How is it possible that even for the most significant events in human history many of us aren’t aware of their significance? The short answer: Ensuing generations never experienced the events. So, should we be surprised when two Chinese tourists in 2017 were arrested for making the Nazi salute in front of the Reichstag parliament building in Berlin? Or should we be surprised when we see tourists smiling and taking Selfies in front of the 9-11 Memorial in New York? As a species, we have tried to pass on knowledge, generation to generation, without much success for 200 to 300 millennia.
That’s why, also, that on-the-street reporters can encounter numerous people who seem to have little or no knowledge of the names of famous people and events in their country’s history. Are there other reasons for our ignorance? Yes, one lies in our self-absorption and our sense that time itself began when we personally began. Another lies in the abundance of events that might be called significant by various peoples—in a sense all events have some significance. And a third lies in cultural upbringing that is overridden by a desire to strike out on one’s own, to be independent. We’re fortunate that a few of us do what they can to preserve the memories of our ancestors. Unfortunately, some of those memories come with seriously defective baggage, suitcases full of misinformation and misinterpretation. No current or past commentator is devoid of personal perspective.
I don’t know the motive for the actions of the Chinese tourists. Maybe it was all done “in fun” as they perceived fun. Probably, they acted in ignorance of German law that forbids such displays of Nazi symbols. And maybe the people at the 9-11 Memorial also acted out of pure “fun” and ignorance as they stood in front of a huge manmade waterfall and very tall building. We might all want to believe that if the Chinese tourists and the New York tourists had lost someone they knew personally in World War II or on 9-11-01, they would have a different perspective. The magnitude of a loss depends upon its personal meaning. What’s interesting to me is that the Chinese tourists and the NYC tourists don’t realize that without someone in the past there can be no one in the present; they are around to offend because their ancestors survived numerous significant events. Estimates for the number of deaths during WWII run as high as 70 million people, including, because it was also fought on Chinese soil, Chinese victims—but obviously not the progenitors of the offending Chinese tourists making the salute to a dead Hitler. And the 3,000 people who died on 9-11 included people who hypothetically could have been the parents or grandparents of those who visit the site for a Selfie. Obviously, however, not so, since like their Chinese counterparts, they were there to salute and/or photograph.
The significance of the past is irrelevant if one isn’t around in the present. Imagine, as the 1946 Jimmy Stewart movie It’s a Wonderful Life and the Stephen J. Gould book Wonderful Life ask us to imagine, what the world would be had our ancestors—human or animal—encountered a significant tragic event like WWII, 9-11, or even, for Gould, a pre-human catastrophe that ended their existence before they left a human legacy called “you.”
If you travel to Moundsville, West Virginia, you will see a “mound.” You can climb it. Mound builders made it centuries ago. We have some sense, thanks to archaeologists, of what the mound represented. We cannot know exactly its meaning for the people who constructed it, nor can we know any significant event with which it might have been associated, though we do know that it was a burial mound. But how did those ancient mound builders perceive it: Was it a sacred cemetery on which only anointed ones could stand? In climbing to its top, do we desecrate it?
For a species as ubiquitous as we are, places can even be redundant sites of significant events, as, for example, Manassas in Virginia is because of two Civil War battles. During those two battles, someone died before leaving a human legacy. Tourists to the battlefield are not people in direct line of progeny from someone who died there before having children. Tourists, even the most ignorant of them, have a “wonderful life” because the significant events did not affect them personally.
A common problem lies in how we can convey the significance of our generation to the next one. Grandparents and parents have tried to teach the lessons of their generations with varying levels of success since humans originated. Think you have any method that might succeed where they failed? Falling short of having such a method, you will see more Nazi salutes, 9-11 Memorial Selfies, and desecrated cemeteries.
That’s why, also, that on-the-street reporters can encounter numerous people who seem to have little or no knowledge of the names of famous people and events in their country’s history. Are there other reasons for our ignorance? Yes, one lies in our self-absorption and our sense that time itself began when we personally began. Another lies in the abundance of events that might be called significant by various peoples—in a sense all events have some significance. And a third lies in cultural upbringing that is overridden by a desire to strike out on one’s own, to be independent. We’re fortunate that a few of us do what they can to preserve the memories of our ancestors. Unfortunately, some of those memories come with seriously defective baggage, suitcases full of misinformation and misinterpretation. No current or past commentator is devoid of personal perspective.
I don’t know the motive for the actions of the Chinese tourists. Maybe it was all done “in fun” as they perceived fun. Probably, they acted in ignorance of German law that forbids such displays of Nazi symbols. And maybe the people at the 9-11 Memorial also acted out of pure “fun” and ignorance as they stood in front of a huge manmade waterfall and very tall building. We might all want to believe that if the Chinese tourists and the New York tourists had lost someone they knew personally in World War II or on 9-11-01, they would have a different perspective. The magnitude of a loss depends upon its personal meaning. What’s interesting to me is that the Chinese tourists and the NYC tourists don’t realize that without someone in the past there can be no one in the present; they are around to offend because their ancestors survived numerous significant events. Estimates for the number of deaths during WWII run as high as 70 million people, including, because it was also fought on Chinese soil, Chinese victims—but obviously not the progenitors of the offending Chinese tourists making the salute to a dead Hitler. And the 3,000 people who died on 9-11 included people who hypothetically could have been the parents or grandparents of those who visit the site for a Selfie. Obviously, however, not so, since like their Chinese counterparts, they were there to salute and/or photograph.
The significance of the past is irrelevant if one isn’t around in the present. Imagine, as the 1946 Jimmy Stewart movie It’s a Wonderful Life and the Stephen J. Gould book Wonderful Life ask us to imagine, what the world would be had our ancestors—human or animal—encountered a significant tragic event like WWII, 9-11, or even, for Gould, a pre-human catastrophe that ended their existence before they left a human legacy called “you.”
If you travel to Moundsville, West Virginia, you will see a “mound.” You can climb it. Mound builders made it centuries ago. We have some sense, thanks to archaeologists, of what the mound represented. We cannot know exactly its meaning for the people who constructed it, nor can we know any significant event with which it might have been associated, though we do know that it was a burial mound. But how did those ancient mound builders perceive it: Was it a sacred cemetery on which only anointed ones could stand? In climbing to its top, do we desecrate it?
For a species as ubiquitous as we are, places can even be redundant sites of significant events, as, for example, Manassas in Virginia is because of two Civil War battles. During those two battles, someone died before leaving a human legacy. Tourists to the battlefield are not people in direct line of progeny from someone who died there before having children. Tourists, even the most ignorant of them, have a “wonderful life” because the significant events did not affect them personally.
A common problem lies in how we can convey the significance of our generation to the next one. Grandparents and parents have tried to teach the lessons of their generations with varying levels of success since humans originated. Think you have any method that might succeed where they failed? Falling short of having such a method, you will see more Nazi salutes, 9-11 Memorial Selfies, and desecrated cemeteries.
RSS Feed