1914 Christmas Truce

Christmas truce 1914 :en.wikipedia.org...

A football was produced from somewhere – though none could recall from where. "It wasn't a game as such, more a kick-around and a free-for-all. There could have been 50 on each side for all I know. I played because I really liked football. I don't know how long it lasted, probably half an hour.

See there. People stopped shooting, started drinking, playing, singing. If the MACHINE (officers) had not shown up, those people would have become friends. No more "Great war".
The farmer from England had nothing against the farmer from Germany.

A real war (not sheep being used by the wolves) is that when you and everybody around you knows why he fights and he is free to stop fighting at any time, but he does not want to. He has a reason to be there - his own reason.

The MACHINE :

These ego-alien identifications, built up over the course of a lifetime, cohere and form a distinct, circumscribed personality, or false self, that represents and enforces the rules and regulations of civilization. This false self is observable in the frozen facial expressions, stereotypic gestures, and unexamined behavioral patterns of the general public. This false self determines much of our everyday lives, so that we are seldom the origin of our actions. We lapse into the false self at the first sign of danger, under stress, or simply because it is the path of least resistance. In this unthinking mode of social role playing, we internally reproduce our own oppression.

I never heard about this in history class. People do not matter. They are sheep and should stay that way. I mean what an "outrage" ! People getting drunk and playing instead of killing each other.


Mark Twain: "The Mysterious Stranger":

Oh, it's true. I know your race. It is made up of sheep. It is governed by minorities, seldom or never by majorities. It suppresses its feelings and its beliefs and follows the handful that makes the most noise. Sometimes the noisy handful is right, sometimes wrong; but no matter, the crowd follows it. The vast majority of the race, whether savage or civilized, are secretly kind-hearted and shrink from inflicting pain, but in the presence of the aggressive and pitiless minority they don't dare to assert themselves. Think of it! One kind-hearted creature spies upon another, and sees to it that he loyally helps in iniquities which revolt both of them. Speaking as an expert, I know that ninety-nine out of a hundred of your race were strongly against the killing of witches when that foolishness was first agitated by a handful of pious lunatics in the long ago. And I know that even to-day, after ages of transmitted prejudice and silly teaching, only one person in twenty puts any real heart into the harrying of a witch. And yet apparently everybody hates witches and wants them killed. Some day a handful will rise up on the other side and make the most noise—perhaps even a single daring man with a big voice and a determined front will do it—and in a week all the sheep will wheel and follow him, and witch-hunting will come to a sudden end.

[edit on 18-2-2010 by pai mei]

I'm very familiar with this story. It didn't occur once, but many times across the Western Front. It represents a wonderful moment in the history of War when the soldiers became men. They looked each other in the eyes and recognised themselves. Thoughts of fear, killing and war were suspended and faded away...

Prior to the football matches...there'd been a lull in hostilities. The British could hear the the carols of the Germans and vice versa. They began to share songs and one by one they met in no-man's land to exchange cakes, thread and any goods that were needed. They swapped addresses and many maintained contact after the war. At least one British soldier went on to marry a German soldier's sister. Quite a mundane event with aspects of great beauty...

I have a number of images of the soldiers posing together...they really are evocative. If I can find the disc, I'll post them here.

"He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder."

Albert Einstein

--------------
Einstein is wrong here. This thing happens only in "civilization", never in a tribe. Yes tribes used to fight. But there was nobody not knowing what he wants, why he fights, and so on.

"The world is full of people who are not listening to themselves" - Joseph Campbell


[edit on 19-2-2010 by pai mei]