{"id":227,"date":"2007-04-25T18:37:52","date_gmt":"2007-04-25T18:37:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php\/2007\/04\/25\/lest_we_forget_1\/"},"modified":"2007-04-25T18:37:52","modified_gmt":"2007-04-25T18:37:52","slug":"lest_we_forget_1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/?p=227","title":{"rendered":"Lest we forget"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is no greater story in western Australian culture than that
\nof the ANZACS<\/a> at Gallipoli<\/a> celebrated
\nthroughout the country on 25th April.<\/p>\n

Now let us make it known right away that The Spiral Path has no interest
\nin glorifying war. However, this is a phenomemon I can’t ignore. It
\nwas an inglorious and spectactular defeat, but we celebrate it each
\nyear with increased vigour. As children, we would wear our Dad’s (or
\nour grandad’s or uncle’s) medals to school on Anzac Day and our mums
\nwould have Anzac
\nBiscuits<\/a> waiting for us when we got home.<\/p>\n

But what has made it such a unifying national day?<\/p>\n

As Robert
\nManne<\/a> puts it in today’s
\nAge<\/a>, <\/p>\n

Mystery surrounds Anzac Day. Why have Australians, despite
\nthe passage of the years, increasingly come to regard the beginning
\nof one of the most terrible defeats the British Empire suffered in
\nthe First World War as their most solemn national day? <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In his reasoned and patient manner, Manne goes on to examine some theories
\nparticularly focussing on John
\nHirst’s<\/a> that it is a response to our collective sense of colonial inferiority.
\nAgain, in Manne’s words:<\/p>\n

The Gallipoli landing was the first action of a solely Australian
\nmilitary unit. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And, quoting one of the first reports to reach Australian
\nshores<\/p>\n

“There has been no finer feat in this war than this sudden landing
\nin the dark and storming of the heights. …(The Australians) were
\nhappy because they had been tested for the first time and not found
\nwanting."<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Manne concludes this section:<\/p>\n

The Anzac myth was created<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So much has been said about the Anzac tradition and so much further will
\nbe said. The thing that struck me this year was the power of myth.<\/p>\n

So often when we think of myth we think only of one of its meanings "A
\nwidely held but false belief or idea" [Oxford American Dictionary],
\nas in Urban
\nMyth<\/em>. But there is also a more foundational meaning.<\/p>\n

a traditional story, esp one concering the early history of a
\npeople or explaining some natural or social phenomenom… [Oxford American
\nagain.] <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As it happens, I am currently reading Tim
\nCostello’s<\/a> book Tips
\nfrom a travelling soul searcher<\/a>. This book is largely about the power
\nof and the need for us to keep telling one another stories. Stories
\nare just that. They have many meanings and people present at the
\nsame event each tell a different version. Stories are not complete
\nexplanations. We know that they contain truths that are valuable
\nto us but we don’t always know exactly what the truth is. It just
\nresonates somewhere within us. Sometimes the story contains a warning.
\nSometimes they warm us. Sometimes we tell them because they say
\nsomething about ourselves. Often we tell the same story over and
\nover again. When people join our family or our organisation, we
\ntell them our stories and the learn more about us that if we tried
\nto describe ourselves.<\/p>\n

So like other stories, we don’t have to understand the Anzac myth. It is
\nworth our while to talk to one another about what it means. Each time
\nperhaps we learn more about ourselves and about a different side to
\nourselves. Perhaps, most importantly, we become more confident about
\nourselves. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is no greater story in western Australian culture than that of the ANZACS at Gallipoli celebrated throughout the country on 25th April. Now let us make it known right away that The Spiral Path has no interest in glorifying war. However, this is a phenomemon I can’t ignore. It was an inglorious and spectactular […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-purpose"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}