Poppies

If someone fights an enemy of theirs, they are thought of as being a thug. Yet if someone kills strangers for politicians they are branded a "hero". Tony Blair wears a poppy! If there’s anything that sums up how much of an empty sentiment poppies are, it’s seeing the very person who started a war, wearing one. I’ve never started a war, and you know what, I don’t wear a poppy. Poppies are a symbol of war. The very point in them is to make you think of “heroes” “who have died for their country” This hero-ising of soldiers is what keeps war going. If we stopped glorifying war, maybe we’d stop war. In what situation do you think war is most likely to occur? Among people who don’t think, but rather believe and repeat what the mainstream media tells them, that soldiers are “heroes” who are “fighting for their country”? Or among people who refuse to be a part of war, including not wearing a poppy? Virtually everyone on TV wears one. And you can tell just how contrived that is. The amount of politicians and people on TV wearing poppies is very disproportionate to the amount of people who wear one in the real world. You can tell, squirmy, weasely politicians wear one just because they think it will make them look good in the eyes of the majority. You can tell TV presenters and news readers wear poppies because their producers behind the scenes are saying “here, stick one of these on, we don’t want any complaints”. I remember at school, the poppies were in a box at the till, where you paid the dinner lady for lunch. And the dinner lady would say “want a poppy”, making sure everyone knew they were there. So there was pressure to buy one there and then, as there were lots of other kids in the queue behind you (who were also buying and wearing poppies just to fit in). Kids don’t have any real understanding of the world, of what poppies are about. Many things are inaccessible to children because their minds aren’t developed enough to know if they want it. Yet they are pressured in to buying poppies. Funny that. It could be said encouraging children to wear poppies, which are a symbol of how the establishment has tried to legitimise war and killing, is child abuse. Why should children be encouraged to wear a symbol of the hero-ising of killers. Poppies are worn by people who want to fit in. Poppies are a symbol. And as George Carlin once said, I leave symbols to the symbol minded.