Discussion on the breakdown of the World War 2 consensus

Human civilization seems to move in large narrative cycles, grand mythological movements that give us certainty and help us make sense of the world we live in.

The world emerged from the second world war in smoking ruin and people grieving. Entire cities were leveled, generations of men dead and gone, and we gradually woke up to the countless horrors that were committed.

We needed a story to make sense of it all.

"We (the good guys) [The Allies] won! We defeated evil [Hitler and the Nazis]."

But before long the alliances that were forged out of necessity between the East and West began to be undermined by suspicion and distrust. The Communists who had once been the West's allies and without whom the war could not have been won, gradually became the enemy, and the "bad guy". It became a story about "liberal democracy prevailing of totalitarianism", while in reality the Soviets had their own story about being the true victors of world war 2.

As we started to find out more about the atrocities committed by the Nazis in the concentration camps we became more assured of our own righteousness, and Hitler became the new Devil of our secular world. The Jews had been immolated on the altar of racial purity, and they became the archetypal victim in our story, and the Holocaust became something you are not allowed to even question.

But all stories run their course, and it seems that the consensus around our shared world war 2 narrative is coming to an end.

With mass migration and demographic change, particularly from people who were colonized by the West, the idea of us Western people being the "good guys" is eroding quickly. The idea of Hitler being the devil, or the highest conceivable evil is losing its grip on our collective psyche, as everything seems to be labeled "Hitler, Nazi, Fascist" these days.

With the help of Western powers, Israel was founded a few years after the war ended, as a sanctuary for the Jewish people, a nation of their own. Perhaps guilt over the Holocaust played a part in this, and for a long time it seems Israel has enjoyed a sort of protected status where it couldn't be criticized. But just over the last couple of years this has started to shift in a quite dramatic way. No longer is the prevailing narrative that the Jews are the victims, rather the oppressors.

For decades, the post ww2 narrative has held us together and given us a long period of peace and stability. But as it fragments and falls apart, something else will inevitably take its place.

What will that be? Where is all of this heading? And how can we make sure that the new world we're entering into is a good one?

Are there things that have been taboo that we need to start talking about again?

How should we orient ourselves and stay centered when things around us are changing?

Join us this Saturday as we delve into this topic with all its complexities and minefields!