Entry 07: VE Day: Honouring Sacrifice to build the future
As the world commemorates the 80th anniversary of VE Day, it is a moment reflect on the profound impact of this historic event. While it is right to honour the past sacrifice of all who suffered and lost their lives during the Second World War, we must also look to the future and recognise the enduring legacy they left our generation and use it to inspire our values and actions today. VE Day marks not only the end of a brutal conflict but also the beginning of an ongoing project—the greatest project ever - which is under attack and we may lose.
The day total war ended
VE Day, or Victory in Europe Day, is celebrated on 8th May each year to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender. This day signified the end of nearly six years of brutal conflict in Europe, which had cost millions of lives and caused widespread destruction. The announcement of Germany's surrender was made on 7th May 1945 at General Dwight D. Eisenhower's headquarters in Reims, France. The surrender document was signed by General Alfred Jodl on behalf of Germany. Celebrations erupted across the world, with people rejoicing in the streets, relieved that the intense strain of total war was finally over.
To save succeeding generations from the scourge of war
Post-War Growth and Boom
The end of VE Day also marks the beginning of the world as we know it today. The post-war era saw significant growth and economic boom, driven by initiatives like the GI Bill in the US and the Marshall Plan in Europe. These programmes created educational, employment, and industrial opportunities that fuelled the growth of the global economy. The reconstruction of economies led to the successful creation of capital resources and markets, enabling global trade and enriching societies. This development fostered a burgeoning middle class with aspirations, buying power, and ambition to make more discoveries.
Collective Security and Understanding
Although the world quickly descended into the Cold War, the establishment of NATO and other alliances served to avoid a global conflict on the scale that had previously plagued humanity. These alliances provided a framework for collective security and understanding, helping to maintain peace despite geopolitical tensions.
Establishment of the United Nations
The 1945 UN Charter was agreed upon with key principles aimed at maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations, achieving international cooperation, and harmonising actions to achieve these common goals. The most famous line from its preamble states: "We the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind". This declaration underscores the commitment to preventing future conflicts and promoting global harmony.
Establishment of the Rule of Law
The Nuremberg Trials marked a significant milestone in establishing crimes against humanity and genocide. For the first time, legislative means were put in place to take heads of state and despots to trial, protecting minorities and ridding the world of pogroms and religious persecution. These trials addressed the genocidal murder of millions of European Jews during the Holocaust, setting a precedent for international justice, which today appears to be abondoned at both international, national, state and local level. Without a just rule of law we can not estabish trust in commerce or give individuals the confidence to live and express their views and ideals.
Creation of Global Institutions
The post-war era saw the establishment of numerous global institutions such as the United Nations, The World Bank, the European Union, OECD and many others. While not perfect, these institutions enabled a rules-based system that brought order to the world with the collective goal of avoiding future conflicts. They promoted democracy and freedom of speech, fostering a more stable and cooperative international community.
Investment in Knowledge Sharing
The investment in increasing global understanding and stock of scientific, medical, technical, and market knowledge led to life-saving medical discoveries and technologies that allowed us to manufacture and preserve food, clothe ourselves, communicate effectively, and produce items globally. This sharing of knowledge has been instrumental in improving quality of life across nations, driving education to the poorest, lifting communities out of poverty and driving economic growth.
Where Did It All Go Wrong?
Yet eighty years on, we live in a world marked by growing defensiveness, polarisation, abandonment of the rule of law, and deconstruction of global institutions. The economies that were constructed to bring growth to billions have been hollowed out by inequality affecting lower and middle classes. We see the return of authoritarian and totalitarian governments and political movements which are gaining increasingly support from those who feel alienated, dejected and the young. While we teach our children about the success of women being given the vote gaining access to education the glass ceiling has not been broken and the rapid rise of misogyny and repressive sexism on the rights and freedoms in society is frightening.
Hollowing Out of Our Politics
Our political discourse, instead of focusing on finding solutions for the collective, has fallen into the demonisation of the ‘other’, the outsider, the poor, the groups with the wrong gender, colour, or religion or those who just don’t fit in. Our idea of democracy and system of government and parliament have been hollowed out by oligarchs buying influence and corrupting the very idea of ‘one person one vote’. Under such circumstances the centre can not hold and policy and progress is diverted by the extremes of the left and the right losing pragmatism which falls away to redundant ideologies the economics of disaster and failure.
Misinformation and Our Loss of Freedom
We have enabled the rise of surveillance capitalism and given away our privacy and individual freedom. We make little or no protest against the mass spread of misinformation channelled via social media and false prophets, which damages and destabilises the very core of our societies and values. We have stood by and done little to stop or challenge the proliferation of mistruths, which instead of bringing people together, sow discord, distrust, and alienation. Due to the failure of the utopian idea of ‘self regulation’ we have enabled extractive technologies to leach the core of our economic models and growth.
Rise of Exceptionalism
Exceptionalism based on race, creed, gender, or skin colour has resurfaced. Genocide, pogroms, and military actions continue across every part of the globe. These are the same forces which led to the conflicts of both world war one and world war two. Our exceptionalism in terms of the hubris of some sections of the capital markets and our inability to shift our concept of economics being based soley on the classical or neo-liberal school of thought have failed our long term economic growth. We have failed in addressing one of our biggest threats—carbon, climate disaster investing in innovation and renewing our economic growth with the system change required to sustain our planet.
A Personal Reflection
Like many I had a grandfather who played a part in World War II. I regularly hear how families of servicemen and women were told little about their war experiences due to how horrific they were. Despite this silence about their personal struggles, we can see a list of achievements that this generation made with their sacrifice—the world they built collectively for us. We are living in the global economy with the instituions and rule of law the VE generation created through their actions based on their experience of the horrors of war.
Honour VE day by continuing the legacy
The collective decision now is whether we redouble our efforts to build this world, renew our instituions, economies and societies, with all its flaws, but one which may save our generation and succeeding generations from the scourge of war. As we mark VE Day, while we honour and remember the sacrificed of past lives we must use the occassion to focus on the future. We do this by continuing their legacy—working towards peace, equality, justice, and sustainability for all.
Strive to uphold the values born from sacrifice
We must strive to implement the goal of the VE veterans by ensure we actively deliver its lasting impact on our world today. Four generations on from the end of the war the day must serves as a reminder as to what that generation and our great grandparents created for us. In return we must also strive to uphold the values and achievements born from those sacrifices and pull our collective world back from the brink.
We’ll get there in the end. J.M
