I never thought much of war and the societal tolerance thereof until a professor of mine (once upon a long time ago) spent some time twisting the traditional definition of “guns vs butter”.

He asked the class how much a society would take of a war if the hearts of its citizenry were not convinced of its worth. It was a good question, and it made us wonder.

His argument was that with minds occupied and hearts distracted, any people would tolerate just about anything, even fight (or vote) to stay occupied and distracted rather than face an unpleasant reality, like war (think Neville Chamberlain).

By way of a personal example, I’ll share the extent of my own concerns today. These involved sunscreen, the constant topping of my long irons, my dreadful putting, worries as to how I was going to explain to my son that Beavers was “canceled” because Daddy had to watch Game 1, and Sundin taking a penalty with 2 minutes left in the 3rd period.

Though I knew him prior to 9/11, this prof would have surely pointed to our sojourn in Afghanistan and called my day butter. And he’d be right. Did I fret about the war at all today? No. Did I fret about it during April? No. In 2008 or 2009? No.

Do you care more about the status of the Canucks’ penalty killing units than you do about Canadian units fighting the war? That’s what happens when butter beats guns.

I thought of that prof and his poignant lesson tonight after returning home from watching the game. I was reading the news online, specifically browsing stories over at The Atlantic, when I found some mesmerising clips of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan by documentary photographer Louis Palu (oft of the Globe).

His narration is starkly vivid, calmly evocative, quintessentially Canadian. It tells of the complete opposite of my butter. It tells of what we’re never told. It tells of what we don’t want to know. It tells of the guns.

Watch the clip above. And then catch the entire series here.

And in case you’re wondering, none of our local papers – as far as I could find – were carrying stories about the war today.

And you can bet your ass I wasn’t looking for them.

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Andrew Morrison is a west coast boy who studied history and classics at the Universities of Cape Town and Toronto after an adolescence spent riding skateboards and working in restaurants. He is the editor of Scout Magazine, the weekly food and restaurant columnist for the Westender newspaper, a contributor to Vancouver and Western Living magazines, and a proud board member of the Chef’s Table Society of BC. He lives and works by the beach in Vancouver.

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