Spectacle, Reality, Resistance: Confronting a culture of militarism

Description

At a comfortable distance from warfare, our culture easily passes over its horrific reality in favour of an appealing, even romantic, spectacle of war. Militarism, past and present, attempts to control public opinion by aligning it with its own worldview. Yet, over the last decade, most Britons have opposed Western military ventures abroad, and some veterans – once recruited, controlled and partly dehumanised to prepare them for war – now challenge militarism and our own participation in its controlling dynamic.

Spectacle, Reality, Resistance: Confronting a culture of militarism, published by ForcesWatch, takes a fresh look at a culture of militarism in Britain, exploring these dynamics – distance, romance, control – in three essays, accompanied by three shorter pieces about the cultural treatment of war and resistance to the government’s increasingly prodigious efforts to regain control of the story we tell ourselves about war.

You can also download the ebook.

2025: David Gee was a writer and campaigner on the ethics of military recruitment, mental health of veterans, and the role of citizens in building peace and resisting war. In 2007 David independently researched and wrote the groundbreaking report ‘Informed Choice‘ on armed forces recruitment practices in the UK which made a impression in the media and helped to kickstart a new era of campaigning to raise the age of military recruitment. He helped to found ForcesWatch in 2010 and contributed to our early work and to the work of our partner organisations over many years. He also ran the BeforeYouSignUp website – a vital resource for would-be recruits to the army, their parents and those already enlisted.

David’s unique contribution is captured here by his colleagues at Child Rights International Network. He had many other interests as well – he was a poet, philosopher, dancer and creator of community – and some of this can be found in his books Holding Faith and Hope’s Work, and other writings on his blog.