‘Something loud and intolerant’

I think there’s a real element of truth in this from Kevin McKenna in the Observer last weekend…

These past few weeks, the process in recent years of turning the sad and innocent poppy into a propaganda tool has gained momentum. Once, we wore this little splash of colour silently for a day or so to mark those who fell in two world wars. Now, it has become a season unto itself, which seems to last forever. They should merge the the poppy season with Halloween, for they’ve made it something ugly and to be feared. If you choose not to wear one you risk ostracism and threats.

In this, the poppy has become something loud and intolerant; demanding homage and thus becoming all that those who fought those wars wanted to change, as the Irish professional footballer James McClean has come to discover. It is used to celebrate militarism and been expanded to glorify illegal conflicts and ones such as Northern Ireland, where the British army became the brutal instrument of an occupying state.