Abandoned soldiers

The Abandoned Soldier (and his search for an appropriate permanent home) has become iconic in the struggle for the acknowledgement, recognition, respect and proper treatment of soldiers who carry wounds (such as PTSD) on the inside. To view the original 2007 episode of Newsnight  for which the sculpture was commissioned, or for more info and pictures, see The Abandoned Soldier Project, as well as the links at the base of this page. – Picture by courtesy of Mark Christmas

I’ve often heard it said that the measure of “civilization” of a society can be seen in how it treats its children and seniors – and I daresay there’s much truth in that – but what about its old soldiers?

For example, the first time I visited Paris as a teenager on a study trip, I was interested to notice on busses and in the Metro that, just as in many European cities, the easily accessible places near the doors are reserved (or must be relinquished) for the elderly or pregnant women. But in Paris (and I later learned in France in general) mutilés de guerre are specifically mentioned. Alas, it’s a rare example.

It’s a small, maybe even symbolic gesture but when I next visited Paris, as the poet Guy Butler put it so aptly, “the boy who last year’s masters called a fool, had learned from masters of another school...”. I saw it again and this time, it really struck a chord: the wounded are not forgotten. Moreover, the quite visible sign that singles out wounded soldiers for preferential seating might even serve to remind some of the commuters that those mutilés de guerre actually do exist. But it’s a rare drop in a bucket of collective forgetfulness.

When they do forget, you can hardly blame them: Casualties of war are very skilfully avoided by the news cameras because governments who send their soldiers off to war don’t want the taxpayers who’re footing the bill to see body bags over their TV dinners.

When they are mentioned, their pictures are shown all spit-and-polish for their passing-out parade, not the one showing the thousand-mile stare or the scars, so it’s a problem of visibility. People quickly stand aside or lend a hand to someone with a white stick or a wheelchair but when the “weirdo” in the old camo jacket and faded beret shuffles past whispering obscenities at the wobbly wheel of his shopping trolley, they quickly hustle their children inside.

For the soldier who is wounded in mind and spirit, a special seat on the Metro might be irrelevant from any practical perspective (and might even be denied him considering the invisible nature of his injuries) but as so often, it is the thought that counts and it’s the small gesture that keeps them in the public consciousness.

But alas, don’t hold your breath for any kind of sea change in the foreseeable future. Unfortunately (especially in Western Europe and its cultural scions) over at least the last two millennia, a culture has developed that goes to extreme pains to resist and even deny the only constant in the Universe: Change.

Encouragement to “believe and not question” hasn’t helped (although it still makes the population a lot easier to control). When King Canute (who was very probably illiterate) defied the waves, he wasn’t delusional: he just believed he was as omnipotent as his toadies (and no-doubt the clergy) told him.

We also expend an inordinate amount of time on the apportionment of blame - for everything from hurricanes to volcanic eruptions to presidential haemorrhoids, once we’ve found “who is to blame”, it exonerates “us”.


This penchant for black-and-white thinking, where things are either “all good” or “all bad” results in a frustrating conditioning to, by default, perceive negatives wherever there is no immediately apparent positive. So often, when you make an observation that isn’t all “happy, happy, ha, ha, ha,” – even something as innocuous as “the grass is dry” or “these tyres are worn” – it is perceived as a criticism, met with defensiveness (whether by individuals, organisations or governments) and absolutely nothing is done to remedy the situation “‘cause it’s not my fault”. The Eastern way of thinking is simply streets ahead of us on that score.

As a society, it took us a very long time for the “socially embarrassing” mentally handicapped/Down’s syndrome/physically deformed child to escape from being considered “marked by the devil” and locked in an attic. Considering that the first mentions of any kind of “battle fatigue” date from the Peloponnesian Wars, (and the first warnings of global warming and greenhouse gasses were published in the 19th Century) can you imagine how long it’s going to take for the amygdala of a hero-hungry society (other than the professional psychiatric community) to acknowledge that a mentally damaged soldier is not simply a coward and a malingerer?

They were still being “shot at dawn” less than 100 years ago, which in terms of the development of attitudes in a society resolutely resistant to change, is only the blink of a jaundiced eye. The Peloponnesian war chariot has been replaced by the tank, the jet fighter and now by laser-guided ordnance but social attitudes have changed little.

The dead are buried, often on fields far away. The wounded – whether physically or mentally – return to live among us as an unwelcome reminder that a bellicose society produces more than just parades and marching bands.

– AMB

For video footage related to The Abandoned Soldier, see Newsnight 2007, Power to the People, TAS at the National Arboretum, Today, tomorrow, forever, etc.

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools: ...  Bro. Rudyard Kipling



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