It's always the generals with the bloodiest records who are the first to shout what a hell it is. And it's always the war widows who lead the Memorial Day parades.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the irony of those who perpetuate violence often lamenting its consequences while those who suffer the most take the lead in honoring the fallen.
Paddy Chayefsky's quote reflects on the contradiction that arises in discussions about war. It points out that those who have caused the most destruction—often military leaders—are the quickest to denounce the horrors of conflict, while the ones who truly understand its cost, like the widows of war, are the ones actively participating in tributes to those lost. This commentary invites reflection on the discrepancies between the experiences of those who wage war and those who bear its consequences, serving as a critique of the glorification of military power while acknowledging the profound sorrow of ordinary people affected by war.
In practice
During a speech on Veterans Day discussing the impact of war.
We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business...There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM, and ITT, and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today.
Television will do anything for a rating... anything!
Television is democracy at its ugliest.
We've established the most enormous medical entity ever conceived... and people are sicker than ever. We cure nothing! We heal nothing!
Let us take a patriot, where we can meet him; and, that we may not flatter ourselves by false appearances, distinguish those marks which are certain, from those which may deceive; for a man may have the external appearance of a patriot, without the constituent qualities; as false coins have often lustre, though they want weight.
I never understood why when you died, you didn't just vanish, everything could just keep going on the way it was only you just wouldn't be there. I always thought I'd like my own tombstone to be blank. No epitaph, and no name. Well, actually, I'd like it to say 'figment.'
Time and memory are true artists; they remould reality nearer to the heart's desire.
To insult someone we call him 'bestial. For deliberate cruelty and nature, 'human' might be the greater insult.
In any institution-factory, university, health center, or whatever-there are a variety of interests that ought to be represented in decision-making: the work force itself, the community in which it is located, users of its products or services, institutions that compete for the same resources. These interests should be directly represented in democratic structures that displace and eliminate private ownership of the means of production or resources, an anachronism with no legitimacy.
A sombrero fell out of the sky and landed on the main street of town in front of the mayor, his cousin, and a person out of work. The day was scrubbed clean by the desert air. The sky was blue. It was the blue of human eyes, waiting for something to happen. There was no reason for a sombrero to fall out of the sky. No airplane or helicopter was passing overhead and it was not a religious holiday.
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