"I Shovelled Shit in Louisiana"

"At least when your grandchildren ask you what you did in the great World War Two, you won't have to say, 'Well, I shovelled shit in Louisiana'."   Or so Patton allegedly told his troops during one of his speeches designed to stiffen their resolve before going into battle.  Yep, I've been thinking a lot about the film Patton since I rewatched it on Friday.  The opening few minutes consist of George C Scott as Patton directly addressing the camera with an amalgam of his most infamous speeches.  The bit about shovelling shit in Louisiana has stuck in my mind.  Mainly because I've never really understood why not having fought in a war is considered to be something to be ashamed of.  Speaking personally, I give thanks on a daily basis that I have had the good fortune to have lived through a period of history when the UK hasn't been involved in a major conflict which I would have been required to fight in.  War should always be a last resort and really shouldn't be glorified.  Dying for your country shouldn't be seen as something noble when, in reality, it is simply tragic.

The fact is that, unlike many right-wing militaristic types, I don't think that aggression, conflict and violence are man's natural state.  Interestingly, as Patton's pep-talks to his troops indicate, he also realised that most people have to be psyched up in order to go out and fight their fellow men.  Unlike professional, career soldiers, they don't see battle as something exciting and noble, rather, for them, it is a terrifying ordeal.  Believe me, it doesn't make you less of a man if you've never been 'tested' in combat.  The fact is that I shovelled shit in Louisiana, metaphorically speaking (the closest I've ever been to Louisiana is reading a James Lee Burke novel), and I'm proud of it.  I'm proud never to have killed another human being, proud not to have bombed other people's cities and proud not to have occupied someone else's country.  Which isn't to denigrate people who have fought in the defence of their countries - sometimes war is an unavoidable necessity, but it isn't man's natural state and we should surely be celebrating the absence of war more than we do the wars themselves.