If you don’t want to observe two minute silence- don’t be out

My grandfather parachuted out of a burning plane and spent the rest of the war in a Nazi prison camp because he thought it was important to defeat Hitler.

If I want to observe the two minutes' silence to remember him then I will, and anyone disturbing me during that time will get very short and very public shrift from me at 11:02.

Get your point across some other time.

Which I disagree with. People shouldn't have to stay at home, but they should understand that there will be people observing the silence and they may not be served during that time.

Well, the OP is entitled enough to suggest everyone who doesn't observe ahould stay home. If itvreally means so much to her to have her two minutes at 11/11/11, all she gas to do is sray home. But no, let the world bend around her.

It is the people wanting to stand stock still to 'observe' who are imposing on others. Be careful with your use of 'entitled twats' because again, that door swings both ways.

You may not agree with those who won't conform but unless we're preventing you from doing what you want, kindly extend the courtesy. We don't want or need your eye-rolling, or 'blocking' us from getting to shelves or any number of the disrespectful things that you (general, not aimed at you) do to express your displeasure. Get on with your two minute devotion and leave everybody else alone.

This.

It wouldn’t kill people, no. However British armed forces have killed innocent civilians, hence why a few people on this thread are relentlessly trying to get their point across.

If it’s not something your family has experienced, or something you don’t know much about, that’s fine. However don’t expect other people, whose lives have been impacted in one way or another, to make sure they don’t interrupt your silence in a public setting.

People are talking about it being performative, but if that’s how you look at it then anything and everything is performative…

why have attend a funeral? You can say goodby quietly on your own. The person is dead, they won’t know if you are there.

Why sing happy birthday? It’s too performative, you can just say happy birthday privately if you really want to.

Or the OP can observe the silence at 11am along with everyone else and entitled twats can realise that the world doesn't revolve around them. How hard is it to wait for 2 minutes FFS?

The OP can, then, on her lunch break, go to a cemetary or cenotaph and have her own personal two minutes of contemplation. If she can be bothered. It doesn't have to be programmatic.

Not everyone who chooses to wear a poppy or observe a two minutes silence is a 'pompous poppy fascist' FFS. I choose to do both and respect the right of other people not to. That's respect doesn't seem to work both ways unfortunately.

I don’t think it hurts anyone to give a couple of minutes thought to those that sacrificed so much. 🙂

Yea gods, thank you!
If those pompous poppy fascists actually cared about results and not performance, they could have channelled all that energy they spent into bulling TV presenters into wearing poppies into lobbying for proper pensions and healthcare provisions for ex-soldiers instead.

Fine, don't maintain the silence but at least have the manners to accept those who do. Are those people exercising their 'fought for freedom of choice' so entitled that they expect to be served during the silence?

The OP (as I have said several times on this thread) is unreasonable to ask any such thing, because anybody with enough respect for others to stay at home on Remembrance Day could far more easily just refrain from making noise for two measly minutes. If they can't do that then we have to accept that they don't have respect for others and will just do whatever the fuck they want, like people who make loud shouty phone calls in the quiet carriage.

If the OP happens to be working on the till in a shop at the relevant time then she can't do any of the things you are helpfully suggesting.

They're probably just carrying on with everyday life in everyday settings, not making a point at all. Unlike those standing around for two minutes in front of Zara trying to think hard about the war dead.

The OP is asking exactly that! She is asking that people who don't observe the silence to stay home, just so that her performance of the silence is respected.

She could try sticking her fingers in her ears and closing her eyes for two minutes if it matters that much to her; or even going somewhere like a cenotaph ceremony where she can properly contemplate the war dead,'s sacrifice for more than two minutes AND have the two minutes' silence she demands. But that would probably inconvenience her more than she thinks the war dead are worth.

Your post really resonated with me. I missed the 2 minutes this year as I was asleep but around our village are some black metal silhouettes of soldiers and we have poppies on every lamppost with the name of a soldier on it. I see them every day and I think of the pointlessness of war and how those lives ended too soon. I think of what those young men would have become and it makes me sad.

I no longer support the Poppy appeal, I can't stomach the misuse of monies raised and the sheer pomposity of it all with the war-mongers of the country posturing in 'gratitude' when they make no provision for those who've sacrificed for their country. It's not just this country either, all countries, all of them have lost soldiers and wasted lives in the name of war, and for what? What did we learn? We're still doing it, still fighting.

I support the white poppies (funding raised still goes to veterans) and I support purple poppies/paws in remembrance of the animals who were sacrificed in the name of war.

That's where I stand. If I'd been awake and shopping I would be silent in that I wouldn't be talking or disrupting anybody but I would not stand for the 2 minute dictat.

Most of us have military family members, either now or previous. Nobody knows what goes on in other people's lives. I do know though that this was a goady thread designed to start a ruck.

Well said

Nobody is saying they don't have the right to do that, if not behaving like a twat is completely beyond them. But they shouldn't kid themselves they're doing it on a point of principle.

Not a legally enforcable one.

And, to get back to the point of this thread, people have a right ( an actual.legal one) to go out on 11/11/11 and make a noise. The OP is suggesting they should relinquish that right.

Thank you.

For some of us, the two-minute silence every year is a complete irrelevance. I personally forget about it completely when I'm not somewhere where the two-minute silence is announced.

That doesn't mean I don't respect the sacrifices of those who fought Hitler or feel sorrow for pointless slaughter of troops for a purposeless war 1914-1918. It means I am very wary of falling into the kind of mindless performance demanded of citizens that starts with collective purpose, but turns into required conformance. My 96-year-old German relatives have something to say about that.

I remember the war dead at times other than 11/11 and resist being required to validate others' performances of supposed meaningful though and reflection in Sainsbury's for the two minutes between choosing their carrots and deciding between beef or lamb for dinner.

It’s just about respect. Would it kill anybody to understand that other people are observing the silence, and let them do that without interruption? It’s only two minutes!!

How do you see it working the other way?

People who work have the right to observe the two minute silence if they want to. This isn't hard to understand. You're just being obtuse. Nobody is imposing anything on you by asking you to just not disturb them for two minutes.

Our local area have the silence only around the War memorial, slightly off our small high street.

People have a choice to be involved then. I think that’s a good idea.