Milan Kundera on national memory
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting was the first book I ever read by Milan Kundera back when it was first published in 1980, and it probably is still my favorite work of his. It’s a very strange but wonderful book, really just a succession of loosely connected long short stories. The author constantly steps away from the storyline to offer political, historical, and philosophical observations, such as this.
The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.
I would add that the memory involved is cultural or national memory. Personal memory doesn’t often falter in that manner (although sometimes it does). It’s the transmission of those memories and their lessons from one generation to another where the slip-up occurs.
Kundera also wrote:
The first step in liquidating a people,’ said Hubl, ‘is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history. Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long the nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was. The world around it will forget even faster.
1619 Project, anyone?
The thing about the US right now is that, without being conquered by a foreign country and without a huge majority of people supporting the left, we are currently doing it to ourselves and have for quite some time.
“… without a huge majority of people supporting the left… “
You have nailed the overarching issue, neo. Unfortunately, due to the Left’s war, many of us who have no interest in their war are now on the frontlines*. Teachers, military servicemen and women, Doctors, Nurses and other medical professionals, business owners… If large numbers within those groups keep their heads down and refuse to raise concerns the U.S. will collapse. Any nation would. The NAZI’s started out with a small minority and probably never had a majority. On the other hand, American revolutionaries like Thomas Paine and Paul Revere were a minority.
Most of us want to avoid conflict. We don’t want to make waves. But the stakes get higher and higher the longer we put it off, or avoid it. The Left are bullies. Look at last year’s riots. Saddam Hussein, Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Tse Dung, Fidel Castro. Also bullies. We all know what happens when no one stands up to a bully.
*As Trotsky (how apt) wrote, “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.”
According to a footnote in Toynbee’s Study of History, civilizations generally die by suicide, not from murder, nor is anyone likely to forget these lines from Orwell:
“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten,
every picture has been repainted, every statue and street has been
renamed, every date has been altered. Nothing exists except an
endless present in which the Party is always right.”
Not long ago, James Burnham’s prescient Suicide of the West (1964) was reissued with a new introduction from the great Roger Kimball.
Who is this “Hubl” person, I asked myself as I was reading the second Kundera excerpt.
For anyone interested, here’s a Thomas Hübl website.
(“Hubl” is also spelled “Huebl” and/or “Hübl”.)
https://thomashuebl.com/
His book, “Healing Collective Trauma”, may turn out to be of some interest.
https://www.collectivetraumabook.com/
“Introducing a pioneering new book on an urgent topic . . . In this groundbreaking work, Thomas Hübl reveals new methods for healing collective trauma to help us resolve wounds from the past and activate the evolutionary intelligence of humanity.”
Hmmm . . .
I truly believe that this idea was the basis for Common Core. Traditional instruction and texts that connected generations were wiped away to be replaced by “standards.”
And yes, I’m a public school teacher who will fight for America’s heritage with the last breath in my body.
I can’t find the link, but the ignorant author of the “1619 Project” recently tweeted that the US presidency and Congress were totally dominated by pro-slavery people until 1865. Apparently the war of 1861-1865 and the presidency of Abraham Lincoln escaped her notice.
Related:
“Veteran Journo Resigns From CBC, Pens Scathing Indictment Of Canadian Narrative-Shaping Industry”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/veteran-journo-resigns-cbc-pens-scathing-indictment-canadian-narrative-shaping-industry
Key grafs:
“…When I started at the national public broadcaster in 2013, the network produced some of the best journalism in the country. By the time I resigned last month, it embodied some of the worst trends in mainstream media. In a short period of time, the CBC went from being a trusted source of news to churning out clickbait that reads like a parody of the student press…
“…It used to be that I was the one furthest to the left in any newsroom…. I am now easily the most conservative, frequently sparking tension by questioning identity politics. This happened in the span of about 18 months. My own politics did not change…
“…To work at the CBC now is to accept the idea that race is the most significant thing about a person…
“…To work at the CBC is to submit to job interviews that are not about qualifications or experience — but instead demand the parroting of orthodoxies, the demonstration of fealty to dogma.
“It is to become less adversarial to government and corporations and more hostile to ordinary people with ideas that Twitter doesn’t like.
“It is to endlessly document microaggressions…
“…It is to consent to the idea that a growing list of subjects are off the table, that dialogue itself can be harmful. That the big issues of our time are all already settled.
“It is to capitulate to certainty, to shut down critical thinking, to stamp out curiosity. To keep one’s mouth shut, to not ask questions, to not rock the boat.
“This, while the world burns.
“How could good journalism possibly be done under such conditions? How could any of this possibly be healthy for society?
“All of this raises larger questions about the direction that North America is headed. Questions about this new moment we are living through — and its impact on the body politic. On class divisions, and economic inequality. On education. On mental health. On literature, and comedy. On science. On liberalism, and democracy.
“These questions keep me up at night….”
The thing about the US right now is that, without being conquered by a foreign country and without a huge majority of people supporting the left, we are currently doing it to ourselves and have for quite some time.
No, we’re not. Teachers’ college graduates are doing this to us. Shut the teachers’ colleges down and throw their faculty out on the street.
Art Deco:
It’s WAY past that point.
“The first step in liquidating a people,’ said Hubl, ‘is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history. Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long the nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was. The world around it will forget even faster.” Kundera
That is certainy part of the Left’s agenda. Yet in a society in which free speech is woven into its constitutional fabric, deceit and lies have a limited shelf life. To name but a few, the impact of Tucker Carlson’s monologues, Joe Rogan’s show and Candace Owen’s forthright and articulate arguments is not to be underestimated. They are a verbal acid eating away at the Left’s credibility.
Even more impactful are the results of the democrat’s policies; rampant crime without consequence, homeless addition and public defecation, ineffective and nonsensical covid restrictions, supply chain shortages evident every time people buy groceries and increasing inflation of necessities… foretell a massive payback. Political rejection is the best that the left can expect. If they’re truly stupid, they’ll derail political rejection and reap a more physical… whirlwind.
Kate,
She’s just repeating the lie. Nor does she and those of her ilk care in the least what the facts of the issue consist. ‘Truth’ over facts, specifically her truth, the only one that counts. Such as she deserve permanent loss of citizenship, seizure of assets and mandatory deportation.
“Teachers’ college graduates are doing this to us. Shut the teachers’ colleges down and throw their faculty out on the street.” Art Deco
That’s a start and certainly the first step after our disagreement is settled. The rot however extends far beyond the ‘teaching’ profession. At least 25% on the Left are TWANLOC.
Related (purveyors of hysteria and lies shriek their manic delusions from the rooftops):
“CBS Warns GOP Midterm Wins One of the ‘Top Global Risks’ in 2022”
https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/495097/
H/T Instapundit.
Key grafs:
‘…sounded the alarm over the possibility of Republicans winning big in the 2022 midterm elections, something they hysterically labeled one of “the top global risks” in the year ahead…[and]…claimed any GOP victory in the midterms or the 2024 presidential contest would be seen as “illegitimate.”’…
‘…[then] went on to specifically identify the Republican Party as the source of the supposed global threat: “…the United States has an election process that is increasingly broken, increasingly delegitimized. And the midterm elections, especially if you have significant win for a Trump-led Republican Party, means that 2024 is going to be seen as illegitimate and potentially a constitutional crisis.”’
Etc….
This sickening confabulation appears to be the warning before the storm; the “softening-up operation before the upcoming election”; the beginning of a new phase of TOTAL DELEGITIMIZATION by “Biden” of “his” political “enemies” (IOW at least half the country).
Appears to be an intensification of the Democratic Party’s declaration of war against its opponents.
One need not wonder at the incendiary and fraudulent theater that is being planned for this Thursday: an extravaganza of hatred and lies.
They have totally lost control and are running on pure fear and propaganda.
So far, it has worked for their Covid “policy” such as it is. It remains to be seen whether such a strategy will continue to bear destructive fruit.
@Rufus:
“On the other hand, American revolutionaries like Thomas Paine and Paul Revere were a minority.”
Minority yes.. but the instigators and leaders were not guys who met over a beer at bowling night. The core of the Revolutionaries were very successful folks who had their #$%^ totally together and were thriving in the existing system except for those few irritating bits of grit in the shell which drove them to Make a New Thing.
Paine was not one, being a kind of better class of David French (one would hope better!), but the Revolutionaries had a significant chunk of the Gates, Buffets, Bezoses, Musks of their day on their side. What better thing than to have your own shiny new Government close at hand to play with and tweak the excises and slap tariffs just for you on copper sheeting (hello Paul Revere), etc.
You’re going to need some heavy duty elite defections. Successful revolutions which *really* are led from below are vanishingly rare.
The Trotsky quote is most apt.
Somehow reminds me of a line early in The Good Soldier Schweik about how all over the empire men were having their day ruined as their class call up letter was delivered by the postman.
Bill Federer once told me (and I believe he was quoting someone else) :
“A nation that loses it’s history is like a man who loses his memory”.
We know how that turns out.
Related:
“The Death Of Truth”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/death-truth
Key grafs:
“…[T]the Internet was one of the greatest tools for free speech that the world has ever seen. It allowed ordinary people like me to share truth on a massive scale with other ordinary people all over the planet. I have always been grateful for that opportunity, but now our ability to share truth with one another over the Internet is being systematically eroded. Nobody can deny that this is taking place, because it is literally happening right in front of our eyes. Over the past decade, control of the Internet has become increasingly centralized.
“The big tech companies have become exceptionally powerful, and they have become addicted to using that power to suppress speech that they do not like.
“When a society gets to a point where you aren’t even allowed to ask questions, that is a very clear sign that you are living under a very oppressive authoritarian regime….
“…Years ago when they started banning various prominent voices we all knew that it wouldn’t end there….
“…Today, the big tech companies have no problem banning literally anyone….
“…[N]ow it appears that Twitter is preemptively banning people….
“…Just consider this example. Gateway Pundit is reporting that T-Mobile is literally erasing links to their articles from text messages….”
And so… the writing is on the wall.
(Alas, that may no longer be true in the current age; since IF the writing WERE on the wall, that writing would be summarily painted over. Whitewashed. Chiseled out….)
“Gateway Pundit is reporting that T-Mobile is literally erasing links to their articles from text messages…”
(Continued from previous post)
“Banned Content: Robert Kennedy’s Book, The Real Anthony Fauci, Destroys Fauci, COVID Vaccines, and US Vaccine Industry”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2022-01-04/banned-content-robert-kennedys-book-real-anthony-fauci-destroys-fauci-covid
Key graf:
“Preface: Something happened when I was working on this article that did not allow me to make any revisions, including adding the usual photo at the start, so the typos remain and a few thoughts were not finished. For the first time I recall in the years I have published this website, I was frozen out of my own article. In fact, I was not able to publish the article, which remained in inaccessible draft form, until I found a way to publish it without having to open the draft in order to click “publish.” I also decided to copy and paste it into my ZH post just as it appeared on my website….”
More Democratic Party distractions, courtesy of Marc Elias…who seems to believe that he, and those he represents, haven’t done enough to “transform” the country and damage it beyond all recognition. Nope, not nearly enough….:
‘2022 Desperation: Dem Lawyer Marc Elias Threatens Lawsuits To Disqualify GOP House Members’—
“It’s a combination of bluster, giving hope to Democrats, and planning to drain Republican coffers, but the lack of likelihood of success won’t deter the Clinton campaign lawyer whose firm was the driving force behind the discredited “Steele Dossier”.’
https://legalinsurrection.com/2022/01/2022-desperation-dem-lawyer-marc-elias-threatens-lawsuits-to-disqualify-gop-house-members/
Cloward-Piven total chaos strategy has been fully implemented and is succeeding. They are 100% going for it. And it’s right in our face.
I, too, cherish TBOLAF, 25 years after I first read it. That Kundera quote about “The first step in liquidating a people…” has been posted above my desk for several years.