
The cult of memory: when history does more harm than good - sasvari
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/mar/02/cult-of-memory-when-history-does-more-harm-than-good
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sbmassey
It is important to remember as much history as possible, since it gives us an
understanding of the range of human activity, and the outcomes of pursuing
particular policies. The mistake is to take it personally.

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ZanyProgrammer
And to hold grudges for what happened to your supposed ancestors 800 years
ago.

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Spooky23
Easy to say now. If you were a Catholic in Northern Ireland in the recent
past, subject to arbitrary harassment and systematic discrimination, you might
feel differently.

In a sense, every day you wake up is one more day tacked on the those 800
years -- dozens of generations of abuse.

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vacri
You're describing a situation where it is still personal. Whereas for the
people in the RoI, the English menace is no longer in living memory.

~~~
Spooky23
Absolutely.

My grandparents were born in Ireland and were children during the 1920s. They
were more live and let live, but my older uncles who were of military age and
more aware of what was going on had a distinct distaste for most things
British.

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austerity
It's not the memory that is the problem, but the collectivist mentality. I
"remember" a lot of history but I know better than to associate myself with
dead people of the past or to hold my contemporaries responsible for anything
that happened before they were born. Sounds easy enough, right? Apparently not
when you have pack animal genes and a bunch of politicians eager to exploit it
to their benefit.

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goodcanadian
It is not enough to remember; you must also understand and learn from history.

The memory of World War Two does not make Germany and Japan my enemies. On the
contrary, it shows why we MUST be friends.

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AnimalMuppet
> On the contrary, it shows why we MUST be friends.

If possible. WWII also showed that trying to be friends at any price can work
out quite badly.

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x5n1
I take the stance of my Jewish friends, when they say never again. That's what
history is suppose to teach us, NEVER AGAIN! Yet we still have not worked out
how to make that happen for all these government based power plays. All power
needs to be distributed far and wide so that no one has power. That's a very
good way to ensure people can't bring harm to others at every level of
society/.

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hmahncke
This topic is the subject of Kazuo Ishiguro's book "The Buried Giant" where a
long-married couple explore medieval England to understand why everyone has
forgotten their history, and discover that it was probably for the best.

Never thought that would be on-topic at HN.

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ktRolster
Have you read it? Is it worth reading?

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catnaroek
This shameful piece could have only been written by someone who has forsaken
their own human condition, reducing their sense of purpose in life to the
biological imperative to “survive”. In the interest of “surviving”, people can
do all sorts of dishonorable things, like adopting a servile attitude with
those who covet (or, even worse, have already stolen!) what is rightfully
yours, while turning a blind eye to the plight of your own kind. Fortunately,
throughout history, there have always been people with a sense of duty to the
collective to which they belong, and will prioritize that duty over
opportunities for self-advancement. So not all hope is lost.

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mindcrime
_turning a blind eye to the plight of your own kind._

Isn't the whole notion of "your kind" simply another biological imperative
rooted in kin altruism?

~~~
catnaroek
Nope. Identification with those who share your language, culture and
history... this is very much acquired during the socialization process, not
something imprinted in our genes.

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mynameishere
_He who controls the past controls the future_

What this guy is getting at, in a necessarily stupefying way to confuse and
tire the reader, is that we should remember certain events and not others. No
doubt the lists of things to be forgotten and propagated will be determined by
people as enlightened as himself. But on that count he's calling for the
_status quo_ making the article that much more dull.

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wangii
History would be less fun without interpretations which is confused with
remembrance in this article.

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_glass
The gist of this article is misleading. Instead of forgetting, one should be
ruthlessly open, but also meta about memory. There is a relatively new
historical research area, that shows how important historical events are
remembered, not what really happened. It is phenomenological, interested about
how people really feel. In modern geography, you have the same strain of
imagined spaces. How is Kosovo as a place? The power of that place over the
real administrative boundaries. Combined with the other major boundary of
reality time, we can be very meta about this and establish a better
understanding of our discourse. I think it is better to fight ignorance than
openly practice it.

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clock_tower
It would be very convenient for the British if their historical (and, like in
Northern Ireland, contemporary) crimes were forgotten, wouldn't it?

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jhoechtl
The book "Delete - The virtue of forgetting" comes here to my mind. It deals
about the inability of content on the internet to "rot"

[http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/jun/30/remember-d...](http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/jun/30/remember-
delete-forget-digital-age)

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tim333
There's a lot of flexibility as to what you can focus on. If some group
attacked your ancestors you can build up a grudge against the group and want
to fight back or you can resent war and try to stop that in general. Both
positions tend to get campaigned for by political groups.

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ktRolster
The problems in the article are not problems of history, rather they are
problems of people who refuse to learn from history. People who refuse to
learn are doomed, whether they have history or not.

