There was an interesting item on the Today programme this morning about a project whereby participants in the Falklands war return to the islands and effectively re-live their experiences for the benefit of historians.
Much discussion about the possible psychological impact of this process on the former soldiers.
It made me wonder whether what is true for individuals might also be true for nations.
The United Kingdom is about to re-live the Great War 1914-18.
The next year will be concerned with the tensions that led to war, and then will follow a week by week, perhaps even day by day, series of anniversaries - all of them in some way traumatic and with resonances for the majority of British families.
Will the next five years simply be shrugged-off as a mere sequence of historical curiosities?
Or will the process of re-living the First World War bring to life (perhaps literally) Barbara Tuchman's terrible proud tower of European civilisation at the apex of world domination?
And once the ghosts have been waked will they go back to sleep again?
No comments:
Post a Comment