Statecraft Informer

Sparxafire!

I watched Ken Burns’ “The War” on PBS and it is taking me some time to process it. Of course, it is a stunning production, full of footage I’ve never seen before. And again, Burns has found wonderful survivors to interview, and fascinating threads to follow through the entire series. Of course, this is what happens when an artist is handed 100 percent support, and eliminates all fog of “how to make ends meet.” That’s what enables an artist to soar… and Burns soared for six years on this project. And I can see all six years in it.

My first thought: From the narrative of the survivors, one gets a glimpse into perhaps the main reason why soldiers are reluctant to discuss the war after they get home. The context is unbearable… it’s just not possible to sit in a warm, comfortable kitchen and describe the horrors, and, in the middle of it, be asked if you’d like a coffee refill or whatever. It’s too jangling, and the sympathetic listener is just flat inadequate. No matter how the listener responds, it functions as a reminder never to talk about it again, there is just no possible human response by someone who was not there, who did not see.

My second thought: How could I have been so selfish and self-absorbed as to not ask my father about his experiences in WWII? He was a veteran, and he died in 1979. Now he’s gone, and I have only the skimpiest understanding of what he did as a technical communications sergeant stationed in England… at least I think that’s what I recall.

While this is depressing, I guess the thread here is that all these failings seem to be hard-wired into the human animal — the selfishness, inadequacy of empathy and of course, the inability to avoid war in the first place.