Monday, November 01, 2010

All Hallows: First Day of the Dead, Reprised


To the departed and the fallen: Gone but not forgotten.

Last year at this time, I saw Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's The Lives of Others / Das Leben der Anderen (2006), about life in the DDR (East Germany) in the mid-1980s, and ending in the 1990s, after reunification. I liked it.

In the 1980s, participating in an undergraduate history trip led by Jim Leutze (who is currently running for state office in North Carolina, as a Democrat), I ventured behind the Iron Curtain (around the time the movie begins) and checked out East Berlin and Dresden in person. Nothing quite like seeing things for yourself!  This allows you to cut through a great deal of media smoke and propaganda bullshit generated by all sides at all times.

Strange to think how much has happened regarding that area since then: Gorbachev, Chernobyl, Glasnost, Perestroika, the Soviet pullout of Afghanistan, fall of the Wall, Der Deutsche Einheit, and now German units participating in Afghanistan, fighting some of the same people the Soviets did. Who would've dreamt how things have turned out? Sometimes we forget how much things can change -- for good and for bad. We mustn't. Cultural amnesia is not healthy, but when I look around today, it explains a lot.

Today's Rune: Defense.

2 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

Yes, and we think we've undergone change over here.

Anonymous said...

Leutze's running for office? Cool - go dems! I suppose he's retired from Carolina by now.

JC