The Sin Bin • Re: Lest we forget
Mild Rover wrote:
Possibly showing my age here, but I was a little taken aback by this clip from The Apprentice, in which contestants express uncertainty about the years in which the Second World War started and ended.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07s9hwj
I’m not looking to demonise these young men and women, and in fairness they do initially get it right. It feels like such basic historical knowledge for my generation (born in the 1970s), that you take it for granted. Is it surprising, or is it inevitable that it’ll fade from public consciousness in the coming decades?
Realistically, how many people of any age in the UK could now give the start and end years for the Boer War, or the Crimean War or the year of the Battle of Waterloo, off the top of their heads? And being honest, I have just had to check whether the Falklands was in ‘82 or ‘83, and I saw the news coverage myself as a child.
Ultimately, is it even natural and healthy that it eventually comes to be viewed like those earlier conflicts? Although I appreciate the difference in scale, obviously.
The Orange Walks commemorating a battle that took place in 1690 look a little strange to me in the 21st century, for example.
As I have just "ranted" in the Boris thread, it would seem selective education is not a new thing. The OP refers to the Boer war, unaware it would seem that there were 2 Boer Wars, the second of which the British Lost (only 2 wars that they lost in the 20th century, the second being the Irish war of independence.
There's a lack of realistic information/education as to what went on in Europe between the "wars' as well, with the reasons behind the rise of nationalism in Germany and the Balkan states being driven by a period of austerity forced upon them by the winning imperial forces.......smacks of a hint of familiarity with current sentiments.....blaming someone else for the hardships being felt at home, in 1930's Germany, it was the Jews, in 2019 Britain, it's the immigrants.
British history is happy to ignore the schism in the Christian Churches caused by the overzealous libido of your monarch. English History teaches little if anything of the birth of the concentration camps......or the Irish Famine, or the Penal colonies in the 'stralias, of the Irish slaves in America (have you ever wondered why West Indians sound Irish or why bottled Guinness is so popular with the Caribbean community.
The Orange Marches by the way are a right of passage. Like a dog pissing on it's territory, the protestants of Ulster (google the plantation of ulster...another british highpoint)march and bang drums because they are in fear of the fact that they will soon be a minority and the false country they live in (Britains good at false countries...Pakistan, Israel.....). The Irish Famine didn;t impact on the norther counties populated by Protestants by the way......nor the scottish areas where the potato blight also impacted on crops, but British Land Owners in the US benefited from an influx of free irish labour.....
The History taught your kids isn't about educating them. Its about telling the what the wealthy want them to know!
Statistics: Posted by AXE2GRIND — Mon Nov 04, 2019 11:30 pm