I’m not a fan of war. They made us believe in it when we were kids. War films, plastic kits of war planes, tanks etc. Biggles Books. Now I am old I know war is a profit machine, it’s also handy for culling the population and for destruction of the old.
I never knew that there used to be three train stations in Norwich, UK. I lived there for a bit. City Station, bombed to bits in WW2. Then replaced with a pre-fab station. Part of the M&GN. A section of lines serving rural communities. How profitable was it it ever going to be? Axed in the 60’s. A tragic summing up of human kind. We make and destroy. See this about Norwich City Station.
Just and aside about Norwich City station. I worked at East Anglian Engraving briefly. If I’d known it was built on the site of City Station I’d never have worked there, bad juju.
Something troubles me. The bombing raids that were designed to take out historic buildings… they usually missed churches, cathedrals, castles. But hit things like stations, the east end of London…. just saying… odd isn’t it? Ok, factories makes sense, but residential areas? Working class areas….
But the loss of the M&GN makes me sick too….
Back to the model kits of warplanes. Do you look up at those flying war machines and like them? I used to, until I realised that they have nothing to do with me. They are killing machines and are hateful. I used to make Spitfire kits and never added the guns. It is a nice looking plane but I didn’t want to put the guns on it. And the Lancaster? A bus to send young men to their deaths. The Lancaster and its like give me the creeps now.
Of course, since WW1 we haven’t stopped the war thing as a species. Too much money in it. They are re-inventing war. Whatever the purpose of it is, it can be changed into a new type of tyranny. Quotes from Orwell, and Assange, summed up as: “the objective is endless war”. 1984 certainly shows what that is like: it’s not specifically a war between countries, as a war against the people. In 1984 nobody really knows who the “enemy” is, and it’s liable to change at any moment.
I’ve always hated how the human race makes stuff and destroys it. There have been some great ships, for example. One that troubles me is the SS Normandie (Wikipedia). It was a very advanced ship and loved greatly. It was French, the pride of France indeed. During WW2 it was requisitioned to be converted into a troop carrier. During works it caught fire, allegedly from a welding torch. As it burnt they poured so much water into it that it capsized. Despite the original designer being on hand he was not allowed to help as the US navy wouldn’t let him. He wanted to open the seacocks so that the ship would sink evenly and rest on the port floor. So the ship was ruined instead, turning on its side. Later, instead of being saved it was cut up for scrap. Seems to me it was very much against the French that their ship was destroyed so conveniently. Several other notable ships were lined up with it being converted, but they were just fine.
This article could say more, and say “profound” war things but I’m fixating on things that just get my goat. Indeed, human loss is a major part of war, but my point is, it is so very wrong that we are pushed into these conflicts, none of it should have happened or should continue to happen. But I know it will. So much for utopia.
In truth, I don’t even touch on the real depths I am aware of in the tyranny of war, maybe one day I might say.