Remembrance Day recalls the sacrifices of those who served in the military, particularly those who lost their lives in the two large-scale conflicts that shaped the 20th century.
But “Lest we forget” is best applied to remembering the horrors of war, and avoiding them in the future. The ideal way to honour the veterans of past wars is to ensure their ranks are never increased.
That is perhaps too optimistic for a species with a long history of violence, conflict and imperialistic aspirations. Despite all we know, there’s still a sizable group of people who support the kind of power plays and warmongering that generates the smaller-scale conflicts perpetually brewing all over the planet, whether they be the work of petty, power-grubbing tyrants or larger powers still bent on imperialism and meddling in the affairs of others.
Wars don’t typically happen in isolation. Those on a larger scale are the result of a host of other factors, from historical grievances to external aggression. Often there’s a build-up of military jingoism and propaganda flaming the fires of war. It’s a tactic that is still employed each and every day by leaders from Russia to North Korea, from China to the U.S., the latter being a textbook case of modern imperialism.
The key to avoiding wars, or at least reducing their likelihood, is an informed citizenry that recognizes the propaganda and refuses to buy into the worst kind of patriotic claptrap.
Recognizing the propaganda angle of much of the jingoism typically involves asking the basic question: who stands to gain? There are the arms manufacturers who profit outright, the same people who own many a politician through lobbying and financial donations. There’s the military itself, which extends its raison d'être. And there are the politicians who cling to or seek power on the back of “strong leadership,” recognizing that it’s much easier to stir up patriotic fervour than to do something of actual benefit to the majority of citizens.
We live in a time of (relative) peace. While there are always wars on the go somewhere on the planet, here we’ve not seen the likes of the global conflicts most associated with Remembrance Day, which we mark Monday.
Certainly, Russia’s outrageous attack on Ukraine is top of mind, but there are currently conflicts ongoing in Gaza and Lebanon, to go along with the likes of Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
In that light, Remembrance Day is also about heeding the message that vigilance is needed to avoid sliding into the kind of totalitarian morass that marked much of the 20th century and is on the rise again in the 21st.
There’s been plenty of talk about fascism and comparisons to the rise of nationalism and militarism seen in the 1930s in the run-up to this week’s U.S. election.
The worst-of-humanity kind of nationalism gave us both the First World War and the second. It’s the kind that’s creeping into politics, as a certain base kind of populace is courted by those seeking to gain or hold onto power.
Many of us are oblivious to such machinations, focussed on our own lives and/or blinded by wilful partisanship/ignorance. We’re easily distracted by bread and circuses, especially those that feed into our own interests and biases. It’s all about short-term gratification.
To alter our current path, we’ll need some longer-term, bigger-picture thinking – i.e. just the opposite of what the propaganda model and social-media disinformation feed us today.
The horrific great wars of the past are in some ways less likely to reoccur given today’s massively destructive weapons and geopolitical ties, but we also face greater threats to our freedoms, privacy and autonomy due to technology wielded by corporate greed and invasive, police-state governments, the very definition of the fascism so many gave their lives to fight in the Second World War.
Those are dangers we’ve forgotten, inadvertently or otherwise, at our own peril.
