Lest we forget & Never Forget. As today is Remembrance Day, we grow up remembering the fallen soldiers who died in the wastes of WW1, the ones who died fighting fascism and bigotry in WW2, and the many who have fallen since and in between.
Sadly, remembering that they died cannot be enough, lest we forget should not only mean that we look at the graves. Never forget should also mean we never forget the ideas, methods, and logic that put those people onto the battle field.
Remembering the ideology of superiority, of the ‘other’, of nationalism. These are the essential lessons that the deaths of our predecessors should teach. Today after the moment of silence, please reflect on the root causes of the tragedies we remember.
After ‘Flanders Fields’, perhaps read ‘First They Came’ by Martin Niemöller.
After the bugle sounds, contemplate the ‘Ten stages of genocide’.
And finally consider the both the 14 Features of Fascism as well as the 14 Characteristics of Fascism.
These are the lessons; bought and paid for in tragedies so massive they defy intuitive understanding. Tragedies that we must never forget.
Lest we forget the lessons that we can use to reflect on the world around us. We can look at events in far off places, and appraise the actions of governments abroad and at home.
Never forget why the soldiers we stop to remember died, never forget the mechanisms and ideas that pulled them into the paths of the atrocities they suffered.
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Matthew Murchison, CEO @ Double M Digital Inc.
