Diva A grim anniversary: 75 years since Hiroshima. Has the world learned the lessons from that attack? Well, it was the first and so far only time an atomic weapon was used; is this enough though?

🗨️ Fui I always struggle with that idea of collective learning. Why? Because there is no collective brain to hold the collective memory. History is not a collective memory we share, just an abstraction held by individuals and their individual brains. There is no we to remember, no we that forgets. That's why stupid mistakes happen again and again.

Diva Well, I think that some countries/governments have learned lessons. I am thinking in particular of Germany and Japan, both of them have recognised the futility of war. I totally understand the history behind this though. Germany ensures that its full history and role in WW2 is taught in schools, hopefully so that those horrors are never forgotten, never repeated.

🗨️ Fui Yes, that's how it's done. The memory can only be passed on by education. Your examples show that, Germany being the best example at that. However, and this is something not even education can help, the memory passed forth is just descriptive, an affection free report of what and when something happened. So, in a way there's a remembrance, but on the other, that memory means nothing, as it is not a lived and felt experience.