homegame

Those Who Forget History Are Condemned to Be Happy

Read an article, any article, in print or online, on the European Union financial crisis and the following phrase or some close variant of it will appear.

"Germany, haunted by the memory of hyperinflation during the Weimar Republic..."

That's when I stop reading and start wondering who exactly in Germany is haunted by that memory. The hyperinflation in question happened in 1922-23. That's a long time ago. My Dad's 90, and he couldn't remember anything that happened in 1923. He wasn't even a preschooler at the time. Given subsequent unfortunate events in Germany from 1933-1945, it's a better than even money bet NO ONE alive today in Germany remembers said hyperinflation, and that precious few can remember their grandparents telling them all about it.

No, when people cite a historical memory which the human life span prevents them from actually remembering as their reason for doing or thinking something, they are -- always -- employing history as a cover story, as an excuse for thoughts or deeds that spring from another motive altogether.

Take an obvious example. There are a great many Americans who are deeply into the memory of the Confederate States of America. We are many generations past the Civil War being real to anyone. The last living soldier of that conflict died in 1960, and he was really old. But because it is easier to suss out the motives of our fellow countrymen than of a society we hardly know, this particular historical obsession fools no one. For better or worse, we all know where the modern-day Confederate obsessives are coming from.

In this respect, Germany's no different than the U.S. The "haunting" memory of hyperinflation is an excuse for inaction in a crisis that would require that country to take the very expensive lead in rescuing its poorer neighbors and restructuring the European Union on a more rational basis -- one in which Germans would become poorer, too.

They don't want to do that. As an American, I'm in no position to criticize. Our society long ago decided to cope with its problems by refusing to take any action requiring the slightest amount of personal effort or (especially) financial sacrifice that might fix them while retaining the right to bitch incessantly and blame other people for the whole mess.

But we, and Germany, ought to leave history out of it. It's an innocent academic discipline that never did us any harm. What happens in the here and now stems from what individuals and societies think and do in the here and now -- and we ought to have the guts to admit we're making our own history.

posted by Michael Gee @ 7:37 AM