British pacifists offended by patriotic coin
A new £2 coin launched to commemorate the start of the First World War has been criticised for being too jingoisitc and glorifying war, after the Royal Mint chose a design featuring an army recruitment poster.
Former War Minister Lord Kitchener is shown on the coin in military uniform pointing towards the viewer and saying 'Your country needs YOU' - an image which symbolised the early optimism of the war, which would claim almost a million British lives.
But while the Mint described the image as 'powerful' and 'instantly recognisable', sceptical users took to social media to accuse them of attempting a 'rebrand' of the conflict.
Predicting 'wall-to-wall jingoism', users said the Mint made a 'shameful' decision to glorify a military leader, rather than honouring the loss of rank-and-file soldiers.
The coin is being produced by the Royal Mint as part of a collection designed specifically for events in 2014.
The former War Minister, who is also associated with the use of concentration camps in the Boer war, has proved a controversial decision with those who view the image of a red poppy as a more fitting tribute to the conflict.
Twitter user Andrew Reid wrote: 'Just saw the Kitchener £2 coin. The official rebrand of WWI is apparently underway. It's going to be wall-to-wall jingoism, isn't it?', while Adam Murray said: 'That's not a sombre symbol of WW1 Remembrance. Should be a poppy or a soldier.'
Trevor Warner added: 'Shameful that the Royal Mint are issuing a £2 coin in 2014 with a portrait of Lord Kitchener, the man who gave the world concentration camps.' Another said: 'New £2 coin glorifies ad campaign that led young men to needless death.'
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We live in the age of offence: Everything seems to offend someone these days
12 comments:
" Pacifism is objectively pro-fascist. This is elementary common sense. If you hamper the war effort of one side, you automatically help out that of the other. Nor is there any real way of remaining outside such a war as the present one. In practice, 'he that is not with me is against me. "
-George Orwell
“Those who would trade our freedom for the soup kitchen of the welfare state have told us that they have a utopian solution of peace without victory. They call their policy "accommodation". And they say if we only avoid any direct confrontation with the enemy, he will forget his evil ways and learn to love us. . . . We cannot buy our security, our freedom from the threat of the bomb by committing an immorality so great as saying to a billion human beings now in slavery behind the Iron Curtain, "Give up your dreams of freedom because to save our own skin, we are willing to make a deal with your slave-masters".”
-Ronald Reagan
The pacifists should be paid only in the "offemsive" £2 coins than asked if they will refues the money. "Hell freezing over" comes to mind.
“Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say 'what should be the reward of such sacrifices?' Bid us and our posterity bow the knee, supplicate the friendship and plough, and sow, and reap, to glut the avarice of the men who have let loose on us the dogs of war to riot in our blood and hunt us from the face of the earth? If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!”
-Samuel Adams
People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.
-George Orwell
The coin's design is merely a reflection of a war 100 years ago that changed everything, whether or not it might have been different looking in the rear-view mirror of history. Certainly the flower of a generation were used wrecklessly as cannon fodder for no more ideal than the hubris of elites on all sides of the conflict, and to make fortunes for the war profiteers in "blood money"..
Militarily speaking, there's nothing in British history for them to be proud of.
Did your parents have any children who received an education past kindergarten?
Those that disparage the presentation coin should perhaps stop and consider what their life may be like now if the brave soldiers that enlisted had not done so. Yes I realise that the UK had conscription but Australia and New Zealand didn't. Germany and its allies would have imposed harsh terms for peace at any cost that would have made a peace deal insufferable. To do nothing would have created consequences far greater than can be imagined and a world beyond recognition. Yes there were immense propaganda programs by both sides and hindsight is a wonderful thing. Whilst not losing sight of the tragic loss of so many young men on both sides, to cede ground to the enemy in the name of peace would have created a worse end to the war for no benefit at all but the peace of mind for pacifists who would come to regret their stance in the worst possible ways.
4:26 Well to name just some of the many that are proud-worthy - the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 that defeated Napoleon's grand plans for World domination (albeit with Prussian help), and the Battle of Britain in 1940 that defeated the German Luftwaffe and prevented an invasion and so made possible the later D-Day and Hitler's defeat. And what about the much earlier defeat of the Spanish Armada, without which you probably wouldn't be speaking English in America now!!
The anon with the quotes appears to be a baby killer apologist.
Pssst.....it's "pro-choice", to make it sound not so much like murdering babies before birth. But you probably already knew that.
Never had a problem with an unborn person; the crap starts getting tedious about ten years after and downhill from there, but I haven't murdered one yet. Haven't killed any either. Do you know the difference? Do you have a name and the honesty to wear it?
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