Saturday
07Nov2009
POST MORAL BRITAIN...
Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 10:12PM As we approach Remembrance Sunday, comes the news that War memorials are being desecrated by thieves and vandals at the rate of more than one a week.
Figures released on the eve of Remembrance Sunday reveal how thugs are casually vandalising plaques, statues and stone crosses. Since the country paused to commemorate the war dead in November last year, yobs have damaged at least 56 war memorials.
Here is one image from a land that has moved post-Christian, post-morality. Urinating on wreathes laid in memory of the fallen. Secularism rules...
tagged Broken Britain
Broken Britain 
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Reader Comments (28)
A member that size and pink underwear to boot! No wonder he wasn't man enough for the Army.
Secularism rules
Secularism is about denying the belief in a deity and the supernatural - sky-gods, ghosts, hobgoblins and the like. It supports the view that there are satisfactory explanations for our existence on this planet which do not require religious belief.
It has nothing to do with feral youths urinating on poppies, or other forms of anti-social behavouor.
Oh what nonsense. This is nothing whatsoever to do with secularism or post Christianity. A paraletically drunk student caught peeing where he obviously shouldn't. I feel sorry for him. I sincerely doubt he meant to insult the fallen soldiers. I don;t excuse his behavior but my god has he been crushed by national humiliation he could never have expected. Now the national news is reporting the Judge in his case might send him to jail. Brings to mind that famous Times editorial about crushing a butterfly on a wheel.
I've been drunk plenty of times. Never did that. (and no, I won't tell you what!)
According to reports he is ashamed of himself. I suppose he would say that now but if he is genuinely ashamed and he was just too drunk to discern I am sorry for him.
If he thinks it was a fun lark then I am even sorrier for him.
...and no I don't see what it has to do with secularisn or post Christianity, It has a lot to do with not being able to hold your drink.
Really distressing image though.
Aileen
It's not so much the image - which I agree IS distressing, but the fact that 56 War Memorials were attacked and vandalised. A National shame.
But that;s the point. If this had been in the middle of the day and was the deliberate actions of a sober yob mocking the memorial then he would have deserved everything that could be thrown at him. But I don't believe that was the situation in this case. He has been punished enough and will never live it down. To paraphrase the Monty Python team, he's not the devil incarnate, he's just a silly drunken boy.
David
Yes and that will be down to more than drink.
If he is sorry he would return immediately and scrub clean the monument he stained.
He was probably too ignorant and drunk to know where he was peeing, and if he'd been told he probably wouldn't have know what it was or what it was for.
Colm -
I don;t excuse his behavior but my god has he been crushed by national humiliation he could never have expected.
Good.
That he has been humiliated is evidence of lingering shreds of decency in our secular British craphole. Unfortunately, yes, it is more than coincidence that this and other attacks should be so common in a post-Christian land. You might see a drunk student in that photo pissing on a memorial to our war dead and only that.
However, there's always a reason for an act. What is the room for narcissism and self-aggrandisement in a society where one of our apparently brighter young men feels free to piss on memorial to our war dead? How scarce is shame in that society?
Sorry, a self-absorbed young man pissing on our war dead is the perfect image of a society which recognises no higher God than self-pleasure.
But David's point is that the problem isn't a drunken youth if 52 memorials have been damaged, some beyond repair.
Here's an interesing picture of British war graves in Texas.
If you ask a jerk like this, more often than not you'll hear something like: "Well, I DO have a spiritual side, you know" or "I reject organised religion, but I have MY OWN idea of God."
But can't imagine the student Enoch Powel peeing on a war monument. Now there was a noble secularist and atheist!
Sorry, a self-absorbed young man pissing on our war dead is the perfect image of a society which recognises no higher God than self-pleasure.
Pete
How do you know this young man is "self-absorbed" as opposed to, say, pissed?
Similar hooliganism in Britain has been seen in all ages (check Shakespeare). Religion - or the lack of it - has nothing to do with it.
OK - why are so many war memorials now being vandalised? Let's set aside secularism - don't want to undermine the main point. What sort of scum damages a memorial to our war dead???
Charles -
Thanks for that. It's a lovely setting.
Charles,
I will get to Texas one of these days.
Peter -
How do you know this young man is "self-absorbed" as opposed to, say, pissed?
Because I see my self-absorbed, arrogant, narcissistic young self in him.
Fortunately for me I was shamed, humbled and forced to grow up.
Ah! 'twas the drink sir! - what a perfect, ready made excuse for arrant stupidity, but it isn't an excuse to escape suitable punishment. If he's old enought to drink alcohol, he is old enough to take the consequences.
It is also all too easy for to make excuses for his not unique behaviour - which is why we see more and more of this type of behaviour. And to think this prat is a 'student'! and not even an anarchist making a pathetic point. from the pic, it would appear that he was not the first one to relieve himself on the memorial.
That his defenders on here, are so prepared to excuse what has to have been a deliberate act of disrespect, see it as just a prank, is almost as offensive as the act itself. It says much about them doesn't it?
Ernest
I make no excuse for this young man's drunken behaviour.
I thought my previous comments made this clear?
"What sort of scum damages a memorial to our war dead???"
"What sort of scum damages a memorial to ANY dead? If it had been a drunken arsehole pissing on a Wehrmacht memorial in Germany would it have been any more acceptable?
Peter -
Yes, your comment excused his behaviour. You implied that this has been the norm for at least 500 years, in fact "in all ages". Yes, in all the ages that civilisation has died.
I addressed you also in my 12.12am. Have the grace to respond for goodness sake.
Pete
No, I did not excuse the drunken lout, and I have no idea how you could make that allegation.
Thanks for that Pete. David, we'll keep the light on for ya.
Did I mention I was about 30 feet from George Bush last night at the fort? I waved and he and Laura waved back. Quite a treat.
I think the war memorials are vandalized because such acts offend us deeply and those who commit the acts are looking to offend (same with vandals of houses of worship).
This particular idiot may very well regret his actions, and may very well not have known what he was doing at the time (although I am unpersuaded and unwilling to spend further time thinking about his state of mind). But I have no problem with him being exposd to national disgrace for the act - and so should the photographer who took the picture.
Charles
You are our man on the scene!
Edit
Not worth it.
"and so should the photographer who took the picture."
Absolutely old friend. They participated just as much in the act.
Wow. That makes me want to cry.