Stop with the WW2 comparisons

[BecomeStronger]

If I see it one more time...

Yes, living through WW2 must have been terrible. Having waved a loved one off to a real (but much smaller) war I can't begin to imagine what it was like for mothers/wives waiting back home or what living in the Blitz was like. It must certainly be incomparable to anything we're going through now.

However, everything you've ever seen or read about that time references the camaraderie of the soldiers and the community spirit back home as being what got people through. It's exactly that which is being denied currently.

Of course the physical hardships aren't comparable but mentally, to face this (or that) alone without social contact is an entirely different proposition.

YANBU
Apart from anything else....people DID moan about restrictions in WW2.
There's a reason why the ARP warden is the bad guy in Dad's Army. People DID not like the ARP!
People also ignored some rules: far fewer children were evacuated than the government wanted. And many families that did evacuate missed their kids and brought them home.
And people DID people push back against rules that were unfair. That picture of people sheltering in a tube station that was EVERYWHERE on Facebook...couldn't have been taken if the Communist Party hadn't agitated to have the tube stations opened up.
People in WW2 also got fed up. They drank too much. They got depression.
They were people just like us.

There was also a massive black market, so very many people obviously were taking more than their rations and dare I say it, stockpiling.

Agreed.

I think our generation would not have coped at all well with WW2. Look at everyone moaning now about having to go to work if they're not furloughed about the amount they get paid if they are on furlough, that they're cold in ventilated rooms the list goes on. It's embarrassing.

And there we go the poster above just can't help theirselves.

Totally agree OP. It's an irrelevant comparison.

George Galloway was wanging on ignorantly in a podcast interview I watched the other week saying in the war people didn’t need fines to make them follow rules like blackouts. I looked it up and they absolutely did- many many people broke the rules and were fined.

And there we go the poster above just can't help theirselves

Aren't people allowed opinions?

If "our generation" was in the blitz?
Some would cope well, others would muddle along, some would be downright miserable, others would do even worse.

Some would be trying their best to help others and the community, some would be panicking, some would be trying to turn it their advantage and scam money from others, most would be somewhere in the middle....

Much like the generation that were around for the blitz!

At a personal level I find the war analogy quite useful-people didn’t know how long it was going to last, many normal things were disrupted- but it’s reassuring, people got through it, things bounced back. The posts about how everyone then was wonderful and we are all awful just betrays ignorance of history.

People looted bombed buildings.
Sexual assault was a problem in blacked out streets.
A disturbingly large number of evacuees were left "unclaimed" at the end of the war. Many were orphans, but some parents just abandoned their kids.

There are stories of sacrifice, selflessness and bravery, but there are also stories of greed, selfishness and criminality.

Human nature does not change, really. People are people but we like our myths.
I suppose the propaganda of the time was so good that even now, people have a weirdly one dimensional idea of the Home Front: The finest of human nature distilled in warm sepia.

It is stupid comparing the pandemic to the blitz, I agree. Especially when it is used as a stick to beat people with when they admit to finding things difficult.

No I don’t agree. I have three early 20’s dses, the thought of seeing them go off to war is unbearable. Not to mention my DH. And the bombing night after night.

This situation I can cope with.

Actually I do agree with you there countess - it can be useful to consider how the world got back to turning after other huge upheavals.

Also I find that spookily accurate analogies can be found in Dad's army if you're looking for light relief.

"Put that picnic away!! Don't you know there's a pandemic on?"
"Dont panic Mr Mannering!"
"We're Doomed DOOOOOMED!!"
Or the paranoid covid denier's response to being asked for track and trace details: "dont tell him your name Pike!"

An opposite feature of war to this is that there was purpose. Many people deal with stress by being busy, and people (especially women) had to fill the gaps of essential work left by the men who went off to fight.
People had to pull together to get things done. I'm not saying it was all harmonious, humans are humans, but there was common purpose. People weren't divided and isolated behind screens. There were social outlets. Families grouped together to support each other.

There was trauma. Often bottled up until their dying day.
My relative died by suicide in the 1960s because of the trauma and life changing injuries caused 20+ years earlier and there was a heck of a lot of trauma caused to the next generation being raised in the aftermath of that. Were they not resilient enough?

I couldn't agree more. It's an absolutely ridiculous comparison.

@SquishySquirmy

If "our generation" was in the blitz? Some would cope well, others would muddle along, some would be downright miserable, others would do even worse.

Some would be trying their best to help others and the community, some would be panicking, some would be trying to turn it their advantage and scam money from others, most would be somewhere in the middle....

Much like the generation that were around for the blitz!

Yep. The 'wartime generation' were no different to any other generation. They certainly weren't all stoic, selfless and heroic. They just had the misfortune to live in a shit time. That didn't make them heroes, it just madee them unfortunate.

@Hyperbolistic

I think our generation would not have coped at all well with WW2. Look at everyone moaning now about having to go to work if they're not furloughed about the amount they get paid if they are on furlough, that they're cold in ventilated rooms the list goes on. It's embarrassing.

Life is very different now. If it was the same as back then we'd cope just like they did. It's like putting a fish in a cage and saying oh it's not doing very well. Well no course it's not.

I hate the comparisons and wish they'd stop, they are trite and utterly pointless.

I also think that people are people, there are all different sorts of people who act and react in different ways....people dont change circumstances do.

People carried on as normally as they could, especially for the sake of the children. My brother and I were put to bed downstairs in the Morrison shelter, and my mother would join us if there was an air raid. I started school as normal, but when incendaries fell on the school my education was disrupted for that term, and then the doodlebugs and rockets targeted London and we were evacuated to Shropshire. The rest of my family stayed in London.

Families are being ripped apart during war times both during WW2 and other wars going on today around the world. It’s not comparable with having to being asked to stay at home and if you lose your job, it’s shit, but you are not being bombed in the night. Yes I can’t help myself. Only last week a family with children drowned trying to cross the English channels. That is trauma.

The thing is it depends how you look at it. My late father was a POW having been shot down over Germany, bailed out of the plane then captured and spent 2 years in a prisoner of war camp. My mother was evacuated as a child.

They were both very stoic adults. Whilst I did hear certain accounts from that time it amazes me now as a mature adult how it didn’t affect them more than it did. When you do have that type of experience within your family it’s hard not to reflect what previous generations endured themselves.

I'm not saying it wasn't awful, if course it was and that's what I said. I said it's not comparable. It's apples and oranges.

DM was in an occupied country, and had all the various armies come through. Her opinion is that it is worse now. She hates it. In her opinion, in the war at least you could choose to go out, regardless of bombs falling around you. You could have fun, meet people, indulge in risky relationships. She really thinks her grandchildren have it worse than she did.

How old is your DM? I mean, were not most of the people alive in the war still alive today children during WW2? My parents are near 80 and were toddlers during the way.

During the war!