast budget but opens up the door for further legal action on a similar scale from all those tortured. This could amount to a not negligible quantity of cash, although I consider this to be the lesser concern for the MoD: unlike other departments they can be assured money from the government. And indeed they are in no way acting like a diminishing power: Brown is increasing the number of troops in Afghanistan, although this is likely to be in order to get fresh forces present and thus prevent only the fatigued being present.

The real concern for them is having an insuffecient number of dupes and otherwise hopelesses to take a bullet. They can offer education and employment and this will always attract plenty, but if the current discontent manifests itself in a wave of departures from the Armed Forces (and as long as the current rate of deaths remains high) there is unlikely to be enough fresh fighters to replenish the forces. Unless of course we are as willing as the Americans to give thugs training in the theory and application of firearms in city surroundings.

Which leads me to hope that the Afghans can fend off the Taliban better than the British have once the time comes. Perhaps the “Decent” liberals should put their lives where there mouths are and organise a Spanish Civil War style effort in the armed forces’ stead.

The nature of the current efforts of Anonymous against the Church of Scientology has yet to have any obvious influence upon the core nature of the target but has already rendered almost unrecognisable both the average critics and the previous absent face of Anonymous.

Previously critics of the religion were a dedicated and largely middle aged selection of those brave and tenacious enough to tolerate the infamous “Fair Game” policy {revoked in name only a few decades ago and still in de facto operation since}. They were often vigorous campaigners and mostly entertaining eccentrics, as well as those who had suffered most from the church’s policies. For the most part they exposed the inner doctrines rather than attacking the religion openly, mainly aiming their attentions at the Church rather than faith. Although with their Usenet presence alt.religion.scientology and personal websites the old guard anti-scientologists were perfectly adept at using the internet the shift of “Web 2.0” left them rather behind. They did, however, pave the way for what was what to come through providing the vast amount of information readily available to all interested online. ARS was responsible for leaking the infamous OT 3 documents, which included the now notorious Xenu theology. A large amount of this currently informs the Wikipedia articles written on the topic of the strange religion and the brutal organisation that acts as its guardian. Without what came before the present campaign would be an impossibility. Be this as it may the similarity they bear to it is minuscule. Anonymous in its present manifestation, and previously, is largely a youth movement that depends entirely on new networking methods to spread its efforts, having been began with a YouTube video and since been publicised heavily on the same, with pictures of the vast-scale raids being posted up on Flickr and, in a meeting of the old and new school, daubing Operation Clambake’s URL “XENU.NET” across a visible section of Drawball.

Anonymous’ former nature is, if anything, more distinct. The term came into existence owing to the imageboard 4Chan’s distinctive trait of leaving everyone who posts upon their /b/ “Random” board anonymous. It is highly likely that the forceful and total lack of any identifiers, even e-monikers, contributed substantially to the extremity of the content posted their and the seeming lack of any form of inhibitions and netiquette present. The efforts of those while operating outside of their confines invariably simply termed them all as a collective of what all individual posters were named. Anonymous consisted of whoever was online and there was never any way of being certain as to exactly this was. When not exchanging porn or memes they tended to entertain themselves through spilling out onto the rest of the internet for thrills and lulz. Their motto ran “Because none of us is as cruel as all of us” and at times they seemingly lacked any form of restraint or mercy. Passwords were hacked, real life locations and phone numbers found, death threats issued, entirely unprovoked flames were hurled at targets such as an underage teen who posted bestial photos of herself and dog. A feminist who mused on a forum that it would have been better had her pornography viewing teenage son been aborted was hounded off of the internet. A paedophile was found and arrested, much the same treatment was delivered to someone who told /b/ about his plans for a school shooting/bombing accompanied by a picture of his firearms. A haughty leukaemia sufferer was mobbed with mockery for his arrogance and pretension. A schoolboy who had shot himself after having his iPod stolen had his Facebook and MySpace flooded.

This reached its epitome on a break-away image board, 711Chan, where the only acceptable motivation was “For the lulz”. Breaches of this near nihilism was committed by “Moralfags”. Amongst their greatest achievements was embedding strobe GIFs into a forum for epileptic sufferers and triggering seizures.

The striking thing about this set-up was its similarity to Scientology. They spoke largely in esoteric jargon that outsiders would require a glossary to understand, with much the same being true of Tom Cruise’s references to “SPs”and “KSW”. They had no respect for traditional ethical systems much as Scientologists are told to be wary of “Out-ethics”. The major difference is that while Scientology intends to “Clear the planet” and thus save the world, while the Chans had no such high illusions. Another difference was generational: the Scientologists see fit to legislate against those that defame their Church. Even although hosted upon the dreaded “JewTube” (Anonymous loathed all that was conventional and mainstream, be it Gaia Online or Ebaums World) the removal of the notorious Tom Cruise interview from the site after legal action was threatened enraged the Chans. Project Chanology consisted of an alliance between the important Chans to destroy the Church of Scientology. This was directly triggered by the litigiousness of the Church, which Anonymous viewed in as much disdain as the efforts to enforce “Digital Rights Management”.

Shortly after the Party Hard protests of March 15th, however, this functional coalition collapsed completely. 711Chan had long considered the surge of “Newfags” the initial video declaring war had attracted to be unfavourable. They were deemed (quite correctly) to be moralfags, epitomised by Mark Bunker who implored Anonymous to abandon their tactics of blankfax and DDOS attacks. Effectively he called for an end to the approach of /i/nsurgency, an approach to which 711Chan, amongst others, was strongly dedicated. The influence which he had was considerable, drawing much of Anonymous away from the guerilla tactics that had previously been the norm. The new form of Anonymous swiftly emerged: dedicated to the task of destroying the Church many were ignorant of their collectives previous manifestation and most demonstrated a focus never previously displayed in Anonymous, which tended to have a fickle mood and a minuscule attention span. /b/ was largely abandoned due to the swift deletion of all that is posted there, which occurs instantly once the 10th page on each board is past. Instead they adopted old school methods: Enturbulation is a large and traditionally used forum and IRC is amongst the most old-school of chat systems. The new Anonymous members are largely those who have been interested in Scientology for a considerable portion of their short lives and see Anonymous as as much a tactic to evade Fair Game as an established entity. In as much as it is defined it is considered a collective with a shared goal and membership of inherently concealed identity. Whereas previously the defining picture had been a headless suited man (still a prominent symbol) now the Guy Fawkes mask dominates.

This chasm came to a head when 711Chan was overwhelmed with drama between those wishing to continue and end Chanology, with the latter camp far stronger due to its long-standing disdain for all new and moralfaggotry. The /xenu/ board was purged and hidden (the URL is active but the location unlinked on the main site) and the IRC channel #xenu killed (although replaced with #xemu, an alternative spelling for the same alien overlord). However it became apparent that they were incapable of killing the new faceless being, despite all their protests of Anonymous’ bad name being defamed: Enturbulation proved resilient to efforts to down and an attempt to perform a Denial of Service upon the newly formed 315Chan resulted in a disastrous, hilarious backfire that caused 711Chan to go offline. The wisdom of launching an attack on a website sharing your server is limited.

/i/ planned a large raid on the Xenu.net to be found on Drawball but failed entirely in ruining visibility, their puerile defacements being swiftly cleaned away. The URL remains perfectly visible from 100% zoom. 315Chan remained standing but has since been felled, although this is a limited loss given the rarity of its usage.

Against this background of inter-chan warfare and strife the April 12th protests loomed in importance. The theme of Operation Reconnect most likely contributed substantially to the unpopularity amongst the Chans, given that it was selected to attract media attention rather than enthuse the Chans. This was certainly achieved, with the Observer and Reuters on this occasion picking up on the story along with various local and foreign national news broadcasting services and presses. This was at the cost of reduced turn-out, although it is likely that this was contributed to by the fierce forecast which I, as always, failed to read as well as April being holidays for students, which it is likely constitutes a fair proportion of Anonymous.

Regardless, when I arrived (at some point after noon, I’d been to Fabric the night before and this made for rather a sleepy time at some points) I observed around 300 anons were present. There was, once again, delicious cake present and indeed a piece was given to me just as I arrived. Memes were also out in full force, although we were lacking on this occasion a Longcat poster. More than compensating for this though was a the now legendary Xenu.net trailer, which was driven past the Church, and later the centre, by a promotional van. Who exactly hired the thing out is still unknown but whoever it was that stumped up the cash certainly managed to keep us enthused and made the entire affair additionally joyous.

The protest was set up much as last time, with the surprisingly convenient balcony filled with milling anons and delicious cake. We were strikingly lucky in getting this and despite the disconcertingly deep pit between it and the pavement it made a perfect place to get an overview of the protest. The Scientologists were huddled inside and the door occasionally, amusingly, blew open the door slightly a few times, meaning that one had to stand there holding it shut. Various music was played, including the obvious Rick Rolls as well as a remix of certain snippets of the Lord of the Rings soundtrack that I had first heard on YouTube the day before the protest and had great fun dancing to. The self-appointed “Happiness Officer” stickered me to certify me as happy.

We soon moved on to Tottenham Court Road, on this occasion the police had used their horses to block off a street leaving us to funnel in the same direction to the tube. Once again I saw the rush of people flowing across the Millennium Bridge and found it a pity that we hadn’t flyered it. The flood of anons was less powerful but still pleasing. We were told on this occasion to turn off all stereos as we headed through the ticket barriers, which was irksome but the massive amount of leafleting that happened to those who past us on escalators more than compensated. There was no in-tube raid upon this occasion since a fail anon wearing face-paint said that people would complain (as if that ever changed anything about the tube before!).

The initial plan had been to flier on the side of Tottenham Court Road we weren’t allowed onto last time. Before we came into the view of the police, that is. As it happened many were distributed but the police let us hand them out on that side of the road anyway as well and the Scientologist presence consisted of a tight cluster and some people randomly off in Camden instead of them lining the street as they had done last time. They formed an odd bunch, hanging around in a superfluously large cluster that basically let us yell memes at them more efficiently. The saddest of the bunch was an old boy who seemed to have been given no leaflets and thus just stood there forlornly staring us as he stood on the street doing nothing.

The rest of the Scientologists were in their usual positions, with bald man missing but the cameramen all in position and filming us, as usual. Angry woman was there, as well as the classy broad none of us have come up with a name for yet who spent much of the time she was there filming us. The most notable point about them became apparent after the police decided that the street blockage was too great to be tenable and, as in February, shifted the barriers forwards to block off half of the Road. The previous protest had been the longprotest, which had its advantages but was certainly no match for being quite so close to the Scientologists and getting the thrill of obstructing all of the traffic. From this distance we could see quite distinctly that there was a far greater impact than on previous occasions. As always they had undergone a slight shuffle so that the same faces were not on offer, one new man was hefty of frame, burly and good looking in an early middle age kind of way. But all of them seemed far less oblivious than previously, when they had done their best to pretend that we were not even there despite standing en masse right in front of their eyes.

Fake smiles seemed to be the order of the day but these faded swiftly. The woman with camera seemed the most animated, we really appeared to have got to her as she was mouthing to the crowd at some points, waving her hands at us to get a bigger reaction for photos at others and mouthing the words to Rick Astley when we blasted it in the direction of the centre.

The ex-scientologists I previously mentioned being present at the last raids were on this occasion both more numerous and given an opportunity to talk to the gathered anons. I saw two of these, the first being a friendly looking chap giving a vigorous speech on a poor mic. His talk was bizarre but only enough to reflect the utter oddness of Lafayette Ronald Hubbard’s writings. Apparently Scientologists do not accept evolution, or at least not from apes, but instead believe that humans used to be creatures named Boo-Hoos and Weepies that were fish-like, beach-dwelling creatures that were terrified of birds and this primal fear formed the source of all emotional discontent in the modern day homo sapien. I had never heard of this before and spoke to him once his speech was done. Apparently he was talking about low level doctrine since the vast majority of Scientologists never reached any OT, let alone the OT 3 which we were quoting at them. According to him most blew long before then and he simply wished to use Hubbard’s early teachings to encourage this process.

He also told me that he had encountered hallucinations after auditing, as did everyone. Not of the beach-dwellers but another character who resided in Hubbard’s writings. This was, again, something entirely new to me but something utterly common. I asked whether we would establish a long-standing problem for the Church: if OT3 was to be revealed to those who reached it then surely the harm them if they’d heard it from us first. He said, however, that as so few reached it this would only cause a few problems.

This was something that I had considered and it made me wonder about the effectiveness of much of our tactics. Certainly Anonymous was left rather muddled by the mixture of RL troll urges and the desire to help the Scientologists. Although we told them to reconnect in a firm chant we also said “Nobody likes you” and yelled “We’ve got better leaflets”. Naturally “C-U-L-T” and “That is a chicken/church/casino, that is a cult” point-chants were also heavily present. Generally attempting to mock and bait them mixed with making an effort to lure them into the outside world. This is perhaps inherent in any effort of Anonymous. We do not forgive, we do not forget but we are fickle.

The Scientologists, however, seemed to be connecting with us more than previously but still seemed very much opposed. This was displayed most clearly when camera lady began to beam and jump for joy when the hail began. No doubt this was a pre-planned demonstration of the infamous “Cause over MEST” than the higher OT levels obtain and it truly was horrifying to experience, dispelling all doubts about Hubbard’s claims to give his most accomplished followers super-powers. The power and persistence of this cosmological onslaught really can not be understated, it battered us heavily and caused all the Anons to huddle closely together beneath all umbrellas, ending up totally covered but still very cold. The Scientologists retreated from the streets and into their org, sheltered but incapable of distributing their leaflets for a time.

The reaction of the Anons beyond sheltering in huddles (one took to a phone booth and wrote a sign saying “I lost the game”) was striking: rather than departing they simply hid, waited and remained. Indeed we even crafted the most amusing chant of the day, pointing to the skies and then the centre to say “Hail, Xenu!” After it a defiant cry of “We’re still here” broke out. The Scis noticed this and seemed rather disappointed.

Their leaflets were obtained and seemed to have been altered since last month, being highly glossy and seeming very expensive indeed. Certainly an improvement in almost every way, but it did give Anons an opportunity to read out some of the 24 “precepts of Scientology” in a rather mocking way (“Do not steal” was especially a favourite, along with “Be trustworthy”). The girl formerly known as awesome azn anon was on this occasion identified as “Save Point” and having set up bins for anons to dispose of “Dianetics and other rubbish” in after the hail ceased was to be found picking up rubbish off of the blocked-off road to save litter-pickers the efforts and our reputation. True dedication from an awesome anon.

Speaking of which Anonychickenonymous was back and dressed as a Starship Trooper. Being a total ethics fag I disapprove of the cruel KFC but the chips I appreciated. Apparently they spent well over £300 on the stuff, which was all collected from anons chipping in together. The entire thing rather had the feel of anarchy, indeed seems to be a fine instance of it. Everything we contributed was brought along save the mystery truck, all of the signs homemade and all of the fliers and stickers from the same source.

Happy from our survival of the rain {indeed, my sticker had been swept off of my coat by the force and thus the officer issued a replacement} we emerged and filled out the same amount of space as we did before, with the Scis showing up outside again as well, the old chap finally finding a use and holding an umbrella but oddly only doing so after it had stopped raining, going back inside and taking it with him shortly before it started to drizzle as well.

To conclude the day a speech from a former Scientologist was given. I had actually not believed me when I had asked him who he was after a brief interview with a journalist and he said “Oh, I’m a scifag” but it turned out that this had been the truth. He gave a moving and rousing speech that effectively pwned the Scientologists still inside with their own doctrine. The impact was so great that once we got the Internet Hate Machine (which had been set up on the crowd barrier directly facing the Church) plugged in and playing Camera Lady lasted about ten seconds before turning on her heel and darting back into the Org. It seemed that our ex-sci was there to “Speak his truth” despite the best effort of Angry Woman, apparently a SeaOrg member, and his own sister’s attempt to “Handle” him.

There were only a few minutes left until the protest ended shambolically but in a glorious fashion, the Scis clearly shaken and a strong happy mood washing over us. We had been filmed by window man for much of the protest and I gestured for him to hug me, his initial confusion resulting in the ex-sci, who’s name was James, giving me a massive embrace to show what I meant. For a moment I was convinced that we had actually coaxed him out as he headed downstairs but when he left the org he turned sharply to the left and walked away instead of crossing the road towards us. “It’s not too late!” I cried as we headed off to the pub.

There I engaged in a fascinating conversation with the ex-scis and another anon, with the younger one James being only a few years older than myself and the other having been 12 when her father joined the Church in the 1960s. James told us more about his experiences within the Church, where he had been born and lived until a matter of months ago. He showed us a text from his sister attempting to “Handle” us and told us that at that time he was no member of the SeaOrg and was looking into a number of different things. He seemed a bright and intelligent man and made no secret of the fact that he had benefited in some ways from Scientology, especially in the introspection it promoted. He was also amazingly nice, even buying me a pint. Apparently though the auditing courses had caused him problems as he had failed to progress yet the Church struggled to find anything defective about him, which presented something of a paradox given that the tech is perfect in Scientology doctrine. He had been forced to disconnect to his sister and father after his mother had been declared a Suppressive Person but resisted, meeting with his sister despite the wishes of the CoS and enduring her efforts to handle him patiently, not allowing her to discourage him from attending the raid. The second ex-sci had had a worse experience of the Church, having had a father part of SeoOrg and thus ending up on Apollo, one of the numerous rustbucket vessels Hubbard spent his dupes’ funds on. Her experience seemed to consist largely of scraping paint and tedium, with various intermissions of total misery such as being locked away with a friend in the hold as a security risk after talking to Greek boys. She remembered Hubbard as a nocturnal type who wrote a good deal, which reminded me uncomfortably of me.

Speaking to those who had suffered due to the church face to face was not something entirely new to me but devoid of my mask and in the comfortable setting of a pub (well, comfortable once I had acquired a seat) it made it especially hard hitting.

Once they left I went to hang with the various anons present. It turned out that they’re pretty much all young and all immensely geekish. The pub contained most of the more dedicated types but there was no srs bsnss, just everyone enjoying themselves and having a good time, besides one twat bombed out on magic mushrooms who everyone disliked and is an effectively inevitable element of any movement that doesn’t exclude anyone actively. They were a fun bunch and the girls surprisingly attractive for a geek meeting. The talk lasted for a long time and the spillover of memes into RL was made complete by the toilet graffiti reading “Poop ‘08” with a reply of “LOLWUT?”.

Eventually we walked past the Church and home, giving the Scientologists a wave as we went by. There was quite a lot of talk on Enturbulation after the protests of numbers falling and it is still a long haul if they are going to destroy the Church completely. But the ex-scientologists both told me that the efforts of Anonymous had left them feeling empowered and invigorated, as well as generally far more willing and happy to speak out. The theme of Reconnect may have caused us woe with 711Chan and the rest but frankly the people who we attracted with it are worth any number of lulz-seeking /i/nsurgents That the movement has helped them confront an institution that damaged their life and speak their stories about the harm it inflicted on them makes it entirely worthwhile and even if it fades away entirely before the next month if its achieved than then I’m happy with the outcome.

I have recently had reason to comment on war memorials.  In doing so, I have thought about a trip to the battlefields of the Western Front of WW1 that I took in 2004.  I have published my thoughts here because I wanted to order them into words somewhere, and I hope they might be of interest to readers of this site.

Animals in War Memorial
I sometimes cycle round Hyde Park.  It is rather a long way from home, and provides a leg-busting couple of hours so I try to keep such exercise to a minimum.  As I leave the park, I follow a little cycle path that merges bikes with motor vehicles, called Brook Gate.  To the left of the path is the impressive 50+metre-long Portland stone memorial to animals in war.

As far as memorials go, I find this particularly interesting.  It is dramatic and imposing, forming a split arc across the space between the two carriageways of Park Lane.  The concept of commemorating animals in war is honourable; as the inscription has it, “They had no choice”.  Some smart arse has edited the Wikipedia entry in reference to the fact that only animals in British and allied forces are remembered:

Animals from enemy states, and those from neutral states who may have been killed after straying accidentally onto the battlefield, were excluded from the commemoration. This is presumably because, in contrast to the Allied animals who “had no choice”, the enemy animals actually chose to fight against the British and Allied forces and were therefore deemed unworthy of commemoration.

Nonetheless, the memorial is important in reminding us that when we humans delve into war, the fallout is huge.  The suffering of horses, donkeys, dogs, pigeons, and other creatures is a particular perversion of human conflict.

For what it is worth, “They had no choice” might also apply to those conscripted to fight in the two World Wars.

Commonwealth War Graves
Almost four years ago, I went on a school trip to the battlefields of the First World War in Belgium and France.  I learned a lot about the ”War to End All Wars”, and was struck by the utter senselessness of the whole thing.  How unspeakably stupid a war it was.  I visited many of the immaculately-kept graveyards of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.  Built in the inter-war years, these graveyards are an amazing monument to those who died in the war.  They are pristine and perfect; almost a joy to look at.  A limestone “Cross of Sacrifice” stands in many of the sites, and larger cemeteries also have a “Stone of Remembrance” emblazoned with the famous words “Their name liveth for evermore“.

I was particularly struck by the Tyne Cot cemetery near Passendale, which is the largest of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission sites.  It features seemingly endless rows of graves.  I remember pacing up and down the rows, glancing at names and ages on the grave markers, having to keep reminding myself that a body lies beneath each one.  The precision that went into the grave sites was astonishing, but I can imagine no more fitting tribute to the soldiers.  The Ypres salient was particularly ferocious, seeing some of the worst conditions of the war.  The mud was churned up by endless barrages of artillery, and rain turned much of the area to mud.  I cannot comprehend spending mere minutes on the front line in such conditions, let alone many months.  The scale of the Tyne Cot cemetery puts that in perspective.

Langemark
The German site of Langemarkcouldn’t possibly be more different.  The limestone of the CWGC sites are a world away from the basaltic rock at Langemark.  Headstones are replaced with squares set in the ground, and the central feature is not a monument but a mass grave.  The graveyard is eerie, and seemingly devoid of feeling.  It is a crass analogy, but the site feels like it has been visited by the Dementors from the Harry Potter books.  It is a soulless, depressed place.  Of the grave-sites I visited that week, Langemark is the only one I was desperate to leave quickly.  It seems to make the horrors of the war extremely raw and real.  A haunting feeling laces the site; it is unnerving and unsettling.  A bronze statue of four mourning soldiers stands watch, coldly bookending the graveyard.

Menin Gate
The Menin Gate stands on the edge of the town of Ypres in Flanders.  It commemorates the British and Commonwealth soldiers who died in the Ypres salient but whose bodies were never recovered.  Huge tablets adorn the walls, listing some 54,896 names of those who died.  The monument was designed to list the name of every soldier with no grave, but the list proved too long for inclusion on the monument, so Tyne Cot houses the overflow.  Since it was constructed, the Last Post has been sounded each night at 8.00pm, except during the period of German occupation during the Second World War.

The muddy conditions left many bodies missing in the ground, so the Menin Gate provides a token of remembrance for those who lost their lives on the front but were never recovered.  It is difficult not to be struck by the beauty of the structure, standing within its arches listening to buglers sound the Last Post as dusk falls across the Belgian landscape.  As silence falls on the Gate, one can sense some air of tranquility in the night while following endless lines of names from the foot of the wall up to the arched ceiling.

- - -

The danger of war memorials is that they glorify the conflicts they remember.  I consider Remembrance Day occasions as dangerously militaristic, often straying into pseudo-religious nationalism.  The war memorials of Flanders are remarkable in their lack of patriotism.  They do not hang the Union Flag, nor do buglers sound national anthems.  They remember the dead without justifying the war they died in; honour the soldiers’ sacrifice without glorifying the senselessness of the war they were sent into.  The graves of Flanders are impeccably tasteful, and I can imagine no better landmark to remember those who died there.

One of my favourite poems is Seigfried Sassoon’s “On Passing the New Menin Gate“.  I have a lot of respect for his conclusions to the memorial, and think the poem is absolutely wonderful, but I disagree with his final four lines.

Who will remember, passing through this Gate,
The unheroic Dead who fed the guns?
Who shall absolve the foulness of their fate,—
Those doomed, conscripted, unvictorious ones?

Crudely renewed, the Salient holds its own.
Paid are its dim defenders by this pomp;
Paid, with a pile of peace-complacent stone,
The armies who endured that sullen swamp.

Here was the world’s worst wound. And here with pride
‘Their name liveth for ever,’ the Gateway claims.
Was ever an immolation so belied
As these intolerably nameless names?
Well might the Dead who struggled in the slime
Rise and deride this sepulchre of crime.

There is no way to truly honour those “intolerably nameless names”, but the Menin Gate is as good an effort as I can imagine, and a whole lot better than having no memorial at all.  The Gate is proud that “their name liveth for ever more”?  So may it be.