We walk though history like we walk through air. The memory of past events guides the present, our politics and current culture. The past remains stubbornly alive as historical memory. This memory is reflected in our monuments and memorials, buildings and street names.
A century ago in the summer of 1914, the First World War broke out after the tensions in Europe finally boiled over into an all out blood bath. It is 1914 when the political and cultural trends that define the 20th century really moved to the forefront. Blood, hate, political and ideological conflict, modernism and the real consequences of industry defined the following 80 something odd years that constitute the 20th century. The events that emerged from the battle fields and trenches of France are intimately interconnected to events that show up on our news feeds today and come from places like Russia, the states in the Commonwealth, Germany and Israel and Palestine
On a daily basis we—yes all of us—experience the subtle effects of historical memory more then we might realize, and the boarders of past and present become fuzzy lines. History shapes our perceptions of current events—our biases and our ability to comprehend them. History for this reason must be taken seriously, looked at deeply and given the respect it deserves.
Queen Elizabeth II still graces the Canadian and Australian dollars, despite the fact that the British Empire no longer exists. Its memory is preserved in the Commonwealth of Nations, a political organization established after the collapse of the Empire in the mid-20th century with the British sovereign as its head and the head of state for some of the states within the commonwealth—Canada and Australian as well as Jamaica and New Zealand for example.
There are so many examples of how historical memory still exists in our world . The current rise of right wing even radical politics in Russia can be linked to the memories of both Soviet era Russia and the Russian empire prior to 1917. At one end, the very livid memories of the Soviet Union are being suppressed and the memory of another Russia are being reawakened. Conservative ideals seen as being more Russian and more legitimate have expressed themselves in the guise of discriminatory laws such as the anti-gay propaganda laws and overbearing international policies, these have resulted in invasions of Georgia and the unrest in the Ukraine.
The historical memory of World War Two still plagues so many aspects of our world. The state of Israel is as much the product of this as it is a product of the desire to establish a Jewish state in the Levant. Although it is hard to deny calls for a sovereign Jewish state in the wake of the horrors stemming from the Holocaust, the memory of those events are also used as nationalistic political tools to justify policies that openly compromise the rights of Palestinians and inspire much tumult in the Middle East. It muddles the history of the Holocaust and perhaps does it injustice by blinding contemporary thinking to support certain views based in historical memory rather than current circumstances. The trauma of the Holocaust is used to foster peace and understanding but it is also used politically.
People who reside in Germany also live their lives in the spell of this awful memory. At one end, it is a widely accepted reality in Germany—the German nation must and do accept the faults of the past and their ancestors—however it is difficult to disassociate anything German from the years 1933-1945. Even as Germany proves to be a peaceful and responsible global citizen, it will remain stained by history. Nov 9, 1989 is the most important date in modern German history; it’s the day the Berlin Wall fell, but it will never be celebrated: Kristallnacht occurred the same night 51 years prior.
These complex relationships leave us stuck between a historical rock and a hard place. Looked at critically, historical memory helps us explain so much of the world we live in today, and better understand the thinking that guides so many actions and trends. Doing this also forces us to be more understanding and indeed more forgiving, which is in its own way dangerous.
A certain amount of guilt for the Holocaust and WWII exists in German society that is accepted as necessary to keep memories alive so as to never forget and repeat the past. It is crippling though, because its is a negative association that taints the way people worldwide perceive the nation that produced great thinkers and great music as well as monsters.
The same is happening in Russia now; internationally unpopular and discriminatory and abrasive actions have made Russia appear cruel even though it is also the home to artistic geniuses like Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Pytr Tchaikovsky and numerous awe inspiring ballets.
Doing this also allows nations and people to forget or ignore their own skeletons in the closet. Its easy to forget slavery existed for so long in the United States that the state of Israel has forced Palestinians off land they once called their own, because other more profound crimes exist in our historical memories.
The way we remember history is powerful. It is perhaps more powerful and more influential than many people choose to believe.
A century after the bloody Great War let us reconsider the role of history in our lives and think about history in a critical and thoughtful way. We can’t forget, because history will repeat itself. But we also need to be able to identify when historical memory is used for good or bad perhaps without taking the full story of our world and the effects of its history into account.
History never really stays in the past. Hopefully history’s lessons won’t be ignored.
