Should I Wear A Poppy?

Alright?

I was gonna do “should I wear a poppy” this week but every other fucker and her dog is gonna be doing that shit so Imma do something else instead.

Ah you know what fuck it I’m doing it. Mine’ll be better than them other suckers’ bullshit “articles” anyway.

Alright, so for years as an adult I used to wear a poppy. Felt like a grown up thing to do. Felt like I was supporting something noble. Felt like something a proper person would do. Then somebody I know was like “why you doing that shit, that shit is supporting a load of shady shit, you shouldn’t do that shit” (I’m paraphrasing). I can’t really remember what her argument was but it was convincing and I stopped wearing a poppy for a couple of years. Plus I didn’t really have an amazing handle on what the date was for a bit there.

I was too busy hanging out with my mate Peter.

Anyway, now it’s definitely poppy time and I can’t remember why I wasn’t wearing one, so I’m thinking maybe I should wear one. But I haven’t really thought about why I think that, and I’m pretty sure the reason not to was a good one, so I don’t really know. The recurring theme in this riveting saga is that I’ve never really thought about it for myself, just done what someone’s said I should do. But I’ve got this blog and that now innit and this is precisely what I’m supposed to be doing with it, not posting scathing yet accurate calumnies and groundbreaking works of modernist literature and searing confessionals and shit.

So should I wear one or not? Let’s figure something out.

Let’s figure something out.

Alright so as I see it the basic conflict on the poppy thing is this: supporters say that it is a symbol of remembrance and supports a good cause, critics say it has been co-opted to support militarism, jingoism and a bunch of other bad stuff (not really sure what at this point).

I’m gonna say two things off the bat.

Firstly, the loss of life in the First World War (which is what I would initially presume the poppy and the whole Nov 11 remembrance thing is in aid of) is appalling and deserves to be remembered – as a tribute to those who died and as a warning not to do no shit like that again. World War 1, from what I can make out, was a fucking liberty. The leaders of the richest countries in the world decided to butt heads and kill huge swathes of each others’ – and their own – populations for absolutely no reason worth a damn. What a pile of cunts. What absolute evil was enacted. What tragic folly. Let’s remember that, let’s point the finger at the people, the institutions and the ideas that drove that pointless slaughter. Let’s not forget the culpability of the British government in all of it either.

Second, anything that David Cameron is well into is something I am immediately suspicious of. So we’re starting with a point up on both sides.

Fuck you David.

With that stuff out there let’s examine the competing claims. What does the poppy symbolise and what does it support?

I’m gonna start with the easiest question – what does the poppy appeal materially support? In other words, where does the money go?

Hold on let me just google some shit…

Hold music….

Alright google says the poppies are sold by the British Legion, who use the money raised to support wounded and retired service people and bereaved families. Which is fair enough. It’s not a charity I would personally set up a standing order to but chucking a quid in a bucket is something I’d be happy to do. Can we push this to find fault? Maybe we could say that relying on charity to help people in that position absolves the government of something which is rightfully their responsibility. But the same could be said for most, if not all, charitable endeavours. As a general point I think taxation and social spending is better than charity. But in an imperfect world charity has its place. Alternatively we could say that charities like this are too jingoistic and pro-millitary. I don’t think the act of helping people who have been damaged by time in the army is either of those things though. They’re not (ostensibly) raising money for recruitment drives. So I think on this count I’m mildly pro-poppy. It’s a little bit of money to a fairly worthy cause.

Alright so what about the symbolism then? And what about the less tangible effects of that symbolism?

I thought going into this that the poppy symbolises the war dead in WW1 and maybe WW2. The poppy certainly first emerged in the immediate aftermath of WW1 as an attempt to raise funds for returned servicemen and their families, as well as the families of servicemen who did not return. According to the British Legion’s website though the poppy is worn to commemorate “the sacrifices of our Armed Forces and to show support to those still serving today and their loved ones”. On the one hand this is narrower than what I would have assumed – there is no mention there of the civilian casualties of war – and on the other it is far broader, since the commemoration is not limited to the World Wars.

I can’t criticise the poppy appeal for not being about what I thought it was about – I’m not a well informed dude. But the ostensible symbolism we are asked to display is less of an immediate draw that the symbolism I had imagined. “Wear this to commemorate the millions who died in the World Wars” – yes, absolutely. “Wear this to commemorate the sacrifices of our Armed Forces” – maybe, give me a sec to think about it. For one thing, that’s kind of a vague statement. Are we being asked to commemorate the soldiers who died killing brown people in the good old days of empire? Or those who died in the dirty war waged against British citizens in Northern Ireland? I think, if we take the statement at face value, that we are. This might be seen as overthinking this issue, but I wore the poppy for years without thinking about it at all and I’m sure I’m not alone in that. If you’re going to make a symbolic statement it’s worth actually being aware of what you’re saying. 

Let’s have a look at the second half of the ostensible symbolism “to show support to those still serving today and their loved ones”. Is that something I want to do? I think yes, probably. People in the armed forces do something really difficult and scary, and though I am fairly anti-war I think we do need a standing army*, thus people prepared to do this scary difficult thing. And people who are doing something scary and difficult on my behalf deserve my support in doing it. Their families too are clearly in a pretty horrible position, having someone they love off in danger for months at a time and possibly returning with physical and emotional scars, or never returning at all. They deserve support too.
*Actually I’m not sure if we need an army or not. It’s another thing I haven’t thought about properly, but for now I’m gonna err on the side of caution and say I reckon we do.

Taking the British Legion’s statement of what the poppy symobolises at face value then, I think I’m happy to support those still serving today and their loved ones, while I’m conflicted about commemorating the sacrifices of our Armed Forces. Some of those sacrifices I’m very happy to commemorate, some I am not. As a side note I’m starting to realise I’m not quite sure I know what ‘commemorate’ means. I think we should remember shady shit that our government and armed forces did in the past, I’m not sure that we should commemorate them. Should we commemorate the British concentration camps in South Africa? Seems like a no, although we should remember them (and perhaps commemorate the victims).

At this point I’m kind of on the fence. Looks like the poppy symbolises some shit I’m happy to visibly support, and some other shit I’m less happy to. On balance I think I probably wouldnt wear a poppy if it means what the British Legion says it does.

But critics of the poppy go a bit further still. The question we need to ask now is whether the poppy symbolises something other than what the British Legion thinks it does. We don’t always have total control over what the symbols we use mean, as the makers of Plopp chocolate are all too unaware.

Nutty.

To simplify this point a bit, I think some people claim that the poppy now symbolises “the army is good” or maybe “the army does good things”. This is a bit of a sticky one and I’m not sure I have appropriate context having grown up at the time I did. We certainly live in a culture where one of the greatest imaginable taboos is to badmouth the troops. We can criticise the politicians as much as we like, we can criticise wars, we can possibly criticise military leadership (though I imagine most, like me, consider ourselves so inexpert as to be incapable of doing so), but we cannot criticise the women and men who make up the armed forces themselves. I don’t personally have any criticism to level at those people, and as mentioned above I think we have good reason to be supportive of them, but the strength of this taboo is noticeable, and a little bit frightening. I think that, say, going online and calling British soldiers a bunch of murder-loving bastards would be a dick-move. But even tangentially poking at this issue in the spirit of inquiry I feel a bit concerned at the ramifications should I transgress the taboo. I’m not sure if the taboo is justified or not, my point is that it is strong.

Is this a new phenomenon? I’ve seen some stuff written online that suggests it is, though I’m sure that support-for-the-troops feeling spikes in times of active war (eg the 1910s, the 1940s and the 2000s). I think the connection some people are making is that people in power are harnessing this grass-roots emotional force in service of their political aims, that is turning support-the-troops into support-the-army and support-the-nation and support-us-your-leaders. I don’t know if this is true or not. To dispute it we could point to the British Legion’s statement and say “no, it means that”. But that’s not good enough, you can’t legislate for meaning. Stuff means what we take it to mean, not what somebody abstractly states that it means. It is certainly possible that the meaning has gone through the alleged change. There is a social pressure to be seen to be in alignment with the group on this issue that is a bit disconcerting and has echoes of nationalism and popular fervour, the same kind of nationalist fervour that was used to cajole young men in to signing up to die horrible deaths in the world wars.

I’m not sure I know what I think about this further argument. I’ve said that stuff means what we take it to mean. When I see a poppy I think about the First World War. My association may be based on a misunderstanding of the poppy appeal’s intended aims, but that is what those poppies mean to me. But meaning is not personal either. If the poppies mean something else to a significant number of people, if they symbolise blanket support of British military actions, if they actively inculcate such unthinking support among the populace then I don’t want to join in.

I dunno. I think on balance that I’ve talked myself out of wearing one, but I’m not sure I buy the argument that poppies have been co-opted to mean general jingoism and support of the army either. They don’t mean that to me, and I simply don’t know what they mean to others. I’ve heard that you can get white peace poppies. If I’d seen anyone selling those I’d probably get one but I’ve never seen em in the wild. Maybe you can get em online? Hold on let me do some quick googling…

Hold music….

Well, according to the Peace Pledge Union’s endearingly crappy website you can get em mail order, but due to an overwhelming demand they cannot guarantee delivery by Remembrance Day. Their facebook page says they’ve never sold so many and they’re totally snowed under and there’s now way they can get new orders in time for the 11^th. Which is good, I suppose? Man I knew this was a hot button issue. Ah well, we’ll get em next year Raf.

This Is The End Now

I’m curious what the poppy means to people. What does it mean to you?

I’m bummed I’m too late to get a white one too. Does anyone know anywhere you can get em?

Alright that’s it, next week maybe I’ll do the army thing.

Have I Done Anything Meaningful Today?

Have I done anything meaningful today?

As I write this it is 15:46 on Tuesday 1^st July. My boss just asked me, by way of jocular managerial small-talk that he may well have learned from some kind of awful book, the following question: “Have you done anything meaningful today?”

Now, bearing in mind that I’ve spent the last 90-odd minutes reading the Final Fantasy XIV subreddit, I was just a little flustered by this question. However, much like a man in an air-conditioning shop, I’m a pretty cool customer.* And as there’s no way my boss could have seen my screen I gathered my considerable wits and mustered the following response: “that’s a pretty deep philosophical question.”

Zing.

And, just like that, the lightbulb went on in my head and the #blogtime siren went off in my soul. Because you know what we do with deep philosophical questions around here innit.

We figure them suckas out.

*Alternate jokes: “Much like a man in a sunglasses and leather jacket shop”, “much like a cucumber who is also somehow buying things”, or “much like the guy who checks your bags for smuggled goods in Reykjavik airport”.

This guy.

What have I actually done today?

Got up, got ready, left the house before 8. I consider this a not insignificant achievement, given the frankly indecent proportion of my life thus far I have spent in, on and around beds.

Spent about 35 minutes on a bus, 15 on the tube, 10 walking. Gave up my seat for a pregnant lady like an absolute hero.

Spent about 30 minutes scheduling meetings wherein I will talk nebulously about potentially changing some stuff at some distant and perhaps imaginary point in the future.

Spent about 30 minutes speculating about stuff I don’t know about with another guy who also doesn’t know about it.

Spent about an hour replying to emails about other emails.

Spent another 90 minutes performing other light administrative tasks.

Spent approx. 30 minutes making and consuming tea.

Spent an hour for lunch, eaten alone and as far from my building as possible (Japanese restaurant in Chinatown, Tonkatsu on rice with salad, £5.50 and it’s a serious portion. More tea to wash it down. I’m not trying to brag but it was a pretty good lunch).

Spent roughly 2 hours total listening to the Hamish & Andy Show podcast, circa February 2010. (On the commute, on my lunch break, while generally moseying about).

Spent maybe half an hour playing 2048, all of which was concurrent with time spent listening to the Hamish & Andy Show podcast, circa February 2010.

Spent aforementioned 90 minutes on reddit. Of which I spent a good 40 periodically checking in on a facebook post about this Wikipedia page, which is amazing and which I hoped by extension would make me seem cool and interesting for knowing about it.

Spent about 5 minutes surreptitiously watching videos of anvil firing.

Spent an undefined amount of time thinking. Maybe like 5% of my day? Or am I thinking all the time? It doesn’t feel like it. Dunno.

Looked at stuff, a bit, when I wasn’t looking at screens.

And, as it’s now 16:12, I’ve spent 26 minutes writing this.

Reviewing those numbers, I think there’s about half an hour unaccounted for since arriving at work. Let’s call that “downtime”.

Apropos of nothing, did you see the song I posted last week about how business I am?

Pictured: the author.
Also – if you want to have a great time, do a google image search for “businessman”.

Was Any Of That Meaningful?

I guess what a lot of people, my boss included, would think of as time meaningfully spent in one’s workday would be the time spent on productive work. Looking back at my rough tally I reckon I’ve done about three and a half hours of proper work, of which maybe two and a half were genuinely productive. Was any of it meaningful though?

My job is basically to provide administrative and clerical support to a team which is itself a tiny supportive tendril within a gargantuan nightmare of a megacorp (let’s call them “Mishima Zaibatsu”*). At times I feel like the hair on the leg of a gnat on the shirt of a child in a small provincial town in an insignificant country on a crap continent on a mediocre planet situated in a backwater solar system on the far edge of a spiral arm of a galaxy which is itself, in the greater scheme of things, no great shakes. Insignificant. Incapable of enacting meaningful change.

Sick burn.

I don’t know if you’ve worked for a massive company, but I suspect that many of us have at one time or another felt like this about our jobs – that we have no sense of our place in the greater scheme of things, that we are performing arbitrary tasks of no real benefit to anyone. This is the kind of worry that we find in the depiction of pre-Neo Keanu’s job in the matrix, in the nightmarish office from Being John Malkovich and in the works of Kafka (among many other places). Post-industrialisation, globalisation, the massive growth in technology, population, specialisation in the last hundred years have all increased the number and proportion of people working in roles such as mine, supporting the support of a distant business function we never see.

However, that doesn’t mean that I do not effect meaningful change through my work. It’s just hard to see. The work I do basically amounts to shuffling information around, but information transfer can be a bloody powerful thing. In fact, information transfer is the basis of most aspects of business beyond the physical action of producing and distributing goods. Even paying money is at root an exchange of information. So basically yeah, I think by getting that information shuffled I have done something meaningful.

 *Alternative jokes include: Omni Consumer Products, Shinra Electric Power Company and The Umbrella Corporation.

Our CEO

Yeah But Is It Meaningful Though?

Maybe we’ve answered the wrong question though. I may have contributed in some hard-to-identify way to the overall success of Mishima Zaibatsu, but I don’t care about the overall success of Mishima Zaibatsu in the slightest. If anything, I’m mildly opposed to their activities. So maybe my work for them isn’t personally meaningful in the way that, say, writing this blog is.

Well, first, I have written this blog, so even if I accept that point I can still answer the titular question of this post in the affirmative.

But also, meaning’s where you make it, innit. I might not care about the overall purpose of Mishima Zaibatsu, or really apprehend my contribution towards achieving that purpose, but I explained a thing to a dude that didn’t know it today, and I helped a colleague who was swamped with work, and I cleared out my personal ‘to-do’ pile and those actions were meaningful to me.

Maybe Everything’s Meaningful?

What about the rest of the stuff? The thinking, the looking, the podcast, the game, the travelling, the tea? Were those actions meaningful? These are quotidian activities, none of them felt ‘meaningful’ in the sense we sometimes use the word as meaning ‘special’. But if we try hard enough we can tease meaning out of them.

Take tea drinking. I love tea, to the extent that I feel it is a part of my character. So there is a sense in which each cup of tea I drink is an expression of my character, of me-ness, a little moment of quietly affirming my personality in an impersonal environment. A personally meaningful act.

Meaning’s where you make it.

I’m not sure that everything that happens is meaningful – if a planet explodes in space and no-one’s there to think about it, does it make a meaning? – but I think that everything we care about is meaningful.

So maybe my boss’s question is better thought of as “do you care about your job?”

And the answer I seem to have arrived at is “a little bit, yeah.”

I’m as surprised as anyone.

This Is The End Now

Given that the premise of this was what I’d done up until about 5pm, I didn’t mention probably the most meaningful thing that most people do, which is interact with the people in our lives that we love.

I never talked about absurdism – the theory that life is essentially meaningless and that our continual efforts to find meaning are therefore an absurd enterprise, doomed to failure. In short my response to that line of thought is: I agree that we can’t discover meaning in the world, but I think that we can and do create it.

I also never stopped to define meaning or meaningfulness cos I couldn’t be bothered, but I’ve talked mainly about two different flavours – personal meaningfulness and meaningfulness in the sense of enacting significant change in the world (‘significant’ itself warrents unpacking there). There are others.

We could talk about meaning in the sense of symbolic signification eg how words and numbers mean stuff. Or we could talk about meaning through connotation, association, like the various meanings of tarot cards (though thinking about it I suspect this bleeds into the symbolic signification category). Maybe we could talk about the meaning of tea-drinking from a historical perspective, or an anthropological one.

Meaning’s interesting.

Sidebar – I’m struggling a bit to get one of these done a week, what with all the work I’m doing and that, so I might play with the format a bit, either go with shorter posts or put em out every two weeks or summat. Dunno yet, we’ll see how it goes. Suggestions for topics are always welcome too.

Sidebar sidebar – Hey, if you are my boss, let’s all agree to be cool about this yeah?