36 years & counting
The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting. ~ Milan Kundera, Book of Laughter and Forgetting (1979)
A central theme for 93 year old Milan Kundera is The Power of Forgetting, or historical amnesia — could not be more relevant given our current state of affairs. In our country and around the world too many valuable lessons are lost to us.
Kundera’s great theme emerged from his experience of the annexation of his former homeland Czechoslovakia by the Soviets in 1948. The process of deliberate historical erasure imposed by the communist regime on the Czechs.
As Kundera said: The first step in liquidating a people 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 that nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was. The world around it will forget even faster.
Where I come from in the Philippines we have tried to build our nation too many times — only mastering how to fail at it. This new win of a Marcos-Duterte political tandem is a perfect example.
On top of historical amnesia Marcos and Duterte are adding selective amnesia to our chaos — with their troll farms of disinformation, rewrites and fakery.
With the shady proclamation of their political win the country is once again in the throes of an amnesia induced apathy — blatantly manipulated for political and personal gain.
“The past is full of life, eager to irritate us, provoke and insult us, tempt us to destroy or repaint it. The only reason people want to be masters of the future is to change the past.” ~ Milan Kundera
Originally published at http://changewarrior.blogspot.com.
