This being said, there is both a serious and insidious side to this annual ritual, one that has taken on the mantle of a national shibboleth. It is that at bottom the trumpets, monuments, and fanfare are not designed to mourn the dead but instead to glorify the nature of their deaths - by extension, extolling the virtues of militarism and the nation’s martial might.
This is even more relevant when we consider Britain’s recent participation in wars and conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya - wars in which not only British soldiers but also thousands of civilians have been killed or maimed, those for whom there is no monument or ritual of remembrance. This is without taking account of the myriad other wars this country has waged throughout the history of an empire that should be a source of shame rather than celebration.