Too many days are forgotten that should be remembered. The Berlin Wall fell Nov. 9, 1989, heralding the end of global Communism and the birth of the modern world. How many students this Tuesday - on the anniversary of the Fall of Communism - recalled the greatest modern victory of the Western culture of liberty?
The Burke Society commemorated the demolition of the Wall and celebrated it under the moniker "Freedom Week." The Society arranged for the destruction of a mock Berlin Wall and distributed information about the crimes of communist regimes. Burke Society President Keenan Davis said, "Our goal in all of this is to remind students that freedom isn't free. It has come at a price and is preserved only with relentless diligence and care. We must not forget that, lest we find it slipping away from our own generation."
Such an attempt to remind students of the cost and historical fragility of freedom is valuable beyond imagination. While we at the University are still learning the contours of human knowledge, we have begun losing appreciation for the culture and history that permitted, and even defined, that knowledge. As Isaac Newton put it, we are "standing on the shoulders of giants" in our study of science. Yet, few know that the study of genetics was forbidden by the Soviet Union as a "fascist science" for decades. Look at how much human potential was extinguished in the Gulags: 14 million individuals passed through the system from 1929 to 1953 - including more than 884,000 children. These innocent people suffered starvation and freezing, and often death, merely because they were deemed objectionable to the collectivist project. During the course of this oppression, countless scientific documents were destroyed and invaluable knowledge was repressed by the Soviets. If we are to safeguard knowledge, we must never forget that such understanding relies on human dimensions of free thought and action.
Despite America's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the horror of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, few students feel like the country is at war. A state of fear and readiness dominated the Cold War era; victory bought this generation some respite, but it would be a cruel irony for liberty's present enemies to advance under the cover of that comfort and sense of security. The lesson of the Cold War, with setback after setback for liberty, in nation after nation, is that what freedom we have is precarious and fragile. Sometimes the world gets worse and it does not get better: Tibet remains enslaved and Taiwan continues to be threatened by China. Former Soviet states, meanwhile, remain terrorized by Russia.
The understanding and appreciation of liberty is difficult for those who have never faced its absence. It is telling that Ronald Reagan, the man who defined his presidency by his opposition to the Soviet empire, is even more lionized abroad by the Polish than he is in his home country. His portrait hangs in Polish windows with that of Pope John Paul II. The suffering of those who lived under Communism has not allowed them to forget. If we are to remember, it will require a deliberate effort. This does not mean that we merely attempt to understand the scope and depth of atrocities perpetrated by the Soviets, Chinese and other communists; we must also learn what and who it took to fight Communism.
Communism was more than a network of vicious totalitarians: it was a philosophical and political movement dedicated to the destruction of freedom. In its day, it could rely on the support or sympathy of many in the West - especially in academic circles. Its greatest adversaries - Reagan, Thatcher, Pope John Paul II, Lech Walesa and many others - fought it as an idea, as a view of the world that could only be defeated by another, greater, older view. These heroes knew that Western Civilization was their weapon and their ward.
Freedom Week this year was an excellent step in the University's increasingly difficult task of remembrance, but more is required of us. America's victory in the Cold War - a triumph that bought the liberty of much of the Earth - deserves the celebration of far more students and many more groups. University students should rededicate themselves to the preservation of Western thought and culture, knowing what dark shadows reign in the absence of that heritage.
Roraig Finney's column normally runs Fridays. He can be reached at r.finney@cavalierdaily.com.
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