The NYTimes has this sobering story of what some fear will happen if we fail to remember.
"The
anniversary comes amid a feeling of gloom and insecurity as the old
demons of chauvinism and ethnic division are again spreading across the
Continent. And as memory turns into history, one question looms large:
Can we learn from history without having lived it ourselves?
"In
the aftermath of their cataclysmic wars, Europeans banded together in
shared determination to subdue the forces of nationalism and ethnic
hatred with a vision of a European Union. It is no coincidence that the
bloc placed part of its institutional headquarters in Alsace’s capital,
Strasbourg.
"But today, its younger
generations have no memory of industrialized slaughter. Instead, their
consciousness has been shaped by a decade-long financial crisis, an
influx of migrants from Africa and the Middle East, and a sense that the
promise of a united Europe is not delivering. To some it feels that
Europe’s bloody last century might as well be the Stone Age.
Wasn't it Armistice Day in the US?
ReplyDeleteI am not sure what to make of nationalism. Tribalism and ethnic identity seem stronger today than nationalism, including in Europe; many folks are more loyal to Scotland, Galicia and so on than to the UK, Spain etc.
Patriotism has sort of a bizarre dual identity now in the US, neither identity particularly healthy in my opinion. For many conservatives, it verges on idolatry, reducing the meaning of America to genuflecting before the flag and holding the view that we have the mightiest military and we'll bomb anyone to the stone age who crosses us. Is that all there is to America?
As for my kids' generation, it strikes me that basics of civic education are neglected, e.g. I am not certain they know the words to the Star Spangled Banner or America the Beautiful (at least the ones who attended public schools; Catholic schools still promote that stuff, at least around here). What they all seem to pick up in their public school education is a deep sense that America is an awful place, filled with nothing but racial prejudice and guns. That they are the beneficiaries of freedom and prosperity, and that these goods don't happen as a matter of course, and that as adults they have an obligation to foster these things, doesn't seem to occur to them.
After the homily at this weekend's masses, we asked veterans and active members of the military to stand, and we blessed them. At the two masses I attended, I didn't observe any active members - not surprising, as there are no military bases nearby. There were a fair number of veterans but all of them at these two masses were male retirees. One of the tenors in our choir jumped out of a landing boat and waded onto the Normandy beaches. Now he's 95, needs a cane to get around and can't get down the risers to get communion.
Military service no longer is a shared national experience in the US. I'm young enough that the draft was no more when I turned 18; I was on the college track and didn't seriously consider joining the military. I believe that nearly all of the "elites" - the government officials, opinion makers, financial titans, etc. - have similar histories. People with actual military experience always have struck me as a good deal more level-headed and realistic about war and weaponry than people who only know what they've seen in films and on television.
My sons are prime age now to be cannon fodder, and I'm praying that they don't get the urge to see the world and learn a trade that way. If they decide they want to do it, I will support them (in every sense of that word), but I wouldn't feel great about it.
I hope Marx was right about history repeating itself, first as tragedy and then as comedy. Certainly there is something to amuse in the Pudgy Guy's boorish behavior again in Paris. It's hard to believe in evil dictators who are afraid of getting their hair wet (lest the color run?). But Hitler had that toothbrush under his nose, and he wasn't funny.
DeleteIn one of his books, John Lukacs has a wonderful section I used to read to people. (I read it to someone who borrowed it, so I can't quote it now.) But he described how, even before Mussolini marched on Rome, democracies were falling one by one before nationalists with more nerve than the democratic leaders. Things fell apart. The center couldn't hold. Capitalism stirred few souls, and when the big tunas shook the pan fish out of the market in the Great Depression a lot of people decided they had been victims of a big swindle up and down the board.
We are still feeling the aftershocks of the Great Recession, which was not much of an advertisement for capitalism: "You lost your job or house or both because some bankers made stupid blunders, oh, and the bankers are doing very well for themselves again, thank you very much." Unlike the 1930s, we have billionaires from central casting paying the likes of Steve Bannon to play Pied Piper to the wannabe strong men. We have red caps instead of black, brown and silver shirts, but the sense of collective power from being in a like-hued group is very much the same.
Please, Jim, don't blame this on the kids. They aren't the ones wearing red caps.
The best are trying to muster some conviction in Paris today that the post-WWII world is worth saving. The worst are full of passionate intensity. His Petulance is sulking in his tent, and Kellyanne will soon be out to assure us such behavior is normal. And it is. For 4-year-olds. Meanwhile, the National Football League has donned its olive drabs to support our troops who soon may be called upon to repel mothers and children.
You're darned right. We could blow it. Pray for comedy.
Civics education: This was a pet project of retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Consider a donation. Consider a letter to your school board. Even Catholics who are snotty about inferior public schools are still paying for them and have a stake in what's taught there.
DeleteI found journo students woefully ill-informed about civics and had them write "backgrounders" explaining things like majorities and pluralities, precedent, districting, and property tax assessments.
http://oconnorinstitute.org/programs/civic-engagement-and-education/
WWW1 and WWW2 were both industrial wars fought by industrialized nations against one another's territories. Whether that will happen again is unclear.
ReplyDeleteIn between the WWWs and since WWW2 wars have mainly taken place in preindustrial societies (Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Syria) that often became "failed states" when authoritarian individuals attempted to build an industrial nation, in some cases to free itself from external exploitation.
The nationalism of today appears to be more a response to the population migrations from "third world" countries rather than economic competition among post-industrial powers. (with the possible exception of China-American competition).
What remains the same now as immediately prior to WWW1 is that most of the wealth of the world is highly concentrated in 1% of the population. Their wealth along with a lot of the world's wealth was greatly reduced by the WWWs. During the dramatic rebuilding after WWW2 wealth did not re-concentrate into the upper !% until Reagan, etc. Our mistake in following Reagan economics has led us into a situation similar to that prior to WWW1 in which nationalism rather than wealthy individuals becomes THE problem. The media including the liberal media helped make the minority who like Trump run the show rather than the majority who liked Bernie Sanders.
John Terry, historian, writes in the WaPo about why it's important to study the First World War in order to understand how its fallout reverberated in both Europe and the Middle East. Europe's, particularly Britain's, meddling in th at region was never discussed much in our world history class.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2018/11/12/why-teaching-world-war-i-is-crucial/?utm_term=.861720c10d55