Why is it so hard for our species to learn from our multiple disasters? The great mystery of humanity’s repetitive atrocities is how little we take away from them. We focus on particulars, neglecting larger implications. Opinion
, deputy PM Freeland said, in her careful voice, “People who commit war crimes must be brought to justice. It is the only way to work toward a world where that stops happening.” Barton astutely responded, “I would suggest then that you don’t think a negotiated agreement is possible any longer, given the atrocities we’ve seen.” It made sense.
That’s pretty much the U.S. position. Russia is an implacable, evil force that must be ground down implacably. So the U.S. is generous towardwhen it is fighting its war, but won’t even show up for efforts to bargain peace. Freeland didn’t seem to want to buy that. Why? It would mean endless destruction there. So having neared the U.S. view, she backed off in a way both tentative and firm.
“I didn’t say that Rosie … we need to be really pretty humble when it comes to Ukraine … They are the ones who are fighting … who are going to determine the conclusion of this war.” I took that as a cautious demur from the U.S. stance. Barton was right; it didn’t really jibe with what Freeland said earlier, but strict consistency in policy statements is hardly the key thing when devastation, death and nuclear annihilation are crowding the stage of events.
Instead, reactions tend to narrow down parochially — not an inherently bad term — and focus on remembering and memorializing the particular, while neglecting larger implications like resolving to stop or reduce it in the future. There’s something in the intense will to memorialize each disaster where memory can even become the enemy of insight, since it’s so emotionally potent and focuses so strongly on those immediately affected. Masha Gessen points at this respectfully
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