WW2 view from England

World War 2 is still a very real memory to many of those living in England. It's very interesting that all Americans have studied this (we all have, haven't we??) but the way of life in England is still very much affected by what happened more than 75 years ago. People make due with what they have it seems in England, even though they may afford 5 of the thing they are repairing. Fences aren't shiny but they work. This is something that people from other countries appreciate and make this country charming (among other things, of course). You can also see bullet holes in building that are purposefully not fixed. It is discussed (in more appropriate terms) at age 7 in school.

This is very impressive also because the mass killings or clearing out of masses of people in WW2 is something that we cannot strive for again as a species. People often wonder how people could do this to someone or on the the other hand, how people could fall into this death.

The author John Boyne of the book The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas wrote the idea well. The wife of a German solder lived with him and their family near a camp. She thought of the jews as rats and vermin as that was the underlying lie spread for many years. One day she found out that their bodies had been burned and instantly could not cope with the idea of anyone being treated that way. She had been lied to. The people being taken into rooms where told that this was only a shower to prevent their worry, which they must have constantly had. Why would anyone do something so horrible? The brain and human body is amazingly strong. It will do anything to survive the next day. So they marched on. If anyone were to really believe that something horrible was about to happen, they of course would have rebelled. The truth was masked.

People of Germany were following the rules and wanted to do the right thing. They were struggling from the shaming of World War One and were trying to make their country great again.  Unfortunately, it was fueled by hate. It was all around them, though. How could it be wrong?

What were the people of Germany missing? Information? They were pumped information by media, tv, radio, leaflets, books of which they had no control. Books that taught freedom of thought and questioning were burned. Were they thriving or surviving? How many times when you feel like you are just getting by are you able to challenge the thoughts around you? I believe that most Germans were trying just to survive coming out of WW1. They had so little.

We have control over the media these days. It may not feel as such when every news station covers the same story but your vote is the time you spend on certain stations and the money you spend on things. We have avenues to discuss topics that will make our species more advanced rather than bringing us back to animals. Social media, talking to others in person, books, articles, online articles. And read another side, not just your own. Argue with the opposition.

Question. Seek. Keep seeking still.

You have so much. Food? Shelter? Love? How much do you have? I bet you are not on the same survival that others around the world are struggling with.

Ask yourself if you would rather stay in line with what is around you,
Or take a path that is possibly less traveled
and may be harder path
But feels right.
Because it is more civil.
They may be the same,
But asking is what makes you a civil human being.

While I struggle not to fall into Godwin's law in an argument, it is absolutely valid to strive to not to recreate the past.