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How Did The Great War Affect Canada

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It is the factor, however, with the potential for change. The flaws are not fatal. Our story also reveals two factors that point away from war: (4) Canada’s decision to participate has often been a reluctant one. That reluctance has been expressed by national leaders, or the public, or both. (5) Our participation has been accompanied by a persistent desire to minimize losses.
You will see in our story of Canada’s wars a disproportionate emphasis on the Great War. This war originated or brought into maturity many of the war-promoting factors as well as means of suppressing antiwar factors.
Like its leftover unexploded shells that killed people decades later, the Great War also gave the world latent international relations explosives that virtually …show more content…

I will use the term propaganda broadly to include both dissemination and suppression of information. Its importance lies less in the affirmative promotion of wars, though it certainly serves that function, than in preventing reasonable consideration of the antiwar factors. Propaganda cannot prevent some of the horrible reality of wars from getting through to the public, but it can deploy an effective counterweight: the message that none of the horrible deaths were senseless. In the world of war propaganda, nobody dies in vain. Without that message, the notion that Canada’s experience in Flanders was glorious would be very difficult to sell. Neutralizing concern for civilian deaths requires only a slight variation in this message: their deaths were unfortunate, but necessary to achievement of a greater good. You will see also that wartime propaganda not only downplays the racist aspects of war, it affirmatively displays a degree of racism that would be the cause of great debate and even shame in peacetime. Finally, propaganda that appeals to patriotism, fuels fears of adversaries, and promotes an ethic of machismo is a powerful weapon against the voices of peace. We will see propaganda play an essential role in all of Canada’s wars on the matters of how they started, how they have been conducted, and what happens when they

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