Remembrance Day 2016

This Remembrance Day, Canada gathers to remember the fallen heroes who defended our country and our freedom.

Lest we forget.

Every media outlet agrees, blasting this message across wired, wireless, fibre optic, and myopic signals at full volume. And who wouldn't agree? Who would dare suggest that the soldiers of World War I weren't dying to defend the freedom of the West? Or that the people of World War II don't deserve to be praised for their sacrifice to defeat fascism?

And yet this message makes me uncomfortable, and merely suggesting that will probably anger many people before I even get the words out.

And that's the first part of the problem. This is a message that we dare not question. A blind belief.

The blindness allows us to ignore the ugly side of war, like the fact that in World War I the West were the same kind of selfish, imperialistic dirtbags that the Germans were. We didn't just abuse our fallen enemies with the Treaty of Versailles, we also mistreated our allies, dividing the Middle East like kids divvying up a candy bar, sewing seeds of conflict which continue to haunt us one hundred years later in Syria and Iraq. There are other causes for the strife in the Middle East, of course, and we'd be taking too much credit to say that it's all us, but the greed of the West has a big role.

The blindness allows us to ignore the bombing of Dresden, or the nuclear weapons deployed against Japan. These events could be argued as either necessary to shorten wars and ultimately save lives, or as monstrous acts of evil against civilian targets. We don't have to deal with that complexity if we just remember how heroic our soldiers were as we fire bombed and nuclear bombed children.

The blindness allows us to ignore the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which have failed to curb terrorism, are largely responsible for the instability that allowed ISIS to come to power, and were probably motivated by the politics of oil and pipelines.

Lest we forget.

The message also puts war on a pedestal above healing. The technology and heroism of World War II were certainly striking, but the social progress afterwards was truly monumental. The entire globe developed the idea of human rights in a new light after discovering what happened in concentration camps in Germany. Even Nazi supporters were horrified and disgusted when they found out what their government had been doing. The world also had to deal with refugees on an unprecedented level. There were entire cities that had been flattened to the ground that needed to be rebuilt.

At home, soldiers returned and saw how blacks, indigenous people, and other minorities were being treated at home. Having seen what racism had wrought under the Nazis, many soldiers were forced to question the racism at home.

Much of our understanding of good, evil, compassion, equality, and civil rights was shaped by World War II. This is more important than who won the Battle of the Bulge or why, or how many jet fighters Germany had by the end. This was the dawn of a new kind of morality about human life.

Lest we forget.

The veterans--and the civilians who supported them--of World War I are now gone, and those of World War II have mostly passed away. While they were and are alive, they remember these lessons in a way that someone like me, born in the late seventies, can't possibly understand. As they pass on, we are faced with the first true memory test: will we remember not just the fact that they struggled, but why?

Lest we forget.

Many of the institutions that were built after World War II, like the United Nations, are now unpopular, despite the fact that world poverty and disease are at their lowest points of all human history.

This year has seen Britain vote to leave the European Union, supporting a campaign that was at least partially fuelled by racism. A campaigner on the Remain side was murdered in the street.

This year has seen Donald Trump, an anti-Semite and outspoken racist demagogue become president elect of the United States. He promises to build walls and deport minorities--a disturbingly familiar call to anyone who remembers the lessons of World War II.

Lest we forget.

Lest we forget? Lest we forget what? Lest we forget the soldiers who died?

Partially. Yes, our fallen are worthy of our respect and our thanks. They really did die so that the rest of us could live free. But there is so much more that we also need to remember: how those wars got started, what terrible toll they had, what we learned about human nature and ourselves, and why we need to make sure that events like World War I and II never, ever happen again.

When we cheer blindly about how all soldiers are heroes, these are the things that we forget.

Yet I believe that this is a momentary lapse.

The younger generations of voters--the oft-vilified millennials--voted to Remain in the European Union. They voted against Donald Trump, and are now in the streets in protest to indicate that they are not going to tolerate abusive policy without resistance.

Even the majority of The Donald's supporters don't like him. Hillary Clinton is the second most unpopular presidential candidate in modern history, outdone by Trump. Trump won despite being despised, and in fact lost the popular vote. He was elected as a protest against the present, not as a vision for the future.

So let's go back to World War II. Let's watch documentaries, read Wikipedia articles and books. Let's remember those lessons.

Let's deal with the troubles facing our beleaguered journalists, who are increasingly out of work, increasingly bullied on social media, and increasingly monitored by police forces.

Let's keep a wary eye on the rise of political bots on Twitter, fake news on Facebook, and the lies and demagoguery of some internet "news" sites.

Let's bring truth back journalism and politics.

Let's do these things lest we repeat the mistakes of the past. Lest we return to the barbarism of racism, slaughter, and neglect.

Lest we forget.