farmdoc's blog post number 525

The Last Post. Wikipedia says it was originally a bugle call used in British Army camps. Its name comes from the inspection of each camp sentry post at day’s end. Playing a bugle call signalled a post had been inspected and its military day had ended. In the 19th century the Last Post was incorporated into military funerals in all Commonwealth of Nations countries where it’s played as a final farewell symbolising the duty of the dead soldier is over and he can rest in peace. Also it’s played in public ceremonials commemorating war dead, e.g. on Remembrance Day and Anzac Day. And it’s played each night at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. So every single time the Last Post publicly sounds out, is a solemn, meaningful and contemplative occasion. Yet last week the Australian War Memorial announced that, due to budget cuts, its nightly Last Post closing ceremony will henceforth be sponsored (by telecommunications company TransACT). If this isn’t a travesty, I don’t know what is. I can’t accept that public money can’t be found to pay a bugler for a few minutes each day, 365 days each year. Commercialisation of the nightly ceremony, however tasteful, is sacrilege. Blasphemy. A gratuitous trumpeting (pun intended) of the capitalism paradigm. All concerned should hang their heads in shame. But they won’t. For they have no soul.