Have we forgotten?

Gwern Gwynfil

Subjectively, 80 years is a long time. My Mamgu was born at a time when cars and electricity were still novel (she remembered seeing her first car when she was a little girl, it was a big deal). There was no television, only radio.

She was a young woman at the time of WWII. When she died the world was on the cusp of endemic streaming channels, a social media boom, an internet age, and the era of the smartphone.

Is it any wonder that amongst such rapid change we fickle humans can so easily forget the horrors of war, the causes, and the nature of the toxic ideologies that drove the World War of 1939-45?

History’s Parallels

Today, when commentators draw parallels between the rhetoric, tactics and ideology of the populist right in Western democracies, and the language and tactics used in 1930s Germany, they are often vilified. ‘This is no more than hyperbole’; ‘there is no comparison between the appalling outcomes seen in Europe in the 30s and 40s and the words and actions of far right politicians today’; ‘it could never happen in a modern democracy’.

This conveniently forgets that similar complacency underpinned the policy of appeasement in the 1930s. A further irony that the patriotic hero himself, Winston Churchill, so beloved of the UK right wing populists, was one of the loudest voices consistently raised in condemnation of pandering to the ambitions of an expansionist Germany, whose leadership from 1933 was so clearly driven by a foul potion of ideologies built on eugenic purity, imperialism, and cultural supremacy.

Modern Appeasement

Despite the reality that appeasement never works, serving only to encourage those appeased to see how much further they can push the boundaries, to explore how many of their aims they can achieve through posturing and threats, it seems to be encroaching once again on our politics and geopolitics.

Geopolitically the obvious example is the failure to push back hard against Putin, a failure which told him that his imperialist fantasies could be pursued – here we are, three years into the Ukraine Russia war, started by Putin to serve his ends of establishing a ‘Greater Russia’, over which he can rule as a modern day Tsar.

He continues to play the same cards and it is ironic that it is the Putin admirer and accommodator, Donald Trump, who has pushed Europe into fronting up on behalf of Ukraine, and whose loss of patience with Putin may well see the dawn of the firmer, wider pushback so long overdue. We should note in passing here that the UK far right populist, Farage, remains a Putin cheerleader and has publicly stated that Vladimir is the leader ‘he most admires’ (there were cheerleaders in the UK for the German leaders in the 1930s too).

Domestically, it is the relentless appeasement of that same Farage, in his various incarnations (UKIP, Brexit Party and now ReformUK), by the Tories for decades and, latterly and currently, by the Starmer Labour government in Westminster, that characterises discourse and policy today.

This approach has allowed a small-time fringe politician to be one of the most dominant and influential political figures in the UK over the past decade. By appeasing Farage for so long the mainstream political parties have helped engineer a situation where, with the inherent flaws of a first past the post system in a multi party scenario, this paper tiger could conceivably achieve real power.

Putting a man and a party, who hold ideological positions that would be extremely alien to the vast majority of the UK, in charge of the entire state on the back of the support of fewer than 1 in 5 of the voting age population.

Jingoism and Xenophobia

Much of Farage’s influence has been built on the ‘othering’ of minorities. Old fashioned xenophobia and jingoism, blaming those who are different for all the troubles of today. Proffering no solutions just empty promises that ‘we will fix this’ coupled with relentless attacks on the institutions and realities of the UK today.

There is some irony in the fact that Brexit has exacerbated many of the economic woes of the UK and that this was, in large part, delivered by the Faragists. This is, of course, because they ‘didn’t do Brexit properly’.

As with every message, so easy to say from the sidelines when the realities don’t have to be dealt with. Even the few policies flown by RUK are all about scrapping things, deporting people, and aping that scion of stability and good, sensible, competent government and governance, Donald Trump.

This emptiness, built on ignorance and fear, is a parody of liberal values, beneath which lies a clear and palpable threat to many of our fellow humans, perhaps even to us. It is always worth bearing in mind Martin Niemoller’s famous quote and understanding that, initially, he was a supporter of the regime in Germany:

‘First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me’

Meanings and the Lessons of History

The marking of VE day and 80 years since the end of the war in Europe was noticeable but subdued last week. The focus was on the sacrifice of all those who fought and those who died in that conflict. Sadly there was less focus on the reasons behind the conflict, on the need to defeat and subdue an ideology that sought to sunder any idea of equality across humanity, that sought to create an explicitly defined supremacy with the absolute right to wipe out other humans and eradicate them from the face of the earth.

An ideology that created the concept of genocide and gave it to the world in the most horrific fashion imaginable.

When those who vilify asylum seekers, immigrants, and other races, roll out that xenophobic trope that ‘this isn’t what my parents/grandparents fought and died for in the War’, the overwhelming irony of their words is clearly lost upon them.

The reality of WWII is that this is exactly what our parents and grandparents were fighting for, the war against fascism was entirely about the preservation of real liberalism with all its freedoms – freedom of speech; limited government, ‘of the people, by the people’; individual and human rights; free and open markets; the rule of law.

Pandora’s box

When Pandora famously opened her husband’s forbidden box, releasing all the evils of the world, she managed to trap the tiny ember of hope inside. Symbolically that hope in Wales is represented today by the results of the most recent Barn Cymru ITV YouGov poll released last week.

In this, as the graphic shows, voters between the age of 16-25 have no time whatsoever for the hatred, negativity and destructive disruption of ReformUK. Were this cohort responsible for the next government of Wales there would not be a single voice in the next Senedd for those who build their worldview around hatred of others, blame, and the twisted interpretations of neoliberalism to which they subscribe.

With every child taught about WWII in every school, perhaps the freshness of this knowledge and understanding helps this generation to remember what the older one has forgotten?

There can be wisdom in youth. Those of the older generations who would cast their votes for the ideologically dark, for the purveyors of simplistic answers that are no more than empty words and promises, for the haters and blamers, should pay attention to their descendants’ aspirations and worldview.

After all, ‘the youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow’.