My wife and I just saw a wonderful and uplifting anti-war film, “Joyeux Noel.” A French film that was nominated for “Best Foreign Film,” it recounts actual events that took place on the battlefield on Christmas Eve, 1914. French, German, and British (Scottish) troops were in their respective trenches that night, when German soldiers began singing “Silent Night.” Some Scotsmen had bagpipes with them, upon which they accompanied the German singers. Soon, all of the erstwhile combatants met in the “no man’s land” between their trenches and began exchanging food, wine, showing one another pictures of their families, etc. Many even agreed to get together, after the war, for social gatherings. On Christmas day, these men played a soccer game.
The day after Christmas – when the military establishment got wind of what had happened – the soldiers were threatened with reprisals. After all, what would a statist world be like if peace suddenly broke out amongst those who are supposed to be cannon fodder for corporate and royal interests? What if soldiers began to see that they had more in common with each other than with their rulers? [What if we, 92 years later, came to the same realization?] This was a fear that terrified state authorities at the time.
As I watched this film – which did a generally good job paralleling this phenomenon – I kept recalling the bumper-sticker from the Vietnam War era: “what if they gave a war and nobody came?”
4:48 pm on March 24, 2006
