A THOUGHT FOR NOW - IN REMEMBRANCE OF WORLD WAR TWO AND OTHER WARS

Europe, including the Russian Federation, has a tradition of having ceremonies to remember the dead and the suffering which past generations have had to endure in the wars they had fought. Whether they were wars they willingly fought or were, by force of circumstances, simply had to fight, such as to avoid genocide, and, as in the case of World War Two, to avoid genocide and world domination by the Nazis.

There was a time when people spoke of "the glorious dead", but, fortunately, this illogical phrase is either never used or is rarely used now.  There is nothing 'glorious' about a person dying in war, or, for that matter, arguably, 'heroic', since the dead has no existence outside of the people who know or know of them.

I am pondering the benefits of being constantly or annually  traumatised by ceremonies and the media programmes which are intended to remind the living of the brutality of politicians and nations, during a time when nobody who is living now, were alive.

If it is 'to honour' those who were slaughtered in massive numbers, and 'to whom we owe a sense of gratitude', how does one 'honour' a person who, for many people, no longer exist objectively, and is therefore not able to 'benefit' from such 'honour'?

So, that situation is not really congruent with ordinary logic, and we therefore have to come up with another hypothesis, probably other than that which stipulates that 'remembering the dead and suffering of past wars', is simply a tradition which people should maintain. 

The other explanation which is often times put forward, is that these ceremonies are intended to fulfil two purposes; the first, which I have already dealt with, that of 'honouring and paying a sense of gratitude' to the dead', and, secondly, that these ceremonies remind the living of the human cost of wars, and will act as a deterrence to future wars

Now, the suggestion that being reminded of past wars deter people from fighting wars in the future, simply does not stand up to scrutiny. We have seen it failed miserably and repeatedly in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Europe.

And, so it seems to me, that while wars are an aspect of history, and might be fascinating for those of us who are interested in learning about history, being regularly reminded of and be traumatised by the brutality which our forebears - not us - have had to endure, does wreaks of sadism and masochism. It is, arguably, not a healthy tradition, and could help to nurture and perpetuate nationalism, hatred and conflict amongst people.

Having ceremonies to acknowledge the sacrifices people made during a conflict during their generational life time, might make good sense; continuing to have them after those generations have died, makes much less sense.


Learn from the past, but live in the present, while aspiring and building for a future which is even better than both the past and the present.