If there is to be true recognition and hope, it might come in the future!
* NOTE: This post will face online criticism for those that will – as usual – twist my words as a means to their own opposition end. Once again, if a person cannot argue with a message, the tactic is instead, to attack the messenger.
Since the end of World War Two, many people in many nations continued to say “How did the German people of the time, let their (fascist) government of the day, away with so much and also openly support their Hitler government efforts?”
Many German people (not all – I salute those that then opposed the Fascism) of the time, were accused of ‘turning a blind eye’ to what was going on every day, all around them.
Looking back with hindsight, further research and knowledge of events, we can safely come to a number of conclusions. I will try keep some of their mentioning, as short as possible.
1. The media of the day was openly and covertly controlled – by threat and by actual attack. Fact.
2. The public were hit day in, day out with propaganda. Later exposed, previous research done by then fascist government, showed to the then fascists that ‘if you repeat something often enough to the people, sooner or later, people start to believe it’. I paraphrase the Joseph Goebbels full version statement on this and then follow-up activity.
3. Anyone opposing the then government was classified as “an enemy of the state” or “…of the people.” …”They bad …we good!”
4. Truthfully, much of the German people were completely kept in the deliberate dark as to what their government of the day, was actually doing. Those that did know, in part, kept their mouths shut out of fear and wanting to save their own lives and that of their loved ones, when aware of the fascist government antics. Unfortunate but truthfully, understandable silences that came about. Again, add to this, much was 99% censored within the then German state.
Now, let’s look back further in history to the events of 1916, location Dublin.
Ireland at the time was then passing through 900 long years of oppression, one way or another via powers that the average citizen has little contributory say towards.
A number of brave men and women (I salute them all) dared to stand up against a then empire on when, then, the sun never settled.
(* SIDENOTE: As the empire claimed governorship over so much world territory at the time, there was always a place of empire rule where the sun shone in any one day – thus the phrase…)
Hero’s of the 1916 rising, at the time, were praised by some ordinary citizens and also criticised by people at same social level. Irish citizens still under British rule, gave out to those holed up in the GPO and other locations. The government of the day stated (via the main papers of the time) and through limited radio, that what we now rightly see as the patriots of the period, were bad people. Bad people to be shunned, criticised and ostracised.
In time after 1916 and after 1945, as more and more details emerged of what was fully going on right under the people’s noses, later people awoke to ‘bigger pictures’ of reality.
* They recognised that they had been wrong to rush into criticism of those they gave out to, previously.
* They recognised that they hadn’t been told full truths previously.
* They recognised that their media hadn’t been fully honest.
* They recognised that much had been hidden from them.
* They recognised that the then ‘good government’s’ of the day, were in fact, totally the opposite.
* They recognised that they, themselves had been too quiet, too complacent and at times, too cowardly themselves.
Any of this hitting home? Any of this sound familiar? Any of this helping people to see a bigger picture?
(* SIDENOTE: This is solely about bad government and short-sightedness by those that stand by such governments. It’s NOT about a particular single current issue. It’s an overall larger picture we need to see.)
I will leave you to draw your own conclusions on any aspects of the previous stated.
One point here, is this. If there is to be true recognition and hope for Ireland, it might come in the future. Only then, when better informed, previous self-imposed blinkered people, are able to look back retrospectively, I hope they too then see ‘bigger pictures’ of what’s currently going on – open/covert rotten government actions, those remaining too silent – and see such activity (or deliberate lack of it) for what it really is!
We cannot double-standard criticise people of the past, when we, ourselves, possibly indulge ourselves in somewhat similar behaviour. Behaviour, right now in many cases, we refuse to see – for it’s possibly too close to hard truth?