Democracy or Amnesia

“I don't have an active memory of that” has become a meme since 2021. A rhetorical trick to add the word 'active', which is factually meaningless since a memory is neither active nor passive. The only time we can say we do not have a memory of something is if a historical event did not occur, was not personally experienced, or was not learned.

This puts our history lessons, as well as documentaries/reports/news broadcasts you have recently experienced, in a strange perspective: after all, you read or hear something about the (recent) past, but does that also become a memory that resurfaces due to a later event? And by event, I do not mean the written quiz of lessons 1-15 of modern history. But for example, how a smell can bring a situation from the past to your memory. That association with the smell is a personal experience from that past, which apparently has made a “(vivid/strong) impression.”

There is apparently a difference in how we process information that we take in for an exam and information that is dredged up from the brain due to a certain earlier life experience. Whether pleasant or traumatic is irrelevant for the memory; it is an association between perception and something that lies in a closed “drawer” in your memory. At the moment the perception occurs, the “drawer” opens, you recognize it, and that specific event or moment resurfaces.

In response to a column by Danka Stuijver in the VK-30-09-2025, she adds a sensitive remark about the intense events of our time. From her practice as a general practitioner, she encounters children who do not receive answers to their uncertainties about the events in the world, the how and why of it, and what this might mean for them in the future. Are they safe? The parents (us) are unable to explain the wars, even less able to take action on it, and therefore look away and revert to “the order of the day.” We point to and blame others who should solve it, ultimately blaming “the politics” as a scapegoat for not securing our comfort and safety.

It is our attitude that seems to result in not remembering the suffering in our own past in the form of war, oppression, and genocide. If we open history books, we would see a tsunami of suffering caused by humans time and again. And yet, here we stand, as if this is a unique event from which we still need to learn. Why don’t we remember this? Is it not intense enough? Does suppressing and looking away have a greater (survival) priority, resulting in us being “consciously” without an active memory of it?

Or is it the speechlessness that paralyzes us into passive followers, later victims, as we allow ourselves to be out and outplayed by those few individuals who hold power and especially capital? They threaten to walk away or relocate if “the climate” does not suit them or use their money to influence and buy off policymakers. Close to home, a group has risen (VON) to give a gentle voice to the silent majority. An attempt to silence other voices than the bluffer and shouters and to give weight to democratic dialogue and development. It seems unfortunate that the ambitions of that group find no resonance in politics, which is where it should matter. We are now in the run-up to the next elections, and the intense rhetoric from the participating parties has only increased, and there is a sad movement underway to increasingly evade, ignore, and at minimum affront the executive legislative power. On both national and international levels. It seems inspired by that orange caricature from America, for whom (the/their) deal is the only standard.

And it is also very sad to observe that the grandiose promise after the fall of the current cabinet, to enter the elections focusing on content! Never before has our own high-blonde elder received such an enormous free platform for his ideology. He leans back comfortably and considers himself sufficiently elevated to judge others, without dialogue, without accountability. Has the memory of that inflated promise already been forgotten so quickly, while the same unwanted events are demonstrably and audibly recurring? Amnesia? 

The future is uncertain. The crystal ball reveals nothing. “History repeats itself” is (rightfully) disputed, but there is more consensus from parallels with the past that say something about where we are now. However, events and actions from history are also used at will to serve as a lever in the present. Under the pretext that if something was good back then, we should embrace that strategy now.

Autocracy is such a lever from the past. One person who holds all the power, undermines democracy, surrounds themselves with loyalists (yes-sayers) and enforces their own legislation. But even that autocrat first had to establish a platform of followers, so to speak, people from the society you and I are part of. People who are sensitive to the power (and capital) of rhetoric that scapegoats, sees others and dissenters as enemies. People who would rather not remember what is happening but look away and ignore as a survival strategy. Do not blame those people too much; fear is a powerful phenomenon and easily exploited.

It is about (early) recognizing the autocrat or the movement towards it. And then it is crucial to demonstrate what democracy stands for, what values it embodies. How it contributes to a society in which everyone knows their own safe place and shares responsibility for their environment. That is not easy, but not impossible. It requires clear frameworks and boundaries, under both good and bad circumstances. In times of plenty and scarcity, it prevents complacency or an unrestrained desire to be ‘Father Christmas.’ Above all, it requires the courage from leadership to stand beside every individual and remain in dialogue, forming decision-making within broad consultation frameworks. Above all, it takes the courage and vision of leadership to rise above party interests, even their own party.

Democracy exists by the decision of the majority, only when accountability has been given to the needs of the minority.

The weakness of democracy is democracy, it is said. This is nonsense; it is the failure to take responsibility for democracy that has blurred or removed frameworks and boundaries. This opens the door to autocracy or dictatorship. That responsibility does not lie solely with leadership (or politics) but mainly with you and me. All parties in politics must have the courage to establish the frameworks of democracy above party interests and to support governance in safeguarding the boundaries of its implementation.

It requires that we have the ‘guts’ to remember the lessons and images from the past and to feel what it means to live under a non-democratic regime, even if it feels uncomfortable now.

The first step lies with you and me. The choice is not party ideology, but democracy or…

Courage and memory at the end of October in the voting booth.