Remembrance Day Blues

Every year, the cognitive dissonance gets louder

There’s a reason why so many people don’t like this day, refuse to wear poppies and generally go into hiding until it’s over. They are suffering from a bad case of cognitive dissonance. I am one of them. CD is a term beloved by psychologists and it means that there are two antagonistic ideas battling it out in your mind. And when it comes to Remembrance Day, you can add a feeling of guilt into the mix.

Here’s how I see it: on the one hand, we must honour those people who ‘gave their lives’ to ‘protect democracy’. They number in the millions and we keep adding to that number because we never stop sending people into wars. On the other hand, we also know that those same people were coerced, manipulated and lied to by a nefarious elite of old men with agendas that they have never been honest about. Even Churchill admitted that ‘the first casualty of war is The Truth’. Therein lies the CD: we are supposed honour people who we feel sorry for because they have been duped.

And there is a third aspect: We have learned that wars never solve anything; they simply bring great suffering to millions of people. Though the propaganda machine says otherwise, and smart people know this. But even smart people can get swept up in war rhetoric; just look at the billions the US is spending on a war in Ukraine and an actor named Zelensky. There’s cognitive dissonance for you. Many people believe that understanding our historical mistakes is the key to preventing further wars.

https://www.peoplespartyofcanada.ca/remembrance-day?utm_campaign=ppc111122_en&utm_medium=email&utm_source=maximebernier

But I believe that we really should try a little harder to imagine what it feels like to live in a war zone, to empathize with the civilians hiding in bunkers and the men fighting deadly battles. It’s a matter of luck whether you avoid the trap of war, and of mental resilience to resist the propaganda that is part of it. You need both.

I was unlucky to be born at the beginning of the Second World War. My first memories are all about war: the adults in my life becoming increasingly distant and morose if not mentally ill, the lack of food and warmth, the general sense of chaos and insecurity. I was sent to some kind of ‘children’s camp’ in the country to avoid getting bombed to death. I was four and I remember how lost I felt there. It was only because I had a resolute grandmother who got me out of there in time that I avoided the fate of millions of German children who got separated from their parents. You could read ads of people searching frantically for their relatives for years after the war had ended.

In a way, that war has never ended. The damage done to the German people is profound and lasts to this day. They continue to feel guilty about the dreadful things that were done in their name. They were shamed, as a nation, shunned by the UN. Yes, they allowed themselves to be manipulated by the Nazis. They trusted them. As we tend to trust our current ‘leaders’. Perhaps that’s the lesson to be learned from Germany: do not trust your government; they lie and manipulate you. Question them. Be on your guard against them. They have plans that are always framed as ‘good for you’, but hide agendas that serve only to keep them in power.

Today, quite a few people think this way because we are still fighting The Covid Info Wars, and the last three years have taught us to be wary of our leaders. In the USA, not trusting in government is a given; it’s in their DNA, and for that reason, I have hope for them. Not so much for us hapless Canadians. The majority of Canucks still believe that Peace, Order and Good Governance will eventually triumph here though the so called ‘Opposition’ has made common cause with the so called ‘Liberals’ led by Trudeau, a narcissist, liar and mouther of endless platitudes. People here are not marching in the streets, demanding to live in an actual Democracy. They still think things are fine, mostly.

I wish I could be so sanguine. Today, I am in hiding and thinking about the brutality of war, our inability to stop it, and the lies that foment it. And at the rate we’re going, I’ll be doing it for the rest of my days.