Narrative Warfare: Why History Repeats (A Pearl Harbor Day Special)

I won't spend most of today's post talking about how Pearl Harbor directly relates to me. I did that on this day last year, and I don't like repeating myself, so I won't.

What I want to focus upon is the effects of an event upon a nation over time. In short, they are not permanent, and thinking so reliably leads to massive historical reversals. Yes, like Trump's election- and that won't be the last. Last year, I said that the peace we've enjoyed in the West since World War 2 came at the price of the blood, bone, and fire sacrificed to pay for it. Well, peace is a utility and utilities have recurring billing cycles. You can pay more frequently, at lesser cost, or less frequently at far greater costs- but one way or another, you must pay.

The smart move, of course, is to pay more frequently at the reduced cost. The cost, in this case, is the sacrifice of time and ego required to maintain that peace by putting in the necessary maintenance work required to keep that peace useful and relevant. It's not just remembering what happened--all the History Channel programs in the world cannot do that--or finding how you connect to that generation that paid the price, but to see how what they did then matters to you here and now.

That price, as I now know, cannot be paid by everyone. It requires a degree of empathy and intelligence that most people lack, which is why such sacrifices tend to last only until the generation that made it dies off. It requires fidelity to fact, truth, and reality that often contradicts convenient narratives promulgated by parties seeking to wield feels for power-play objectives (which means that the majority capable only of Rhetoric are often the reason for why history keeps repeating; History outside of living memory is Dialectic in nature).

What you need to recognized is that the majority of the population alive today is outside of living memory of World War II. Anyone in their family with such ties is dead, so no one alive has any connection to it and they are unable to place themselves--even with all the media about it to watch, read, or play--so they have no immediate or visceral connection that makes them give a shit. That's what we mean when we say that, for all intents and purposes, World War 2 is ancient history- something to enjoy as entertainment, but nothing more (if that).

And that's just the historical Western nations. Outside of the West? If you're not Japanese, you really don't give a shit. (And them? Not so much, and then only insofar as it matters to their national narratives.) We've already got this disconnect with regard to World War 1; it's going to become increasingly obvious that it's there with World War 2 and the Cold War. Without that emotional basis, the world order we've had since cannot possibly endure.

And so, the conditions for reversals is now present. Trump's election, Brexit, the No win in Italy, Le Pen's threatening Frexit if she wins, the increasingly obvious corruption in Austria, the exposure of global media hoaxing and fraud worldwide, and (of course) the looming death of the debt-based global banking system all look to fall like dominos over the next few years. World War 3 is NOT off the table yet; only one possible cause removed. The reversals not only of the post-WW2 order, but of far older elements of regional and world oder, are now coming- what we'll see on January 1st of 2101 will more resemble 1801 than 2001. (And that, if we are lucky.)

Why? Because, well...

And memory ends with death.