From Remembrance to Militarisation

Abstract

According to the American sociologist Barry Schwarz, commemoration is ‘a register of sacred history’ and an embodiment of ‘our deepest and most fundamental values’ (1982, p. 377). The paradox of contemporary commemoration lies in the obsessive desire of both societies, Britain and Russia, to ‘forget’ and ignore the ambivalent causes of modern conflicts. Both societies search for a solution for the two interconnected dilemmas ‘of how to honour the participant without reference to the cause’ and ‘of how to ignore the cause without denying the participant’ (Wagner-Pacifici and Schwarz, 1991, p. 404). Surprisingly, both societies shy away from conceptualising modern warfare and opt for separating war’s confusing causes from its participants. This symbolic separation allows for the powerful illusion of remembrance without politics.