One Tin Soldier (1969)
“One Tin Soldier” tells the story of two neighboring tribes, the warlike Valley People and the peaceful Mountain Kingdom which possesses a great treasure buried under a stone. The Valley People demand the treasure. The Mountain People respond that they will share it with “their brothers”, but the Valley People invade and slaughter the Mountain People. On overturning the stone, they find nothing except the words “Peace On Earth” inscribed beneath it.
Wikipedia
As a fable, this story works on so many levels that ultimately we forget that its original purpose was to be a 1960s counterculture anti-war song. But it is so much more than that.
Canadians have a collective guilt (some of which they share with their American neighbours): they obtained the land by stealth, and sometimes violence. The First Nations were here first.
And then there’s the ever-present use of war to conquer one’s ‘enemies’. But what does the conqueror ever really achieve? Resentment, racial injustice, violence and suppression…
The video of the song is done in a cartoon-ish fashion, but there’s nothing funny about it.
I wonder who the ‘One Tin Soldier’ is?
cdsmiller17 
The “One Tin Soldier” question was meant to be rhetorical: we all are that soldier…
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