Remembrance - would it be better if we learned to forget?

Everyday Ethics

Is it easier to remember than to forget? What would happen if we did forget our past? Would we be consumed by guilt? Would we be free to heal? Would it be liberating? By 'our past' we don't just mean our most recent past. We mean remembering world wars, remembering revolutions, remembering civil wars. We commemorate a lot in this part of the world, we've just emerged from a decade of remembering. We say it's about respect for those who are gone and what they left behind for future generations. But is it really? Do we ever face up to the hard questions that lie behind those events? Are we willing to examine the valour and nobility of the so-called other side? Does commemoration keep us tied, in an unhealthy way to the past? Would it be healthier to learn to forget in a respectful way? Presenter Audrey Carville in conversation with Wallace Thompson of the Evangelical Protestant Society, Professor Deirdre Heenan from Ulster University and by theologian Professor Laurence Kirkpatrick