June 16th, 2020: Understanding History
There are are many ways of looking at the past. We don't have to
consider the past lessons in history only if we agree with what
happened. History is the foundation for our conversations about the
future, assuming we know what to do with it in the present. Nations,
communities, religious bodies, and individuals have to go back to
history sometimes to regain perspectives of what is going in the
present. Even from a personal level, not everything about our family
history is actually right and worthy to be honoured. We are broken
people. Therefore, the institutions we created are not perfect. Does
that mean that we should go through the family history and discard the
pictures of those whom we don't appreciate?
If that is the choice we have decided to do, we have done a great disservice to future generations.
A)
We encourage a very unhealthy behaviour which is denial. When we cut
off those memories by destroying the evidence of their existence, we
have removed the needed framework for future conversations. I think it
is simplistic to assume that when we are allowed the evidence to remain
where they are means that we worship them. We have taken away the fact
we humanly are continuing to learn about how we have failed to
understand what it means to be human. We need to allow ourselves to
learn from past mistakes so that we won't repeat it. It has taken
Japanese people and German people a long time to come to terms with what
their respective nations did during the second war world. Living in
denial is a new form of slavery, and its base is anger and fear.
B)
We don't have access to further reasoning and learning about human
history. Somehow our contemporary culture has become very inept when it
comes to the nature of dialogue and reasons. We worship agreement
without allowing some other voices to have their places in various
conversations about right and wrong. When a group of people decides to
stop reasoning and condemns those who contradict their positions, we are
witnessing a fanatic behaviour which opens the door to all kinds of
manipulation and cultural bullying.
C) If
perfection is what we would like to attain during our life on earth,
then we are looking for utopia. That is another form of denial. This
choice has a lot to do with the rejection of the real condition of the
self. We cannot even be perfect on our own. How can we be perfect
collectively? We all love to see a better world, and that is a noble
longing. However, it is like talking about having nothing to deal with
human suffering even though many of us might suffer by being ourselves,
and no one has to do anything to us. We will be deceived by thinking
that as we eliminate these historical artifacts, we can taste utopia.
From the Christian perspective, that only happens if we are willing to
die to the broken self. Neither the death of a political regime nor the
death of any form of human oppression will grant us true freedom and
values of our self-worth.
1 Peter 2:2
"Therefore,
rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and
slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk,
so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have
tasted that the Lord is good."
