<
https://theconversation.com/remembering-the-past-looking-to-the-future-how-the-war-in-ukraine-is-changing-europe-178151>
"Both sides in this war have plundered history. Vladimir Putin claims to be
replaying the second world war by “denazifying” Ukraine, while his forces
desecrate the Holocaust site of Babyn Yar.
Putin’s opponents have their own analogies. Putin is variously Hitler, Stalin
or Tsar Peter the Great.
On social media, memes mine the medieval period to remind the West that when
Kyiv was a flourishing metropolis in the 11th century, Moscow was still a
wilderness.
Historians are uninterested in these debates. They know both sides can produce
maps and histories to “verify” their claims. These need not shape present
realities. As the Kenyan representative to the UN said about the African
situation, where colonial era borders continue to chafe:
Rather than form nations that looked ever backwards into history with a
dangerous nostalgia, we chose to look forward to a greatness none of our
many nations and peoples had ever known.
Instead, historians are looking at the rapidly shifting present. They realise
history is being made, not replayed in Ukraine. In the process, it is changing
the face of Europe."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
