AIBU for thinking that people shouldn't yak away on mobile phones during the two minute silence?

[BoffinMum]

So picture the scene, there I was in Tesco this morning buying a packet of rice, and they announce the two minute Remembrance Day silence over the tannoy. The whole shop stops respectfully and stands quietly with heads bowed. All that is except one silly mum yakking away loudly on her mobile phone and laughing her head off while we were all trying to concentrate on war and Afghanistan-related issues and sadnesses in general.

I got fed up, leaned around the next aisle to where she was making all the racket, and told her to shush, which she eventually did, but I am still very sad and cross she was so blooming inconsiderate in relation to something so serious and important.

What would other MNetters have done? Would this have made you cross as well? Would you have shushed her too?

I have always observed the 2 min silence, and would happily sush someone who wasn't. 2 minutes peace is hardly a lot to ask from people to honour the great men and women who gave their all for our country.

I find it very insulting that anyone could call a 2 min silence ridiculous - it doesn't matter where you are, it is the sentiment that counts.

Even DD's nursery came out late today as staff and children were observing the 2 min silence at 1100 - a feat in itself as the oldest child is only 4!

Well done BoffinMum - I hope she learned something today.

We had a Remembrance assembly at the junior school I work at, and there was not a word from any of the children - including those in the ASD resource - and remarkably little fidgeting either. If they can manage it, I think anyone can - it's not so much whether she agreed with it, by talking audibly, she was preventing others from observing it.

I think there is a difference between observing silence at a ceremony that you have chosen to attend and being obliged to shut up when you are in the middle of something in what is after all a totally useless gesture. Being quiet doesn't make corpses arise from the grave or severed limbs grow back.
Though I am more inclined to be reasonably quite for Armistice Day than than all the other moronic silences that are always being announced for something or other (some of which I have made a point of putting on the loudest and most obnoxious music possible) - I think it may be that all the stupid silences perhaps devalue Armistice Day's silence.
Still, it;s not compulsory, and if it's that big a deal to you, observe it in your own home or in a church or something.

I'd have told her to shut the fuck up!

I think that even if you don't want to observe the silence, it is still possible to respect that other people do, and therefore not hijack it.

Perhaps you could go and stand in the middle of an empty field.

Or in a cupboard.

I think it is rather revealing that this thread is revealing that quite a few people who actually lived through the last war obviously think this silence is superfluous. I think there is something rather ostentatious about it actually, and really very ostentatious to set yourself up as the silence police. I think it is very odd that this silence stuff has suddenly become so popular. There are TWO silences these days it seems. I never used to observe this at school or work.

There's a difference between gibbering loudly where people are trying to observe the silence because you don't care about others' feelings, and NOT observing the silence - which is btw not compulsory in any way - because you don't want to for your own reasons.

I didn't observe the silence because I don't approve of it, and I'm not wearing a poppy because I think it's a completely inappropriate symbol and I don't want to make my chest a billboard for an agenda I find objectionable. I get tired of indignant poppy fascists insinuating that I am breaking some sort of law by not observing these traditions.

However I didn't go forth into the street at 10.59 and start singing "I am Henry the 8th I am" just to upset people.

The fact that we are able to choose to be silent is what those brave men and women have fought for. And because we are given the choice, IMO it's disrespectful not to do it.
2 minutes is not a long time to consider the sacrifices made by service personnel and civilians in conflicts over the last 90+ years and take the chance to "pray" that atrocities like WW1 & WW2 never happen again.

Mabanana - quite a few people? Who exactly?

How do you know some of those who don't choose to observe the silence/wear poppies etc haven't lost someone, either historically or very recently? You are making the assumption that the only 'respectful' position towards the war dead and their relatives is to wear a red poppy and observe the two minute silence. Not so.

But this is all so modern. A sort of post-Diana ostentatious 'more respectful than thou' showing off. I was born in the early 60s, my dh in the late 50s, and while there were cenotaph and war memorial services nobody was expected to interrupt their normal working day or life. And there were a lot more people who had actually fought and lived through the war about then as well.
Unfortunately the soldier in ww1 did not 'give' their lives, they had their lives taken from them pointlessly and brutally in a truly appalling, pointless conflict that helped nobody.

"However I didn't go forth into the street at 10.59 and start singing "I am Henry the 8th I am" just to upset people".

Exactly, Greeny.
That's an important distinction.

Well at the Celtic/can't remember who match on Saturday, they chose to do a 2 minute applause instead. This was a decision by celtic,

Mousemate, there are numerous posts on this thread saying that older people were seen not observing the silence (with much implied tut-tutting)

I think you can still show respect for others who DO think its worthwhile and not superfluous. As an atheist, on the odd occasion I've found myself in church, I don't pray or sing hymns, but I also don't sit there loudly chatting to my neighbour or texting my friends. You can think about whatever you like during the 2 min silence, but you are allowing those around you to pay their respects.

Oh, and another thing. I don't know any people who lived through the last war who think the silence is 'superfluous'.

In fact, at school today my group of 32 15 year olds all paid their respects during the 2 min silence and were pretty peeved when two teachers walked past the window talking! In fact, when it was over, the teachers were told off by the kids!!

Still silent and proud! As generally are my relatives who really lived and suffered through the war ...

Limbs don't grow back, corpses will not be raised from the dead, as you say, my relatives will not become ungassed or unwidowed, but thinking about higher order values such as peace, tolerance and bravery rather than consumerism for 2 minutes. alongside other people trying to do the same, has quite powerful psychological effect collectively.

I think it's like laying flowers at murder or crash sites - reflective, cathartic and useful for those who do it. A sign the world is about more than just us as individuals, and that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Sorry, mabanana, I know I'm probably coming across a bit preachy now.

agree about the post-Diana thing. Recreational grieving. I don't depise people for having and showing feelings, but the herd mentality in these things is alarming - most people under 40 wearing a poppy haven't thought through exactly what they're subscribing to IMO. They just feel sad that people were killed and they are shepherded into thinking they are insulting those people's memory if they don't conform to these particular sylised rituals.

Do you think it is possible that the woman on the mobile phone didn't realise????

I know that when I am talking on the phone I go into my own little world and often don't hear what is going on around me...

mababana, that's your opinion which you are entitled to. I personally like to take 2 minutes (or 4 if you count Sunday as well) out of a whole year to thank those who gave their lives (becasue they did give their lives, wether pointlessly or not) so that I could live the life I do today. I also choose to think about DH's friends and colleagues, who are out in Afghanistan or Iraq,. But, that's my choice.

Plus frankly the alternative might have been having to stand with our flipping arms up today yelling 'Sieg Heil' collectively in honour of some evil sadist, whilst being forced to bear half a dozen children each for the Fatherland.

I am not joking.

I totally disagree with the terminology of 'giving their lives' re WW1. Those young men were murdered, and the conflict did sod all to create a better world today. In fact that conflict helped CAUSE the carnage of WWII and assisted the rise of Hitler and fascism in general.
Observing the silence is your choice, of course, but this thread is really about imposing that choice on others, by, for example, telling them to 'fuck off', which seems rather aggressive for a moment apparently dedicated to peace.