To know something, you need to know it now.
Socrates
Socratic paradox and "memory space"
Socrates is always paradoxical. That is why he is a great philosopher. However, behind the paradoxes of the virtue side of his philosophy, there is greatness and originality of thought that creates a living text and "awakens" "inner lives". There is a meaning behind Socrates' (and Plato's) paradox above: Memory! Rather, a person remembers, remembers, and creates at every moment! In this sense, to remember means to constantly create memories, to establish a connection between the past and the present, between the present and the future. In the ontological and metaphorical sense of the word!
Pierre Nora, one of the legends of modern French historiography, introduced such a concept when examining historical memory (as well as cultural memory, collective memory): "place of memory". This concept means that any society (people, nation) collectively remembers cultural monuments, religious monuments, written monuments and the activities of great personalities. Every nation has its own "memory place"! Those "memory places" are inviolable, sacred! Their sanctity is due to the role they play in the life of the whole community. That is, it is not mystical or fantastic, it is not a product of someone's imagination.
December 12 is a sacred place of memory of the Azerbaijani people! That is, the people of Azerbaijan already know what they need to know today! This knowledge is kept alive in the hot layer of life, not just in memory! It is actualized and visualized every day, so that this corner of memory is forever! Because the Day of Remembrance is related to the National leader who connected the past and the present with the future of the Azerbaijani people and kept it alive! Heydar Aliyev is a genius who taught the nation how to be successful in the most painful, chaotic and hopeless period for the society, accustomed it to victories and on this basis cleared something from the memory of the society!
How can a person who is able to make people forget something stay forever in memory? This is another philosophical paradox. But it has such a deep and constructive meaning! If we understand memory as the completeness of the soul in the sense of constant inner self-gathering, the highlighted paradox becomes clear. The point is that, in order to maintain the integrity of the soul, each nation enters a state of amnesia, chaos, confusion, a confused cycle that does not allow the connection between the past and the present. At this time, a psychological apathy, hopelessness, forgetfulness about where it came from is created on a societal scale. He does this against the background of the influences, pressures, distracting and destructive processes on him at the time he lives.
The ability to forget despair and failure
Therefore, it faces the threat of extinction in reality. Figuratively speaking, an entire nation is collectively at risk of falling into the situation of Jorge Luis Borges' famous kidnapper Funes. Funes writes down everything from the trauma he received, whether it was necessary or not, to the moment - regardless of himself! In this sense, the "lifelong memory" syndrome arises! Well, a necessary forgetfulness can be a way out of such a destructive memory tendency. Unlike an individual, it takes a great will, leadership power, leading, persuasive quality and a genius who can be a personal example to remove the failure, despair and spiritual-psychological gap between the past and the present from the nation's memory!
In the 90s of the last century, national leader Heydar Aliyev fulfilled this mission! Remembering such a savior, and always remembering it, is a moral, historical and psychological duty of the nation, as well as a social-political-moral responsibility!
December 12 means to refresh the memory in this world, to look again at the lives in its lower layer in the light of the paradoxical, logic, hopes and perspectives of what is happening now! If we do not give this internal report to ourselves, then as a society we cannot see the past, present and future! It is impossible for us to see the future without the memory of Heydar Aliyev!
December 12 – Remembrance Day in this sense is also a turning point of our consciousness in the layer of memory related to modern statehood and the Victory War! The people of Azerbaijan should remember their national leader, who saved them from the harmful symptoms that were tried to be injected into their memory 30 years ago, and their great leader who taught them how to succeed, so that they can correctly determine where they came from and where they are going! Memorial Day is a "compass" for statehood, independence, and rising to the top! It is definitely not to be missed!
Memory, memory, "first compassion" or "the Dao of memory"
There are many fine points in Anmak's philosophy. M. Proust said that everyone should see in his "first compassion"! But the problem is that "primordial compassion" is both "captured" and "uncaptured" (like the Dao, it is both present and absent, both captured and not captured. That is, it shines for a moment, radiates its light, and then disappears among other things "disappears". Only human intelligence, memory and spirituality can "find and revive" it again! This is the truth that is written in the destiny of all bright, intelligent and compassionate people.
Heydar Aliyev is the "first compassion" of an entire people, the nation, the Turkic world, which shines in the 20th century and transmits its light to the future, capable of breaking through the tumults of the 21st century on the way to statehood! Remembrance Day is a timed, symbolized moment of this compassion, but it always shines! In this sense, commemorating Heydar Aliyev on Memorial Day means reviving him in his own time, keeping him alive, and thereby resurrecting himself in the "common field" of consciousness and spirituality! It means re-creating and discovering "yourself" in your memory!
Where the culture is strong, the saying "everything is too late" does not pass. Because the world does not perpetuate itself - it needs a person who creates it in his world every moment! That person also needs a leading beacon, a leader who lights his way! When this happens, the saying "everything is too late" turns into optimism "everything is now, everything is to come"!
"Historicize the past so you can make history yourself"
Friedrich Nietzsche was interested in all philosophical topics. There is also much to be learned from him in the matter of memory and history. F. Nietzsche said that you need to use the past in such a way that you can create history! It must have the ability to turn the past into history for life! In that sense, "man must create man"!
We don't care if F. Nietzsche is crazy or not, but these ideas have very deep subtleties about memory and history. Their explanation is several books. In the matter of remembering, the thinking of this great German philosopher is clear! Let's make it simple: if every individual and therefore every society is not able to remember its past in the status of history, it has neither the present nor the future! In this context, it is necessary to give the intellectual right that H. White also liked an idea of F. Nietzsche. White's favorite Nietzsche quote: “Man...both forgets and remembers, and this dichotomy is purely human, unique; human forgetfulness differs from animal "forgetfulness" because it (human forgetfulness - F.Q.) requires erasing the trace of memory, solving the problem of wasting useless time spent by a person to stay in his own past [forever, forever]"! Well, the beacon, the guiding factor of such positive memory erasures is "memory locations"!
Sources of pride of our memory
In addition, Memorial Days determine the content and boundaries of what to delete from memory and what to keep! In this sense, the 27th of September Remembrance Day was enriched by the 12th December Remembrance Day, giving it strength, power, meaning, perspective and future! These two Remembrance days combined the Summit of genius leadership and the Summit of martyrdom! This holy unity embodies the philosophy of independent strong statehood, national dignity and bright future of Azerbaijan in the first compassion of the Great Leader's intelligence!
We are alive. We live. We are hopeful. Because we are moving forward into the future following the first dawn of our Memorial days like December 12 and September 27! December 12 is the Day of Remembrance of the National leader of the people! December 12 is Heydar Aliyev Memorial Day of "Xalq newspaper"! May our nation always remember!
Fuzuli GURBANOV,
XQ's analyst,
Doctor of Philosophy
