Monday, May 25, 2015

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

[In observance of this Memorial Day, we repost an appreciation from  Veteran's Day 2012.]

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In the atria of some of our clandestine services, stands a wall with the names of those who died in harness, while serving their countries:  but who cannot be publically acknowledged, out of concern for the larger covert mission. (For a similar instance, see here: http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2012/11/discretion.html)  The epitaph reads:  “They Served in Silence”.

Today, Veteran’s Day, marks remembrance of those who served in uniform.  Their masses are too vast to comprehend:  and so instead we adress a numinous symbol of this very vastness, and of the unriddlable mystery of history:  the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.   He stands as a mute metonymy  for all who have served or will serve.

There is, in addition, a depth-psychological dimension to this which, for that very reason, is difficult to put into words.  (Lacan may be pleased to pretend that “the unconscious is structured like a language”, but it certaintly does not speak English or French).   This numen poked his head up in antiquity, in the Temple to the Unknown God.

Footnote:
As it happens, France today is likewise commemorating fallen warriors, on the anniversary of the armistice of the Great War:

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