I thought of a new concept that might help people understand their past and origins. Taking two terms at random, I choose to define them as such for the purposes of this post:
History: The study of the first recognizable origins of a currently existing group/system/entity to the present day version of said group.
Anthropology: The study of a group that existed in the past that has no shared characteristics or true relation to one's present-day existence, or a group that exists in the present but is totally divorced from one's own group and is therefore only of exotic interest.
For instance, Tacitus was properly studying Roman history, because he was a Roman discussing Rome's past, that through a great deal of similarities, proved that the chain of continuity still held between his subject matter and himself.
On the other hand, Gibbon was an anthropologist. He was discussing Roman history from an outsider's viewpoint, having no relation to Roman customs, thought, art, political circumstances, lifestyle, etc. His view of roman history would be the same as an alien's trying to chronicle Rome's history for the sake of some galactic encyclopedia.
There is no time limit to the gap between history and anthropology. If a civilization is stable enough, its history could extend back thousands of years. So long as there is a recognizable origin to 'our style of living' and 'our way of thinking,' even if this was a hundred thousand years ago, it could still be considered history. Conversely, history can be extremely short if a society is changing quickly. For instance, the history of the American pioneers does not extend to any time previous to their landing in America. The entire lifestyle, circumstances, politics, philosophy, behavior, etc of the colonists was different and separate from the English they had left behind. American History is the only proper history for Americans. Our roots do not extend any further back. The same is true, for instance, of black slaves who were brought to America. The history of descendants of black slaves in America begins with their landing in America. Any time previous to that includes a gap so large in living styles, circumstances, behavior, thinking, religion, etc, that there can be no serious link between the people of that age and the African-Americans of today.
When Americans talk about European history, they are really studying anthropology, the study of humans completely different and unrelated to their own life origins, simply for the sake of knowledge/curiosity. The study of one's own history, however, has a much deeper meaning and value to it. It is the exploration of one's identity, which is vitally important to preserve your own unique traits as well as your own unique values. Without an identity, people are quickly washed away in a vast uncaring sea of seven billion (and growing) people who will never think twice about preserving who you were, where you came from, or where you are going. History tells us why we are the way we are, why we should stay that way, who we should admire and thank in the past for giving us our qualities, and who we should admire and thank in the present for protecting/furthering these qualities.
This is a two-way street. There are two ways to determine one's history.
A) History can trace the beginning of your culture and try to discover all the similarities between then and now.
B) History can also be defined by looking at the present, and tracing the present backwards to the first recognizable iteration of current forms.
If you think about yourself, your culture, your moral norms, your way of living, and wonder, "I wonder who were the first people to share these thoughts, lifestyles, circumstances, etc, and what they made of it all, how did they live, what challenges did they face, how did they overcome them?" You are investigating your group's history. By learning from them, you can more fully appreciate the moral masterpiece that is yourself. IE, how much effort and inspiration it took for you to arrive at the lifestyle, circumstances, philosophy, etc you currently have, which was all inherited for free at birth -- the legacy of your ancestors. This is the only proper ancestral legacy you can inherit. It's meaningless to say we are descended from, say, the Egyptians, when we have nothing to do with them culturally. This is why the history of Egypt is a meaningless topic, no more or less useful than learning the history of China, or that of the Aztecs.
The problem is, history has been accelerating. To explain this using my two new categories, I would say that there are so many sudden breaks in our development between the past and the present, that practically everything would now go under the heading of anthropology, and only a tiny sliver of time can properly be considered history. Human history only ranges back a hundred or (at most) two hundred years. Human anthropology may extend back one hundred thousand years, but it's as boring and inapplicable data as the study of elephants.
To explain my reasoning on why human history is so short, I will list a few revolutionary changes that create an unbridgeable divide between the people of today and the people of the past:
Universal education.
Electricity.
Anti-biotics.
The Steam Engine/Fossil Fuels.
The theory of Evolution (Introduced during the 1860's.)
The separation of church and state.
The banning of slavery.
The birth control pill.
Democracy.
Capitalism.
The Scientific Method.
The Rule of Law.
The study of groups that exist in the present day without these advances should be categorized as 'human anthropology.' Only groups that share these traits with ourselves seriously belong under the category of 'human history.' One can debate how many of these traits must be coexistent for our ancestors to still be a part of our common acknowledged history, but one has to imagine that if none of these traits or shared, or only a few, or less than half, that it's ridiculous to speak as though we are one culturally/historically connected whole.
Therefore discovering 'who we are' is about as difficult as asking our parents or grandparents how things were when they were alive. Any further investigation just hits the iron wall of irrelevancy. Everything beyond this point is so barbaric, so pathetic, so worthless, as to merit as much interest as the life cycle of centipedes.
Historical investigations were much more profitable if you were a member of the Egyptian dynasty, or the Roman Empire, or the Persian Empire. Today, we are no longer studying history, but only anthropology, because even our own history books can't find anything good about the past or any reason to celebrate it. Our history has to begin where we start liking the people we study, and identifying ourselves with them, and feeling lucky to have inherited our system and circumstances from them.
You could say that the great benefits of history have been denied the current generation of Man because, within a single lifetime, so much has changed that we have no history anymore. Without a history, without our heroes and villains, our myths and our fables, our customs and mores, we are cast adrift -- alone in a limitless ocean of nondescript 'humans' but without a people to call our own or surround ourselves with. The reason the world is facing a crisis of identity, without being able to discriminate between an 'us' and a 'them,' is because our history is so short that no identity has been able to form. Every time a pseudo-identity tries itself out, it is battered apart by some new revolution in thinking or behavior that changes everything once again, and leaves us back at the beginning. If we do not belong to a group that has charted out a course for our lives, a unique set of traits and values we should protect and promote, we are born truly naked into the world. We lack a purpose. Whatever purpose we do find, is just as tenuous a the chain of reasoning that got us there, and can be washed away with the gentlest of tides or tiniest of breezes. It is not a historically anchored purpose, and therefore lacks the effort, sacrifice, heroes, villains, myths, and fables that give it true solidity and moral weight in our considerations that history does. A gossamer chain of reasoning is not a lifeline we can anchor ourselves to in times of need. It's like a wet noodle -- lean on it and it just bends underneath us. 'Roots' speak of something far stronger. We are all 'rootless cosmopolitans' now. We are all alone. And we are all suffering visible symptoms from this disease. (Loneliness, anomie, cowardice, nihilism, hedonism, etc)
This begs the question, is there any solution? Supposing our problems are due to a lack of history, what could we use as a replacement for it in the short-term, until the world stops changing so drastically and a new history can be gestated over time? I would like to posit two stopgap measures:
A sub-culture. Otakus have a common origin and common identity. We all love anime. We've all watched the same things, and felt the same feelings, admire the same heroes, etc. This should be able to extend to any sub-culture. Sports Fans could rally around their common love of Football, or Soccer, or Hockey. Music fans could rally behind country or rock or jazz. When there's no culture to speak of, a sub-culture will have to do.
A future history. This is a fun solution. Instead of looking for examples of ourselves in the past, just hypothesize examples of ourselves in the future. The Nazis, an entirely new culture, assumed they were the beginning of a 1,000 year Reich, they were part of a community starting in 1933 and extending until 2933. Their actions in the present would be venerated and remembered by the people of the future, which would justify everything that 'had to be done' today. Even though this never happened, it gave people a much-desired 'anchoring' in the midst of all the revolutionary changes Nazi Germany was pursuing. Communists also spoke of a 'future history' where all 'present difficulties' (due to counter-revolutionaries, fascists, saboteurs, etc, anything but the inherent flaws of communism or the system) were ironed out and the Socialist Utopia would begin thanks to everybody's present sacrifices. I also assume that I am part of a larger future history, a society of people like me who have evolved beyond the 'big lies' of religion and egalitarianism and embraced truth, beauty, and love as the true source of value. I may be alone spatially, but I am not alone temporally. Temporally, I am part of a wonderful and appreciative community. Just like Van Gogh and Nietzsche, my genius will be recognized in time.
No comments:
Post a Comment