News Why Does Society Feel A Need To Remember The Horror Of The Past?

[Deleted member 1860]

I'm wondering why we, as Americans, feel the need to keep the honorable things of our past alive and well? I say Americans as I have no idea what it's like in other cultures.

Yes, everyone knows what yesterday's anniversary was. The motto is "we will never forget". Is that necessary? I don't think anyone will ever forget that day. And in a way, I feel that it is reflective on society's need to keep the horror of the past alive.

I live in an area where there are quite a few civil war battlefields within a few hours drive. I don't understand why these battles need to be reenacted every year? War is horrible....yet reenacting war is entertainment?

I understand that for some, the recent anniversary was a form of remembrance. I totally get that. But we've already made movies and such about it. An argument can be made for those being an entertainment of sorts (as in blockbuster movies, not documentaries).

I'm not trying to be disrespectful. I'm not trying to upset anyone. I struggle with this latest anniversary 12 years now.

I did make an interesting revelation, though. The latest happening, 12 years and one day ago, was a time when we as Americans, as a whole, felt unsafe. I remember completely breaking down at the candlelight vigil at school. I realize it was a reflection of not feeling safe in my country, not just my own mind. I struggle with coming to terms with my safety (due to childhood abuse), yet it was perfectly rational for Americans as a whole to feel unsafe. I just wish that people could understand why I don't feel safe. I wish I wasn't labeled irrational for feeling unsafe.

Sorry if I stepped on toes as I didn't mean to. I really struggled with yesterday's anniversary.

 

[Padfoot]

Different things affect different people in different ways. That date has a meaning to me in a different way, relating to a South American country. August 6 brings up a lot of emotion for me because that's the date of the Hiroshima Bombing. I don't know what it's like in America, but we didn't see much about the Twin Towers attack this year in Australia. As in, it wasn't everywhere like in past years. But in saying that, there's all the stuff in Syria happening, we have a new government, and there are other things in the world happening right now that people are focused on. I worked late that night and was watching tv as it happened, it was quite late at night our time. I was watching TV when it flicked over to a news report saying that one of the Towers had been hit, then the other was hit live while everyone was watching. I think that's the significance.

 

[Powder]

I heard a news report on US's NPR, Nat'l Public Radio about families of victims who continue to regularly receive bits and pieces of their deceased loved ones who worked in the towers. They can refuse to get any, or they have to continually receive more bits, and figure out how to memorialize them. Not to mention the way it keeps the trauma and grief fresh, it is a constant reminder of how the loved one died.

As harrowing as this sounds, the reporter did a great job of showing the way that traumatically losing someone in this way never gets easier. One mother interviewed who lost her two sons says it never gets easier.

I guess I'd agree that making movies may not be appropriate, but the country has a right to an awareness that this trauma is ongoing for many people and how and why. I was not aware of the issues involved for those who lost people who have been confirmed dead and those still just presumed dead. None of them has closure.

If we are to get humans to change, we have to start with awareness of how "unsafe" creatures we are. We have genocide, terrorism and all kinds of ways we damage others, animals, and the earth. As a remedy for this, I watched "Jane's Journey" last night. Jane Goodall is all about accepting our role in destroying our planet and ourselves while training our children to make a better world by committing to start right now. Her program Roots & Shoots is designed to do just that. It is based on serving: animals, people, and the environment so that peace is sustainable.

I agree that just rehashing the bad seems negative. It is. But each negative then begs us to consider our options and demands a positive action.

This is PTSD, too. For every negative experience we are encountering now with symptoms, we should be searching out positive ways to address the problem.

I like your post. It was thought-provoking on an important and relevant issue.

Muse

 

[franciemarnie]

Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it, as they say.

I do not choose to watch certain shows that I know will upset me. If I already know what happened, I will pass on it.

I can't tell the world what to do. Everyone has their own way of healing. Some may need to go over what happened to process it - I mean like people in the U.S. who just watched 9/11 on TV. The show I watched last night on the dogs who helped in recovery at Ground Zero was an exception for me. I'd seen shows honoring fire fighters etc, but I hadn't seen the inspiring story of the dogs.

I want to know what goes on in the world. If I can take action to help, I will. If I can't and it just depresses me, I will pass.

I don't understand the Civil War reenactments, except that maybe it seems unreal to participants because it was 140 years ago. It was a terrible war, as all wars are, with terrible bloodshed. But something good came out of it. That didn't justify it, but that's something.

I can't imagine us in the US reenacting the Vietnam War or recreating concentration camps.

I think it's nuts but it isn't against the law.

Everyone wanted to forget Vietnam when the vets came back. That was very bad in my opinion.

In the end, we all have a choice in what we watch or read.

 

[kahlan]

On the one hand its a reminder that even here very bad things can still happen. On the other the over media-ization (I know I just made up a word) takes away any real value to it I think. I still do remember waiting in a hospital room.with my grandpa waiting for surgery when it happened, I don't believe I will forget that. Its becoming more about entertainment and ratings than an actual remembrance. I saw something this morning about a cell phone commercial that had been pulled out of it being in poor taste (Manhattan skyline with two lights where the towers stood and a cell phone held up as if taking a picture).

But you are right in that it feels that we tend to wallow in tragedy.
As far as civil war reenacting,I don't think I ever will understand it. I even have friends involved in that
community O.o

 

[a3a2]

I understand, Solara. I mark that day as probably the worst day of my life. I don't want to remember it, and make a decision to avoid the media surrounding. But I can't forget it, either. And I do understand people's need to commemorate the tragedy. In some ways, it also commemorates a victory. Our country still stands, despite it.

I have done very little to teach my children about it. I simply cannot. I cowardly leave it to their teachers and then comfort them when they come home from school. But when people say "Never forget", they also want to make sure the children who were not yet there remember it. And I do think we owe it to the children to teach them.

The movies....that is not a commemoration. It is a capitalization on people's pain for monetary gain. It sickens me.

 

[Sweetpea76]

I'm a historian, and I don't think the issue is so much about remembering specific horrors, so much as remembering the past. People are fascinated with history, and I think that reenacting or reliving it is a way that we can explore it. Nobody can really know what it was like to "be there", but trying to recreate history gives us a taste of what it might have been like. In a sense, aren't these all day TV marathons or movies just a newer form of reenactment?

Also, it is not only war and that gets reenacted. For any specific point in history, you can probably find somebody reenacting it. Ren Fairs are an example, Colonial Williamsburg, or any other living history museum or display... you name it, somebody probably has the costume hanging in their closet right now.

With September 11th, I think it's a matter of perspective. It has a lot to do with what period of time it occurred. Recent Modern history has been recorded by the media, as well as every person who is carrying a camera on their person 24/7. Also, society is so visual now, and attention spans are so short, that repetition is the norm. Because of the vast amount of footage, and the repetitive nature of television, you'll get 24 hours of nonstop footage from every angle and every possible point of view. If they had this amount of footage for other major events of the past, they would probably show it as well.

Just as an aside, I had a colleague tell me that he went to a seminar where he was taught how to maximize his students' involvement by making a noise or big movement to recapture attention every 7 minutes... the average length between commercials on American TV.

 

[Lady of Longbourn]

The motto is "we will never forget". Is that necessary? I don't think anyone will ever forget that day.

I am reminded of Pearl Harbor. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the motto was "Remember Pearl Harbor" and a lot of Japaneses were sent to camps because America did not trust them. Now, I don't think many Americans know what Pearl Harbor was or when it was. People have forgotten. There is a holiday for it too.

I don't know what will happen with 9-11. Every year when I realize what day it is I feel my stomach jump. Every time I look at the clock and it says 9:11 I get the same feeling. It is not from fear or worry. I feel it is out of realizing and it being ingrained in my memory. Having seen it happen over and over and over again on the news and TV programs.

I am a firm believer that if you don't know history then you are destined to repeat those terrible things that happened. I think entire wars could have been avoided if some people had just read a damn book. Knowing and remembering is important becasue it will always be in our history. All of it; the American Civil War, Pearl Harbor and 9-11.

We can not change the past but we can learn from it.

 

[saffy]

Yes I understand that things like this can be great triggers each year for those who have suffered directly or indirectly by these things.

But I like to see it as a reminder, as a learning curve, as a mark of respect to those who have suffered in that it is not forgotten and neither are the people.

I watched a lot of 9/11 docs and films that were on the other night and it gave a whole host of feelings a emotions. But there was feeling of proudness for the coming together of people, for those who helped and risked their lives, and in some cases lost them. But also sadness for all the families who lost their loved ones and also anxious for all those who survived but are still suffering. I try not to see it as an anniversary of the actual heinous crime but a rememberance of everything else.

It must be so hard for those it triggers though and I do feel their pain.

Best wishes
Saffy :)

 

[bell]

Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it, as they say.

This.

It was hard for me, too. I always struggle with that anniversary because I look at the news of the atrocities that are happening in other countries all the time, and how for those countries no one seems to care. And those people who aren't named in any memorial, they are the ones that I wonder about the most on that anniversary. (Although I do so feel for everyone who was affected by 9/11, as it, too, was tragic.)

I spent the day listening to people's dumb gripes about public transportation problems or money issues or cell phone service or whatever and was glad for their banality. And I had a little moment of internal silience and gratitude whenever I realized a happy thought or someone did something nice for me, because I have the freedom to so.

For me, that day is sad, too, but I try to make it about embracing the love in my life more fully instead of getting mired down in the sad, which some years is easier to do than others. May everyone be gentle with themselves this week!

 

[Padfoot]

I'm not American and have never been outside of Australia in my travels so far, but I do remember Pearl Harbour. In saying that, History is one of my stronger points and most of what I learnt came prior to the Twin Towers/Pentagon attack.

 

[Abstract]

If only we as a world and mankind did learn from our past though. Genocide over and over again. War and dictatorships. Help so often seems to be motivated purely by gain.

The problem I suspect is that the people who perpetuate all these atrocities are deeply unwell. Someone I know advices governments' on terrorism and she says that they have the same psychology and pathologies as criminals.

Apparently the main reason we as human beings fixate on negative happenings is evolutionary. It supposedly "pays off" survival wise to pick up on danger rather than all the bright and fluffy things in the world. There are many happy events in history but there isn't nearly as much air time spent on them.

Sadly the days where bad news was just that the village cat fell down the well have passed and now we are inundated with death, cruelty and destruction. I don't think it's healthy for the world at large.

I just wish that people could understand why I don't feel safe. I wish I wasn't labeled irrational for feeling unsafe.

This is good point. I might look at a way to use it to help explain those fearful feelings.