To not understand the whole "war time spirit" thing

[lockitdown]

I am trying my best to word this the correct way but will probably fail as I have never been good at expressing this.

AIBU in thinking the UK's "obsession"? with deferring to "wartime spirit" is somewhat odd considering the majority of the country most likely have never experienced it? People who were born the year WW2 ended, for example, will be 75 this year. Many of us don't even have parents who experienced wartime or this "wartime spirit" that we are all supposed to be falling in to as a nation.

I am NOT suggesting that we shouldn't honour the people involved in these wars, nor am I suggesting that the wartime spirit at the time wasn't amazing......just that its a rather strange point of reference for a population who may have never experienced it.

My parents were born in 1916 and 1918. He was in the RAF throughout the war and she was a nurse. It’s true to say their experiences during that period defined them and their memories, which they shared freely as they were both great story tellers, are ingrained in me.

In the last few weeks I’ve been so grateful they’re no longer here and having to ensure this. They were both very clear that comradeship and community spirit were what carried them through, they’d have found isolation and solitude so hard to deal with. In fact, I couldn’t have let them suffer it, I’d have moved in for the duration.

By the way, Foyles war was written pretty much by someone who didn't experience it either...and got his stories from his nanny

I don't how to reply to this without swearing.

I agreed, why the hostility? It might not be his own experience but it fits with what both my DM and MIL have told us about their childhood wartime experiences, and experiences of rationing afterwards.

I do think there's been a great sense of community - at least where I live. Everyone looking out for each other and helping out. That said I don't think we need to keep looking back nostalgically on a war almost none of us were alive for. There was a massive increase in crime during the blitz so it wasn't all cups of tea in the underground all night.

@WhyCantIThinkOfAGoodOne this is exactly what I mean. We have a lovely community too. We chat across the fences, make sure everyone is ok, all come out for a song and a clap on Thursday.....but none of us has put up bunting and played any Vera Lynne , as yet :)

It doesn't mean it's the same as being in a war, it just means people (hopefully) coming together in a shitty time that is outside the usual realm of experience.

It's been used to describe a flooded Glastonbury festival in the past, among other things.

i think there is a comparison with the first few weeks of Ww1 when our troops were sent out on horses with swords into machine gun fire...

Can you explain that a bit more? I don't agree and don't really understand how on earth the two are similar.

Well, I don't think war-time analogies are entirely appropriate but yes, there are definite similarities with early WW1:

Unpreparedness - our late lockdown which has led to so many more deaths than countries that locked down much earlier.

Lack of suitable equipment - we sent out soldiers to fight without means of defence - just as we send NHS staff out without the correct PPE.

We also lack ICU beds and ventilators, despite pandemic exercises in 2016 revealing severe shortages, and despite our head-start on other countries.

Underestimating the enemy - Boris's bravado, shaking hands with everyone in March, Cheltenham Races, failure to take it terribly seriously echoes the triumphant rhetoric of August 1914 when everyone thought it would be an easy victory and over by Christmas.

Apparently 'Keep Calm and Carry On' was not a successful wartime slogan as it pissed everyone off
I don't think that's true. I remember seeing something on the telly (so it must be true!) that the "Keep Calm & Carry On" material was prepared and sent out to Post Offices, shops etc to be displayed in the event on an invasion. It never got used as planned but it's become famous and popular more recently, not during the War

It just means stop whining and get on with things, which, I think most people are doing, and look out for each other, which again I think we're doing well.

Wartime spirit in the main was just very good PR.
My grandparents died in their 90s and remember what it was actually like.

I am in my fifties and I think I do have some residue of the war through my parents and grandparents my DM was born in the war, and grew up with rationing as a child, and my DF was of age in 1939,

I think there certainly was a culture of black marketing and people dobbing others in and panic buying, it is behaviour based on fear. Why else do you think they had all those public information advertising drives all over the place?

wartime britain by juliet gardiner is a fabulously researched and well written book- i really recommend it.

My great grandma is finding it all confusing, and the war time analogy helps for her. She was evacuated briefly during ww2 and bombed out. It is similar in some ways, particularly being cut off from loved ones.

I just read an article comparing UK now to wartime 'but with bombs landing on people, whilst leaving buildings intact', and BJ being a modern day Churchill.

Nonsense.