Happy Monday and good Memorial Day (at least here in the United States), dear readers! Given the holiday here in the U.S., I thought it would be nice to take a break (more or less) from the witchcraft and Paganism talk and share a few thoughts on Memorial Day.

I grew up in a small rural town and as part of a church (affiliated with the American Baptist Association) that considered Memorial Day very important. I was a member of my high school band, and each Memorial Day we marched in two different parades and attended the service at the end of each of those parades. One year when I was a teenager, my Sunday school decided to hold its own Memorial Day service at a nearby park and I memorized Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address during that service. So I grew up with the idea that remembering an honoring the sacrifices made by many soldiers¹ and appreciating what those sacrifices did for us. I still consider that important.

And yet, as I’ve grown older, I’ve also seen how the military and the sacrifice of soldiers have become fetishized² and weaponized to glorify war and push for more wars. In many ways, I feel that powerful elements in our country have gone to great lengths to idolize fallen soldiers — which effectively dehumanizes them — to push their own agendas. “How can you question our military policy? You’re disrespecting fallen soldiers everywhere!” To which I say, “hogwash.”

In reality, I think we owe it to our fallen soldiers — and those still living, for that matter — to look at what we’ve asked them³ to lay down their lives for. Was their justification for a truly just cause? Was it absolutely necessary?⁴ If we do not honestly grapple with these questions, it seems to me that we are needlessly throwing these soldiers’ lives away rather than asking them to make a noble sacrifice. To me, that’s what seems most disrespectful.

I, like others before me, suspect that much of this has been enabled by the fact that the horror of war is something we’ve become more or less insulated from. And if you, dear readers, will forgive a pop culture reference,⁵ this reminds me of the Star Trek episode “A Taste of Armageddon,” which was first broadcast in 1967. In that episode, the crew of the Enterprise encounters a world where wars are almost completely simulated by computer. The only “real” part of the war is that after each “attack,” the computer spits out a list of names of people who are then supposed to report to be euthanized. Members of the Enterprise crew are on planet during one of these simulated attacks and are designated as “casualties” to be euthanized. The show’s climax comes when the Enterprise crew destroys the computers that perform the simulations, forcing the planet to wage war the “old fashioned way” and grappling with the real horrors that come with war.⁶

I sometimes think that we in the 21st century of the real world need to take a cue from Captain Kirk and find a way to re-acquaint ourselves with the horrors of war. Because for many people in the United States, I think it’s way too abstract and unreal. Perhaps then, we might think twice about asking our soldiers to risk their own lives in certain situations. Again, I feel that we owe this to our soldiers — both living and dead — if we are truly going to honor their memories and their sacrifices.

Footnotes

1. It’s important to note that I’m using “soldiers” here to refer to all military personnel and includes sailors, pilots, and those who fill the numerous roles in our military these days rather than just those who literally carry a rifle or other weapon onto the battlefield. ↩︎
2. And just to prevent this post from being completely devoid of Pagan content, I’ll note that I have similar misgivings about many “Viking warriors” in the modern Heathen movement who seem to be fetishizing Viking warriors of the past while ignoring the rest of ancient Norse culture(s). ↩︎
3. Or commanded them! ↩︎
4. I’m often reminded of a certain quote from Foundation by Isaac Asimov, which I read back when I was in high school. In that book, one of Asimov’s characters would occasionally note that “violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.” I remember thinking of that quote when our nation’s leaders started rattling their sabers shortly after September 11, 2001 and noting sadly that they seemed to be choosing violence as our first (and go-to) course of action instead. ↩︎
5. Well, another one if you’re reading these footnotes as you read the main body of the post. ↩︎
6. Seriously, this episode from 1967 is just another example of how those who complain that recent Star Trek shows have “gone woke” don’t know what they’re talking about. The entire franchise has a long history of being “woke.” At least from time to time. ↩︎