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#warmongering — Public Fediverse posts

Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #warmongering, aggregated by home.social.

  1. The Final Cut

    It says something about a sense, I suppose for me personally, a sense that I may have betrayed him. He died in the last war and I kind of feel that I personally may have betrayed him, because we haven’t managed to improve things very much. That the economic cycles still over-ride everything, with the best intentions, the cycle of economic recession followed by resurgence still governs our actions.

    Roger Waters (talking about feeling personally responsible for his father’s betrayal)

    While Pink Floyd produced highly-rated classics such as The Wall, The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, and Animals, The Final Cut is still my favourite album – even as you will later learn, one band member tried to disown it.1

    This contrarian preference may cause a few hairs to bristle, but I have several good reasons for liking the album frequently regarded as the one that finally broke up the band for good. Even the band members agree that during the production of The Final Cut, their 12th studio album, friction between them had reached a crescendo. The name of the album is therefore about as appropriate as you can get.

    Acrimony between band members started manifesting more prominently during the production of The Wall, and by the time The Final Cut came around, keyboardist Richard Wright had already been fired. Roger Waters had assumed almost total creative control, and it showed in this album, which contained many songs which didn’t make it onto The Wall.

    Many, both at the time and afterwards, would accuse Roger Waters of turning the album into his own pet project. It is sometimes actually regarded as a de facto solo album. David Gilmour didn’t appreciate the political stance Waters was trying to evoke in the recording. He even removed his name from the credits list as producer, although he has continued to receive production royalties.

    (In case you’re wondering if I have some sort of animosity toward David Gilmour, I don’t. I regard him as one of the best and most influential guitarists in the world. And he was instrumental in getting one of my favourite female artists, Kate Bush’s career, into motion)

    Having gotten all the unpleasant, acrimonious bullshit out of the way, it brings me to the two top reasons for loving this album so much.

    Firstly, Waters is a creative writing genius. So much of Pink Floyd wouldn’t exist without him. I applaud him for taking creative control to produce an artistic work with significant political and humanitarian significance. Had Gilmour had his way, this album might not have seen the light of day.

    Secondly, The Final Cut is a magnificent political statement and work of activism. It is an anti-war album. That in itself places it in very high esteem because it mirrors my own extreme distaste for war and warmongering. Waters would go on to have a highly successful solo music career, creating many albums that exemplify his humanity and activism work. It infuriates me greatly that he is frequently accused of antisemitism for merely pointing out the egregious injustices inflicted on the Palestinian population by Israel.

    Waters wrote the songs in memory of, and in tribute to, his father, who died during WWII, but also to all the other soldiers who gave their lives in vain for the unrealised dream of a better, more peaceful world. Much of his writing since then still reflects his disappointment with a world plagued by a continuous stream of wars and warmongering as a preferred means of solving problems.

    Then there are the songs themselves, each with lyrics that have very deep meaning, targeting specific events and people.

    In The Post War Dream, we have the following lines which question what his father sacrificed his life for:

    Tell me true, tell me why, was Jesus crucified?
    Was it for this that Daddy died?
    Was it you, was it me?
    Did I watch too much TV?
    Is that a hint of accusation in your eyes?

    Also, in The Gunner’s Dream, Waters imagines an airman as he is shot down and descending, dreaming of a peaceful, just world free from tyranny, state terror, and the slaughter of children:

    A place to stay, enough to eat
    Somewhere, old heroes shuffle safely down the street
    Where you can speak out loud about your doubts and fears
    And what’s more, no one ever disappears
    You never hear their standard issue kicking in your door
    You can relax on both sides of the tracks
    And maniacs don’t blow holes in bandsmen by remote control
    And everyone has recourse to the law
    And no one kills the children anymore
    No one kills the children anymore

    Similar themes are explored in the other songs. In The Fletcher Memorial Home, as well as a few other songs, Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who was in office when the album was produced, comes in for particular stick. It is my favourite song on the album, and definitely one of my top five Pink Floyd songs.

    https://youtu.be/zDDzR2zSgsM?si=bQ5h09AUROX7tBfH

    In the song, Waters envisioned a special retirement home where the world’s political leaders, tyrants, and warmongers would be safely locked up and deterred from perpetrating any further harm to society.

    Take all your overgrown infants away somewhere
    And build them a home
    A little place of their own
    The Fletcher Memorial Home For Incurable Tyrants and Kings

    They could appear to themselves every day
    On closed-circuit TV
    To make sure they’re still real
    It’s the only connection they feel

    (And now, adding colour)
    (“Who’s the bald chap?”)
    (A group of anonymous Latin-American meat packing glitterati)

    Did they expect us to treat them with any respect?

    Safe in the permanent gaze of a cold glass eye
    Their favourite toy
    They’ll be good girls and boys
    In the Fletcher Memorial Home for Colonial Wasters of Life and Limb

    Is everyone in?
    Are you having a nice time? (Goodbye!)
    Now the final solution can be applied

    This song perhaps exposes a personal vindictive streak, hopefully the only one I harbour. I too wish for the so-called leaders of the world from North and South America, Europe, Africa, India and other countries we do not hear about all that often, to be incarcerated, not in a cosy retirement home, but in some sort of hard-labour concentration camp.

    But would I want the final solution to be applied as Waters recommends in the song?

    Perhaps! I might be tempted…

    1. Featured image of the band is AI-generated ↩︎

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    #Animals #DavidGilmour #KateBush #PinkFloyd #RichardWright #RogerWaters #TheDarkSideOfTheMoon #TheFinalCut #TheFletcherMemorialHome #TheGunnerSDream #ThePostWarDream #TheWall #warmongering #WishYouWereHere #YouTube
  2. Wednesday, July 29, 2026

    When righteous calls to end the war become warmongering . . . . . Putin no longer holds upper hand in war . . . . . Russian fuel depot of 'national importance' struck in Udmurt Republic . . . . . Ukraine brought back almost 50 children from Russian-occupied territory in July . . . . . and more

    activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026

  3. A quotation from Henry Commager

    Who are those who are really disloyal? Those who inflame racial hatreds, who sow religious and class dissensions. Those who subvert the Constitution by violating the freedom of the ballot box. Those who make a mockery of majority rule by the use of the filibuster. Those who impair democracy by denying equal educational facilities. Those who frustrate justice by lynch law or by making a farce of jury trials. Those who deny freedom of speech and of the press and of assembly. Those who press for special favors against the interest of the commonwealth. Those who regard public office as a source of private gain. Those who would exalt the military over the civil. Those who for selfish and private purposes stir up national antagonisms and expose the world to the ruin of war.

    Henry Steele Commager (1902-1998) American historian, writer, activist
    Essay (1947-09), “Who Is Loyal to America?” sec. 3, Harper’s Magazine, Vol. 195, No. 1168

    More about this quote: wist.info/commager-henry-steel…

    #quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #henrycommager #America #civilliberties #civilrights #corruption #demagoguery #democracy #disloyalty #division #firstamendment #freepress #freespeech #freedomofreligion #freedomofspeech #freedomofthepress #injustice #jingoism #justice #loyalty #loyaltyoath #military #patriotism #publicoffice #religiousfreedom #unAmerican #usvsthem #votersuppression #votingrights #war #warmongering

  4. #israel #palestine : #gaza / #confidencebuilding / #warmongering / #narratives / #uno

    „UN human rights chief Volker Türk on Thursday called for an end to the “abhorrent, dehumanizing narratives” that continue to hamper a positive outcome to the Middle East crisis.“

    news.un.org/en/story/2025/02/1