Forced Feeding of Forgetfulness

I recently finished reading The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I notice that the reviews are mixed – not everyone liked the book, which in my perspective makes for an authentically good book. What I liked about the book is its “simple-complexity.” Sorry about that! What I mean is that I appreciate the author’s reaching for the margins of life, even if potentially exaggerating, in an attempt to paint a fuller picture of our humanity. Read it yourself if I am not sufficiently clear for you here.

 

I introduce this book as prelude to what I need to write this day. The setting of the story is Barcelona Spain during a time of Spain’s civil war and what the author has to say about the experience of war brings to my thought – the forced feeding of forgetfulness. I take from page 428 of the book this excerpt: Nothing feeds forgetfulness better than war.

 

Nothing feeds forgetfulness better than war – enveloping whole societies in a forced quietude all the while trying to convince everyone that what has been experienced (seen, heard, tasted and felt) about ourselves and others in our world is simply an illusion or a passing nightmare (my paraphrasing). The author then states: wars have no memory and nobody has the courage to understand them until there is no one left to tell what happened… and this all in the service of future wars because hiding the truth perpetuates the myth of glorious sacrifice.

 

I witnessed this growing up as a child watching my father’s generation mesmerized sitting in front of television war shows (e.g.; Twelve O’clock High, Combat) instead of speaking out from their experiences of the real truth of the ugliness of war. Its as if everyone all of sudden exhales at the end of war – having held their breath for so long out of fear.

 

When war ends it is as if a heavy mantle of collective forgetfulness descends the day the violence subsides only to give birth to a new form of violence more destructive – shame filled silence that allows the cancer of guilt to rot the collective soul of whole societies. In the end, our warriors and those abused by war take the secret (truth) to their graves and in so doing leave behind loved-ones with their hearts filled with unspoken shame.

 

Truth telling and embracing the truth found in historical context is one of the principles of planning for peace. This must be done with care of course. When it is not done, however, what is left behind for future generations is a world based on unprocessed shame leaving the burden of guilt with the next generation. This is why wars force-feed forgetfulness – war needs it to ensure its own survival.