Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. - George Santayana, 1905
David Rieff isn't against the lessons of remembrance, but he believes it shouldn't be the only morally-sanctioned option. Forgetting may be the better choice.
Remembrance alone will not prevent further atrocity. Instead, he says we must seek the truth through honest investigation that let the "chips fall where they may." Too often, we allow political leaders to manipulate history for political gain, often prioritizing one narrative over another until history is reduced to faulty memories that hold and rub raw our collective wounds.
While there are some atrocities so heinous we have a moral obligation to remember what's been lost, more often, remembrance and commemoration perpetuate "conflicting martyrologies" that breed aggression and conflict instead of forgiveness. We see this from the Middle East to the Balkans to Ireland.
Might forgetting sometimes be the more moral course of action?
We also talk about how technology no longer allows us to forget our past and the latest developments in erasing memory by choice.
GUESTS:
- David Rieff - Journalist and author of many books including A Bed For the Night: Humanitarians in Crisis and most recently, In Praise of Forgetting: Historical Memory and Its Ironies
- Mark Oppenheimer - Editor-at-large for Tablet Magazine, writes the monthly “Beliefs” column for the New York Times, host of Unorthodox podcast, and the author of three books, including Thirteen and a Day and Wisenheimer.
- Karim Nader - Professor of Psychology at McGill University
MUSIC:
- “A Hundred Years From Today” by Joe Williams
- “Don’t Forget About Me” by Dusty Springfield
- “True Love Tends To Forget” by Bob Dylan
You can join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.
Colin McEnroe, Chion Wolf, and Greg Hill contributed to this show.
