Musing on the Anzac Day

Today is the Anzac Day and I am in Sydney. It is very difficult to avoid the hype of the day in Australia and I never liked that aspect of the commemoration. I must confess that my Polish ego compared the numbers of people cruelly affected by the wars. In numbers, Poland suffered by comparison much more than Australia. Has Poland won? Nonsens. I  know that numbers do not mean much when people lives are concerned. One life lost unnecessarily is one too many. But why do we and especially media pay more attention to events that include higher numbers of people who suffer or loose lives? This is a different issue though. This statistical approach to suffering and giving lives is  wrong in my mind.

Sometimes, I think that Gallipoli was really about young boys who wanted an adventure and ran enthusiastically to enlist as a fulfillment of their heroic dreams. They did not know that it was going to be that horrible, that they will most likely die and that to be a dead hero is not that glamorous. Once crossing the line, they did not have any choice, there was no way back.

Was it an act of patriotism on their part? Here Ray from Mummulgum and our discussion of patriotism come to mind (http://acobserves.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/about-patriotism-and-ray-from-mummulgum.html). He would not like Anzac day all that much, I suppose. Ray convinced me, after all, about the futility and danger of patriotism, even if it took me some years to see his point of view. Thank you for the lesson, Ray, werever you are.

On reflection, the most commendable part of Australians’ involvement was an aspect of service. Service not directly to Australia but to the Allies – people of the United Kingdom, France and the Russian Empire.

Next year I, a grateful new Australian, will participate in a morning Anzac service to pay my tribute to the war heroes and their families.