OPINION: Wars integral to our identity

FERGUS – “The act of remembering, honouring or keeping a person, event or thing from the past in your mind.”

As seen by early cave paintings through to today, the fighting of wars has been with mankind for all of our existence. So has its telling, yet almost everything you read or hear about war is biased. 

Because war is fundamentally about disagreement, that is to be expected. Even if unintentional, history is flawed by the false interpretation of events.

As the past is rewritten by succeeding generations, they use their own convictions and prejudices  to dictate how war will be portrayed. 

Each will fixate on certain aspects more than others. As a whole this recounting, both consciously and subconsciously, selects in the good parts, leaves out the bad bits and generalizes with sweeping conclusions. 

Subjective social perception creates its own reality which guides each individuals’ behaviour and memory. 

Because all of these decisions are emotionally fluid, they can change according to the shared beliefs of those impacted. The meaning of remembrance, like the syllables of the word itself, can become disconnected.

All wars, once concluded, are consigned to history. Wars over the last 100 years were kept alive through those who were there, by special interest organizations, by the arts and by historians. 

The history of warfare is cumulative as each engagement adds its own contribution. But beyond a century the fading interest of humankind pushes their history and their memories further into the forgotten. 

Regrettably, this cache of knowledge and insight is overwhelmed by the noise of current events. Even so, these human histories do not need to be lost, patiently waiting like the ancient pharaohs of Egypt to be accidentally rediscovered.  

All they ask is to be recognized and assessed for their relevancy in today’s world. Public memory refers to those explanations of the past as taught by various public institutions. Private memory reflects individual memories that accumulate over time to form what is referred to as collective memory. 

Often public memory contradicts private memory, especially when it comes to contentious interpretations of past events.  It is wrong to assume there exists a common collective memory of war shared by all generations across time. 

People have a multiplicity of impressions about the past and its significance to the present. Collective memory integrates the way individuals perceive their own. 

If the past does not fit the notion of how a people depict themselves, they may dispute it or attempt to redefine that portrait into one which is more palatable to their preferred social image.

Educating the next generation and instilling in them morally justifiable views and values is something every society takes seriously. 

Of course, which views and values are held depends on how the contemporary community interprets their principles. Even so, their understanding is founded upon what the preceding generation passed on to them. 

Clearly, the teaching of the past has been central to instilling and transmitting values. However, teaching and learning are not necessarily synonymous. 

The Canadian Historical Thinking Project revolved around the postulation that historical thinking is central to history instruction and learning. 

The thinking concepts it developed were designed to increase competency in historical literacy by gaining a deeper understanding of historical events and processes. Historically literate citizens can assess for themselves the legitimacy of publicly available interpretations of past events. 

They can understand that a historical film can look realistic without being accurate, and know the difference. 

Our understanding of the past is the net result of knowledge transfer, knowledge understanding and knowledge acceptance.

A knowledge of the past is essential before it can be made relevant. 

This applies most obviously to historians, novelists and filmmakers who provide the information used in the educational process, but also to students themselves in order for them to appreciate the implications of war. 

Education, be it formal or experience, is the difference between knowing and understanding. 

Historically estranged generations, those generations connected to the past only through physical sites of remembrance, need knowledge before they can begin their interpretation of war. 

While rote historical knowledge is essential, it is insufficient on its own to engage younger generations with their nation’s history. 

Because youth of every generation is the time of exploration they must be encouraged, by reasoning acceptable to them, to seek out and understand events of an all-too-distant past. 

To gain acceptance, each generation needs to genuinely “discover” the wars on their own basis.

So what can our youth learn from past Canadians who went to war? First though, we all need to know who they were for they embody our collective Canadian story. The stories they tell are hair-raisingly simple yet morally complex. 

In the major conflicts of the 20th century, Canadians always punched above their weight as they fought for the values that underpin our national character.  This should be a source of national pride and must be remembered and upheld as a standard for our nation. 

When we fail to remember these warriors, we betray them and belittle ourselves. 

Through examining our wartime military history, we gain an enhanced appreciation of what it means to be a Canadian.

Only through the power of history can we share our nation’s stories. We must come to understand how the fighting of multiple wars has been and continues to be an integral part of our Canadian identity. 

Not all may share this sentiment, but all must accept that in the very least they are touchstones of our recent past and serve to connect the rising generation with their cultural heritage. 

In this way we allow them, according to their own judgment, to  embrace the tug as they pay homage to our veterans and their service to our country on Nov. 11 – Remembrance.

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Robert Stubbings is the Fergus Legion president.