Fading History

The erosion of historical and collective memory within a modern society is probably inevitable. Each successive generation in the modern era seems to pull further and further away from its heritage in favor of rewritten narratives, progressivism, and generational detachment. In a mobile society, the transfer of experiences across generational boundaries becomes more and more rare. Family histories, to include the connection and continuation of seminal events and experiences, simply are no longer commonplace. I myself feel at times I have only an inkling of knowledge that extends no further than my grandparents generation, a knowledge which is far too limited to claim any assurance of accuracy and/or possession.

This article in the Chicago Tribune illustrates this phenomenon, invoking the historical significance of the photograph below.

Joe Rosenthal/Associated Press (1945)

This iconic photograph has a personal and emotional significance to previous generations. As a Gen-Xer, I can easily identify the image and its origin, but confess that I don't have the emotional attachment to events before my time - at least, not in the way I do for the collapse of the Soviet Union and the World Trade Center. My children, as they come of age, will have even less attachment to these markers of our history.

It is remarkable, really. In the information age, we have access to millions of pages of facts, events and narratives of history - more than we can possibly absorb in a lifetime. Yet we are less and less aware of our own place in that history, more and more detached from our family heritages, and devoid of the experiential context that is necessary to connect ourselves to both our past and our present.

This erosion is unlikely to be reversed, and indeed, may even be a cyclical characteristic of human civilization. The most any of us can do is to be intentional about retaining this knowledge and passing down the generational stories and histories through whatever means are available: oral retelling, the written word, physical artifact, and even modern audio, visual and digital technologies. Perhaps even social networking communities can play a role. But I submit that there may be no greater way to ensure the retention of our historical memory than through the generational sharing of experiences and faith within the family unit. Such a connection is intimate and personal, and binds us to those who remember first hand WWII, Korea, JFK, Elvis, the Civil Rights movement, Vietnam, the Beatles, the golden age of television, Apollo 11, the Iranian hostage crisis, Challenger, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Desert Storm, the internet boom, 9/11, the fall of Baghdad, Katrina, and the historical election of the first African American president. But these are merely the big events - how much richer would we be to know what it was like to come of age in eras that are at once familiar and alien to our modern sensibilities - to know who our parents and grandparents truly were and are, their joys and fears, their faith and experiences. And for those of us who are parents and grandparents, would our lives not be richer to know who our children are, and who they are coming to be in future history?

Would that it were so easy.