DAMNATIO MEMORIAE, the disease of our generation
“You can find inspiration in everything. And if you can’t, look again”, writes Paul Smith. Well, ain’t that the truth?
So, here’s the thing; I had finally convinced myself to find some time to tick this new TV show off my long list of “Shows I’ll Never Finish Anyway” when, well, the title of one of the episodes drew my attention. The episode was called “Damnatio Memoriae”.
Needless to say, my capacity to associate unusual ideas roamed along troubled paths, and my very long list has been once again forgotten. Cue this post.
Damnatio Memoriae, which is the Latin phrase for “Condemnation of Memory”, is the posthumous erasure of every trace of someone’s existence. In Ancient Rome, the practice of Damnatio Memoriae was the highest form of dishonour that the Roman Senate could ever inflict upon traitors of the State. To be forgotten was considered a fate far worse than death. The intent was therefore to literally cancel someone from history, and that’s what we now call “historical silencing”.
During my research of modern examples of Damnatio Memoriae I found an interesting excerpt written by Bill Bigelow in his “Rethinking Columbus: Towards a True People’s History”.
For years, I opened my 11th-grade U.S. history classes by asking students, “What’s the name of that guy they say discovered America?” A few students might object to the word “discover,” but they all knew the fellow I was talking about. “Christopher Columbus!” several called out in unison.
“Right. So who did he find when he came here?” I asked. Usually, a few students would say, “Indians,” but I asked them to be specific: “Which nationality? What are their names?”
In more than 30 years of teaching U.S. history and guest-teaching in others’ classes, I’ve never had a single student say, “Taínos.” So I ask them to think about that fact. “How do we explain that? We all know the name of the man who came here from Europe, but none of us knows the name of the people who were here first—and there were hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of them. Why haven’t you heard of them?”
It never occurred to me that history is nothing but the story of what is not silenced. History experiences a merciless process of Damnatio Memoriae, whether it is because of a silencing in the making of sources, an error of judgement in the selection of records or just, well, human ignorance. And it’s with this very thought in mind that we should consume our history books.
Now take this gratuitous history lesson, put it in a more philosophical context and you’ll understand why I described my train of thought as troubled.
Is Time itself an unconscious process of Damnatio Memoriae? For a person such as myself, who spends a great amount of her time trying to “make the Difference”, the thought that one day it all might as well be forgotten is very disconcerting. It makes you question if you are trying hard enough or being good enough. And by the end of the day, does it even matter? (Spoiler: yes. Yes.)
I believe Alexander the Great and I might be suffering from the same disease. Not that I’ll ever go as far as he did, I dream of big things, yes, yet sometimes I can’t even find my way to the bathroom, let alone Asia.
Anyway, my point is, he spent his whole life trying to change the world as it used to be, to break the mould, although always accompanied by this inexplicable fear of being forgotten.
Long story short, before I start rambling again: history must not be forgotten, but also, history must always be questioned.
Educate yourself, history happens twice only because people don’t learn from their mistakes.
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