One hundred years ago today during the first year of the Great War, German and British soldiers suffering through the common misery of trench warfare along the Western Front ceased fire and celebrated a common holiday………together. All accounts indicate this was an action carried out by individual units of front line soldiers on both sides who demanded a respite from the inhumanity of armed conflict, even if just for a few hours. Naturally, when the senior officers on both sides learned of this unofficial truce, fraternization with the enemy and disengagement from hostilities they were furious! I mean that is not what war is about after all. War is about applying military force to achieve political ends at all costs! It is a 24-hour-7-day-a-week business and demands the full attention and resources of all involved to be successful. The Christmas Truce of 1914 reflected the humanity of young men caught up in circumstances far greater than any individual one of them. It reminded everyone that killing other people is an unnatural act and sharing fellowship and simple pleasures of living is what makes us all human. As anyone who has ever endured the abrupt transition into regimentation of recruit training will tell you, boot camp is a dehumanizing experience. It is much easier to make everyone equally nothing by shaving their head and making them toe the line via blind obedience to authority and then reconstructing their character as obedient privates at the bottom of the chain of command. Critical thought has no place in such an environment. As the Christmas Truce showed, they may be able to dehumanize the conscript or volunteer enough to desensitize them to taking the life of a designated enemy and putting up with inhuman living conditions but they still cannot purge them of their humanity. In this respect the soldiers who called the truce can be held up as a moral example. After all, obedience is doing what you are told regardless of what is right. Morality is doing what is right regardless of what you are told. Sadly, the truce only lasted one day and was never repeated. The morality of authority reigned supreme and the Great War raged on for nearly four more years. Sadly again, it turned out to not be the war to end all wars but the war that let to another, and another, and another.
If front line soldiers have it in them to cease fire for a day and enjoy life for a few hours then what is stopping everyone else? That is the existential question of the day. A reasonable goal for all would be to try, just try to be a little bit less of an asshole for at least a couple hours.
Merry Christmas everyone!
A Century Ago, When the Guns Fell Silent on Christmas