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75th VE Day — A Time To Reflect.
What is the legacy of WWII on me as an European?
Today, 75 years ago, was the victorious day for all of the allied countries in Europe, in WWII, yet I found myself in a rather sombre mood, and it wasn’t related to the two day fast that I broke today, that was ecstatic. No, it was the kind of melancholy that falls on me like a thin blanket, initially warm and welcome, but then uneasy to shake off.
What is our legacy from this war? Where Europe was torn apart and we butchered each other mercilessly. Should we still be celebrating victory of the ‘Axis of Evil’? In my opinion we should not, perhaps we’re celebrating victory over fascism whilst it’s tendrils creep upon us in systems of governance that we remain unable to regulate. The corporation, government, media triangle has become more like a straight line, reflected in the graphs of fiat currencies; astronomically shooting to the sky without reason or rhyme, or explanation.
That is a legacy from this war. Or perhaps it is a legacy from ‘The Great War’ before it. I remain confused as to why we call it great, when horror seems to fit more aptly. Was it the loss of faith in humanity, in religion that was experienced in that time? Was it a sense of partisanship that arose out of the individualism that was born in the shaming of those communions?
