2 Matching Annotations
- Mar 2022
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And as a historian, I feel ashamed that this is what my profession in some way is doing. I know it for my own country. In Israel, we also suffer from too much history. I think people should be liberated from the past, not constantly repeating it again and again. You know, everybody should kind of free themselves 00:28:56 from the memories of the Second World War. It's true of the Russians, it's also true of the Germans. You know, I look at Germany now, and what I really want to say, if there are Germans watching us, what I really want to say to the Germans: guys, we know you are not Nazis. You don't need to keep proving it again and again. What we need from Germany now is to stand up and be a leader, 00:29:22 to be at the forefront of the struggle for freedom. And sometimes Germans are afraid that if they speak forcefully or pick up a gun, everybody will say, "Hey, you're Nazis again." No, we won't think that.
HIstory repeats when we remember the pain of the past and seek retribution in the present.
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That part of the Russian fears that are motivating Putin and motivating people around him is memories of past invasions of Russia, especially, of course, in Second World War. And of course, it's a terrible mistake 00:27:11 what they are doing with it. They are recreating again the same things that they should learn to avoid. But yes, these are still the terrible fruits of the seeds being planted in the 1940s.
It's up to us to break the cycle of intergenerational pain. This is the key insight of cultural evolution towards a peaceful species. Today we reap what we sowed decades ago. In the same way, decades from now, our ancestors will reap what we sowed today.
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