I’ve long been so impressed by the way Germany and Austria handles facing the horrors of their history. Amongst other things, every school child takes a mandatory trip to a concentration camp, is prepared for it ahead of time and discusses it afterwards. No one has shut down that practice because it “makes the children uncomfortable” and teachers don’t impose shame and blame on innocent young children. They simply understand that the children have to know what happened and recognize the toxic narratives that made it happen so that it will never happen again. We have so much we can learn from Germany and Austria in this regard.
How many mandatory fields trip do American school children take to plantations? And if they did, how many of the tours would accent the beautiful architecture and the genteel sipping of mint juleps on porches? As far as I know, there is only one place that tells the real story of these forced labor camps that made America rich through unimaginable systemic brutality—the Whitney Plantation outside of New Orleans. I’d like to think that some school groups do go there, but how many in the face of all the schools in the United States?
And of course, there are many sites school groups could go to to learn the stories of the places where witches were burnt, Native Americans were exterminated, striking laborers were beaten or murdered. The surest ways for such atrocities to continue (see this week’s news) is to make sure the population is ignorant, forbid the teaching that reveals the narratives behind the curtain, pump the people full of lies, misinformation, distraction. And we're doing that very well.
Here is my Facebook post on the subject.
This sign on one of the Salzburg bridges. This is what it looks like when a country owns the horrors in its history, educates its children to take “never again” seriously and refuses the toxic narrative of white (Aryan) supremacy that makes otherwise decent people behave indecently. A timely reminder to your cousins and such still in the grip of the Fox News brainwash and the depraved “decency is weakness” storyline to get off the hatred train and join the 5 million plus Americans who rallied on No Kings Day.
And please note: The Toddler King and his goons called the violent insurrection and riot of January 6th a “rally” and the peaceful rally in L.A. a “riot”. Watch the language closely—it’s a huge part of the strategy to again make otherwise kind people do cruel things. Part of the conspiracy against decency and kindness is also mainstream media reporting their bias as fact, most casually saying “thousands of people protesting” far below the millions obvious inn all the postings from the 2000 different towns and cities.
What made Saturdays gatherings so hopeful was that people were not proclaiming a new political dogma to replace an old, which invariably, as history shows, creates the next round of havoc and horror. They were simply saying, in their own words artfully shown on creative signs, that they choose decency over brutality, kindness over cruelty. And are waking up like slumbering lions, learning to recognize the language, hidden narratives and the torrent of lies that make monsters of us all. And as more and more awaken, the empire begins to crumble, the few lose their grip on the many. If the poet Shelley would have been on the march, this would have been his sign:
"Rise like Lions after slumber.
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew.
Which in sleep had fallen on you
Ye are many – they are few."