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

[reallydown]

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.

I think you've nailed it, Abstract. I do think it's important to remember these things. We do not want repeats of the Holocaust, or other genocides etc. And yet, as Abstract points out, we do not really seem to learn from history, for all our noble efforts. And perhaps that is precisely because our leaders and decision makers have the kind of psychology mentioned above. It makes me sad for humanity because it seems we are doomed to failure, despite out best efforts...Remember, WWI was the war to end all wars and we still "remember" it but we clearly don't remember well enough. The words, "never again" don't mean anything. How many useless, pointless wars have we had since? Instead of remembering the purpose of that holiday (Remembrance/Memorial Day) and renouncing all the horrors of war etc, we end up glorifying the military and war machines, their new toys etc.

And we have to be careful also of nursing the (understandable) hatred of those who perpetrated those horrible acts. It's healthy to feel that in the immediate aftermath but there is a problem when people start hating all Muslims because of 9/11 or all Turks because of the Armenian genocide etc. etc. We pay lip service to that - don't hate x, y, z...but in reality, we look the other way when some moron attacks a Sikh post 9-11 falsely believing him to be a Muslim terrorist etc. And then, all you end up doing is creating more fear and mistrust and the cycle of hatred and violence gets perpetuated. Having said all that, I don't know what the answer is. remembering is essential and yet, how does one separate oneself from the negative emotions etc that anniversary x, y or z brings up?

 

[The Albatross]

I'm wondering why we, as Americans, feel the need to keep the honorable things of our past alive and well?

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" ~ American philosopher George Santayana (1863-1952) (from "Life of Reason I")


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[ladystardonna]

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. .

The date 9/11 makes me feel awful as a US citizen, but it actually made my husband (who suffers from
PTSD) an odd kind of happy. Part of his ptsd comes from that date in his country, so he considers the world trade center a kind of karma... paybacks for the what the U.S. did to his government.