Faithfully yours - Generational Blindness
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- Published on Sunday, April 23, 2017
By Neil Strohschein
The Neepawa Banner
We have a serious problem in our society. I call it Generational Blindness. It has been with us since the beginning of time. Symptoms of this problem can be seen in all genders, all age groups and all social and economic classes. No place on earth is immune from this problem.
What is Generational Blindness? King Solomon defined it this way: “The people of long ago are not remembered, nor will there be any remembrance of people yet to come by those who come after them.” (Ecclesiastes 1:11)
That is another way of saying that we who currently live on this earth have deliberately chosen to ignore the lessons we could have learned from our history. As a result, we are making the same mistakes that our ancestors made, reaping the same consequences and adding our problems to the ones we inherited from them.
In support of this argument, I offer the following example. From 1914-1919, the nations of the world fought in one of the bloodiest wars in history. The Allies were on one side. Germany, with its supporters, on the other. The Allies won the war—but at that point, things got way out of hand.
World War I ended with a “Cease Fire;” not with the absolute surrender. The understanding was that the two sides would get together later and, in good faith, negotiate the terms of a lasting peace. They got together in the Palace of Versailles in France. They sat on opposite sides of the table; but very little negotiating took place. The Allies presented the Germans with a document (the Treaty of Versailles) and told them to: “Sign—or else!!”
The “treaty” imposed severe restrictions on Germany’s armed forces and demanded that the German government reimburse the Allies for the costs they incurred in fighting the war. The Allies were determined to permanently end Germany’s ability to wage war.
This is a classic case of Generational Blindness. Had they taken the time to read the stories of previous wars, the world’s leaders would have discovered that humiliating an enemy defeated in war is no way to achieve a lasting peace. All it does is deepen the resolve of the defeated side to rebuild its armies and go to war again.
That’s what happened in Germany. A retired soldier named Adolf Hitler formed a new political party—the National Socialists—and vowed that if elected, he would rectify what he considered to be “the injustice of the Treaty of Versailles.” Twenty years after Versailles, WWII began.
Not much has changed in the past 70 years. The world’s leaders still go to war, people still die in battle and, when all is said and done, little, if anything, is achieved. What lesson have we failed to learn? In his last Remembrance Day service in Neepawa (he retired the following June), Rev. George Scott put it this way: “There can be no peace without justice.”
Unfortunately, justice isn’t always what warring parties are seeking. They say it is; but before long it becomes evident that what they really want is either revenge (don’t get back—get even) or regime change. So, a war is fought, people die, a winner is declared and a treaty is signed. But the issues that precipitated the war are never addressed. Justice is denied and within a few years, the peace treaty is broken and war breaks out again. This is one example of Generational Blindness. Next week, I will offer another one.
