Description
Mainstream British memories of war have set up a context that facilitates militarisation and discounts pacifist critique, as particularly notable since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This paper illustrates this by focusing on two notable examples of such memories of war: annual remembrance commemorations around the Red Poppy, and mainstream myths about the Second World War (WWII). Poppy commemorations reproduce a blinkered memory of British wars and feed the military-industrial-entertainment complex. WWII is remembered as a just and necessary response to the threat posed by Hitler, where sober and sacrificial Allied realism was needed to overcome the pacifist delusions of the Munich Agreement, thus simplifying and glorifying Allied motives and responsibilities for the war. Both memorial frames overlook the violence of war, its aftermath, and the way in which it transforms its participants. These memories also set a backdrop that facilitates militarisation offensives such as that witnessed since 2022. A revisionist pacifist critique exposes these dynamics, complicates such widespread narratives, and critically reflects on the militarisation path on which the United Kingdom has enthusiastically embarked.
