Monday May 27, 2024 is Memorial Day, when we remember the soldiers that gave their lives in America’s wars. But it is well to remember that, despite the skepticism of Wikipedia, Memorial Day began as Decoration Day, organized by the women of the South to decorate the graves of the soldiers killed in the failed war of secession.

Yes. Whatabout the men and women who gave their lives for nothing? I read recently that the Bolsheviks started killing people, just because, in 1918. Then, to implement the collectivization of agriculture, they sent the kulaks into the interior of Russia where they died -- from execution, from concentration camps, or just starving without the means to grow their own food. Then there was the Holodomor in 1932-33, the specific deaths in Ukraine of millions from famine caused by the collectivization of agriculture in the Soviet Union. We should remember all those who died in the Soviet Union, for nothing.

Then there were the million or so killed in the Soviet Great Purge of 1936-38. People were starting to criticize the failures of Stalin’s five-year plans and forced collectivization. So millions were arrested and dispatched by the NKVD. We should remember those who died, for nothing.

We remember the six million Jews gassed, shot, and starved to death in the Holocaust. But then there were the 20 million Russians who died in World War II, and seven million Germans, and six million Poles. And on and on. Guess how many died in China in World War II? Wikipedia says 7-8 million military deaths and 20-25 million deaths overall. We honor the 407,000 United States service members that gave their lives for victory in 1941-45, and we should. We should also remember the tens of millions in World War II who gave their lives, for nothing.

Very well. But who can forget the intellectual devotion of social science Professor Mao, and his double-blind experiment remembered as the Great Leap Forward of 1958-62, in which an estimated 15-55 million Chinese people died to prove that socialism does not work? Given that experts still agree that top-down social experiments -- from COVID to Climate Change -- are a Good Thing, we are forced to realize that the 15-55 million died for nothing.

It is, I suppose, obvious that political leaders would celebrate glorious victories and constantly remind us all that our sons died that we might live. What else could they do? Admit it was all a mistake? Experts agree that it is natural and physical for political leaders -- and for philosophers -- to assure their followers that all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.

It turns out that it was Leibniz that came up with the best-of-all-possible-worlds Narrative in order to solve the problem of evil.

But I have a different take. It arises from my “lived experience.” My dad was born in Russia and left as a teenager in 1918 as recommended by the British consulate in St. Petersburg. My mother was born in Kobe, Japan, and left in 1940 on the recommendation of her sister in India. I was born in India and my parents left shortly after independence in 1947 when the Indians decided to kill each other rather than the settler-colonialist Brits.

I don’t believe in the best-of-all-possible-worlds. I don’t believe in philosophical solutions to the problem of evil. I believe in blind luck and the roll of the dice, and I thank God every day that my parents moved when they moved and just happened to end up in the right place at the right time.

On this Memorial Day and other national remembrances, I remember the fallen and the veterans that survived. And I also remember those who lived and died for nothing. I honor them all.

But I also remember the stupidity rather than the glory of the leaders that caused it all.

Suppose North and South had cooled their jets for twenty years. You think we would have had to go to war over slavery in the 1880s?

Suppose that Germany and Austria-Hungary and Italy hadn’t formed a Triple Alliance in 1882. Suppose the Brits hadn’t signed an Entente Cordiale with France in 1904. Suppose the Brits and the French and the Russians hadn’t formed a Triple Entente in 1907. You think that maybe Europe would have escaped the bloodbath of the Great War in 1914?

And if genius President Wilson hadn’t joined the fight against the Germans in 1917, you think that maybe World War I might have ended in a draw? And if genius Princeton University president Wilson -- what is it about university presidents? -- had pushed back against a punitive Treaty of Versailles we might have been spared Literally Hitler?

And so on.

I know. How about a new annual holiday? We should call it Führungdummheittag. But don’t let’s be beastly to the Germans.

Christopher Chantrill @chrischantrill runs the go-to site on US government finances, usgovernmentspending.com. Also get his American Manifesto and his Road to the Middle Class.

Image: Pixabay