Esquire USA - May 2016, Czasopisma ENG
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//-->“I DID IT ALL…I HAD ALLTHE FUN YOU SHOULD HAVE.”…A N DH E Y,!LOOKMAY 2016PAG E 1 5“I MIGHTHAVE SAIDTO THELADY, ‘THESAUSAGEIS, YOUKNOW…SPECIALTODAY.’”PAG E 9 0INTERVIEWTHIS GUYIS REAL,AND HISNAME ISKODYVANHALEN.MORE WRITERSTHAN USUAL .STORIES BY:A . J . JAC O B S,SC OT T R A A BJ O H N H . R I C H A R DSO NTO M J U N O D,TO M C H I A R E L L AC . J . C H I V E RS,C U RT I S S I T T E N F E L DM I K E SAG E R,C H R I S J O N ESK E N KU RSO N ,C H A R L ES P. P I E RC EA N N A P E E L E ,ST E P H E N M A RC H ECA L F U S S M A N ,DAV I D WO N D R I C HB E N JA M I N P E RCY,C O L BY BUZ Z E L LGOD BLESSMAGAZINESREMEMBERING,AND FORGETTINGB Y C H A R L E S P. P I E R C EINLENIN’S TOMB,HIS LUCID ACCOUNT of the endof Soviet Russia, David Remnick uses as an epigraph afamous quote from Czech author Milan Kundera. “The strug-gle of man against power,” Kundera wrote, “is the struggleof memory against forgetting.” The philosophy wascentral to Remnick’s contention throughout the book thatone of the critical weaknesses of the Soviet state, and of allof its satellite governments in Eastern Europe, includingKundera’s Czechoslovakia, was that it required its citizensto fight against their own memory, to unknow what theyclearly knew. Sooner or later, the effort to forget and tounknow becomes too much of a burden for too many peopleand they force the collapse of the system. Humans are driv-en to remember. Humans can crack from the effort it takesto deny and to forget. The consequences can be therapeuticor they can be catastrophic, for people and for the politicalsocieties into which they organize themselves.This is as true of liberal democracies as it is true of author-itarian states. In fact, the effects of forgetting can be worsein the former, because citizens of authoritarian states seethe effects of forgetting and unknowing in every transactionin their daily lives. In liberal democracies, and especially inthis one, there are so many distractions and so many optionsand so much media that the corrosive effects of the loss ofthe power of memory can elude anyone’s notice until some-thing important comes apart all at once.The 2016 presidential campaign—and the success ofDonald Trump on the Republican side—has been a tri-umph of how easily memory can lose the struggle againstforgetting and, therefore, how easily society can lose thestruggle against power. There is so much that we have for-gotten in this country. We’ve forgotten, over and over again,how easily we can be stampeded into action that is con-trary to the national interest and to our own individualself-interest. We have forgotten McCarthy and Nixon. Wehave forgotten how easily we can be lied to. We have for-gotten the U-2 incident and the Bay of Pigs and the sale ofmissiles to the mullahs. And along comes someone likeTrump, and he tells us that forgetting is our actual powerand that memory is the enemy.The first decade of the twenty-first century gave us agreat deal to forget. It began with an extended mess of3 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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//-->“I DID IT ALL…I HAD ALLTHE FUN YOU SHOULD HAVE.”…A N DH E Y,!LOOKMAY 2016PAG E 1 5“I MIGHTHAVE SAIDTO THELADY, ‘THESAUSAGEIS, YOUKNOW…SPECIALTODAY.’”PAG E 9 0INTERVIEWTHIS GUYIS REAL,AND HISNAME ISKODYVANHALEN.MORE WRITERSTHAN USUAL .STORIES BY:A . J . JAC O B S,SC OT T R A A BJ O H N H . R I C H A R DSO NTO M J U N O D,TO M C H I A R E L L AC . J . C H I V E RS,C U RT I S S I T T E N F E L DM I K E SAG E R,C H R I S J O N ESK E N KU RSO N ,C H A R L ES P. P I E RC EA N N A P E E L E ,ST E P H E N M A RC H ECA L F U S S M A N ,DAV I D WO N D R I C HB E N JA M I N P E RCY,C O L BY BUZ Z E L LGOD BLESSMAGAZINESREMEMBERING,AND FORGETTINGB Y C H A R L E S P. P I E R C EINLENIN’S TOMB,HIS LUCID ACCOUNT of the endof Soviet Russia, David Remnick uses as an epigraph afamous quote from Czech author Milan Kundera. “The strug-gle of man against power,” Kundera wrote, “is the struggleof memory against forgetting.” The philosophy wascentral to Remnick’s contention throughout the book thatone of the critical weaknesses of the Soviet state, and of allof its satellite governments in Eastern Europe, includingKundera’s Czechoslovakia, was that it required its citizensto fight against their own memory, to unknow what theyclearly knew. Sooner or later, the effort to forget and tounknow becomes too much of a burden for too many peopleand they force the collapse of the system. Humans are driv-en to remember. Humans can crack from the effort it takesto deny and to forget. The consequences can be therapeuticor they can be catastrophic, for people and for the politicalsocieties into which they organize themselves.This is as true of liberal democracies as it is true of author-itarian states. In fact, the effects of forgetting can be worsein the former, because citizens of authoritarian states seethe effects of forgetting and unknowing in every transactionin their daily lives. In liberal democracies, and especially inthis one, there are so many distractions and so many optionsand so much media that the corrosive effects of the loss ofthe power of memory can elude anyone’s notice until some-thing important comes apart all at once.The 2016 presidential campaign—and the success ofDonald Trump on the Republican side—has been a tri-umph of how easily memory can lose the struggle againstforgetting and, therefore, how easily society can lose thestruggle against power. There is so much that we have for-gotten in this country. We’ve forgotten, over and over again,how easily we can be stampeded into action that is con-trary to the national interest and to our own individualself-interest. We have forgotten McCarthy and Nixon. Wehave forgotten how easily we can be lied to. We have for-gotten the U-2 incident and the Bay of Pigs and the sale ofmissiles to the mullahs. And along comes someone likeTrump, and he tells us that forgetting is our actual powerand that memory is the enemy.The first decade of the twenty-first century gave us agreat deal to forget. It began with an extended mess of3 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]