Tony White

Well another ANZAC day has come and gone. ANZAC is an acronym for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. It is the day when Australian’s honour the men and women who have been soldiers and fought in wars against our enemies such that we can enjoy the freedoms we possess now. For instance both my father and my grandfather we in the armed forces. My grandfather was a doctor in the army and my father was an able bodied seaman in the navy during the second world war.

I have great gratitude to both of them and all the others who have served in various wars. I almost went to war but I was just a bit to young (fortunately) to end up in Vietnam. I did do cadets at school where young men from private schools are first introduced to the armed forces.



So what do I think about ANZAC day just gone? I recall in my 20s when the night before ANZAC day came around some people, usually younger people would in the dark of night sneak up to war memorials and write things. Slogans such as “Men’s wars rape women” and “ANZAC day glorifies war”. For many a year now this has not happened which is probably a statement about our younger generation. They have no interest at all in challenging society’s values, but that is for another post.

So does ANZAC day glorify war? I don’t tend to agree with that but with the Australian entrepreneurial spirit alive and well ANZAC day certainly has been commercialised. It is good to see the soldiers get their opportunity to march in the parades and many people come out to applaud them and basically say than you. I watch those on TV and it is great to see the men and women marching along with their medals and all. These finish by the middle of the day and then comes the commerce. Does this cheapen the ANZAC soldiers and what they did?



One of the most obvious ways it is commercialised is with sport. Many different sports are played on this national holiday but mainly with football and the AFL (Australian Football League). Without a doubt they have cashed in on the ANZAC spirit and have their ANZAC day block buster games.

Before each game both sides line up on the field facing each other and a bugler plays the last post. How many times did I hear the last post being played on TV and radio yesterday!! It became monotonous and certainly after hearing it a number of time it looses its impact and what it is supposed to represent. So in this way to my mind it does cheapen what the ANZACS are. Maybe have it played once but not over and over.

Also there are the comparisons drawn between ANZACS fighting wars and the battle of two football teams that is used endlessly in promotional advertising. For heaven’s sake it is just a game of football! So in this way I would not say that ANZAC day glorifies war but it has commercialised war one could say.

There is one other thing that is noticeable by its absence. You never see images like this anywhere on ANZAC day.



Well I never saw any. For some reason images like this get no public display. It seems reasonable to argue that they should because this is what war is about, killing people. Many of the soldiers who marched in the ANZAC day marches did precisely that, kill people. My father and grandfather were involved in the system that killed people.

This is never or rarely mentioned on ANZAC day. Why? Well firstly the AFL are never going to show images like this because it would not be good for business at all! Why would it not be good for business? Because people don’t like seeing such images. It makes them feel bad.

For some months I have been counselling a US marine who served in Iraq and was involved in direct combat with the enemy. He says that he gets very offended when people ask him (which they do) if he ever killed any one (which he did). He says that it feels like he is being asked if he has ever fucked his sister. He finds it that offensive and now of course he finds himself that offensive and such questions remind him of that.

So what we humans inevitably do when we are confronted with such images (facts about war) is we sanitise them. We all know war exists and we all know that this means many people are horribly killed like the man in the picture above. But our Child ego state does all sorts of tricky things so we can kind of believe that some how, sort of, kind of, it does not really happen. This is an inevitable psychological process and I would see that we have constructed ANZAC day in such a way that it allows us to sanitise war to ourselves. We can kind of, sort of start to think war is really just like a game of football.


A great footballer or a great warrior?

So I would not say that ANZAC day glorifies war but it does sanitise war. It allows us to honour and thank the soldiers but without experiencing the horror of war.

Graffiti