The Reason Why I Will Now Take History Seriously

Well this burst upon me today... I was born in 1989. I only know what happened since then, and even that not so well. Do you know how much stuff happened before that? Do you know how much has been recorded? I am like Rip Van Winkle, but instead of 20 years, I was asleep for thousands, or like Austin Powers when he watches all those movies to see what happened in the 30 odd years he was frozen... he missed the moon landing, the Vietnam war... Well, I missed all those things too, and more. How can I know how to conduct myself, how can I know what decisions to make without taking all of this history into account?

Now that the world has/is become/ing globalized, it is even more important to take history into account. We are going to be outstripped by workers from China, India, and the Middle East who are more skilled and more original than we. We must learn to adapt to their cultures and histories in order to preserve ours -- and most of us do not even know very much about our own culture. I myself feel that I do not know enough about even my own culture. While adapting myself to the present and future, I feel that I must learn about what came before, so I can know what is and is not worth keeping; what was a mistake, and what was successful.

World cultures are going to undergo a melting-down in the next decades. The combined cultures of the world will be filtered through a seive, and what remains will be a single, powerhouse culture. Extraneous and, above all, specific aspects of culture will be forgotten or forcibly eradicated. It will be time to choose whether to adapt to the world culture, or to struggle to perpetuate what used to be.

If I do not learn more about different cultures, I run the risk of being unable to defend myself from being fed whatever drek the television companies feed me. I won't even know how my culture has been perverted! What creativity will I have missed? What chances to improve, to incorporate, to build will have been lost forever? Originality will continue, but it will be more centralized, more commercial. This is all ready evident in entertainment and fashion industries worldwide, with the west as the primary influence. But when Asia and the Middle East and Africa begin to exert as much influence, how will I react? How will you react?

And now I feel like I have a responsibility to everyone who came before me... wars were fought to make sure that future generations, us, could be alive and well... and other wars were fought to abolish our kind. Think of everyone who ever drank water, or baked bread... we are not only the hope of the last generation, or the generation before that, but of every generation that ever existed. We are the children's children's children's children's children that our ancestors imagined.

I dunno, I'd never really thought about this before... what do you guys think?

 

wow, just the fact that you're THINKING about all this is a huge step in the right direction! keep up what you're doing, network with the right people and you'll be well on your way! great thoughts, I agree with you, and we DO share the same responsibility...only most young people nowadays have been so completely BRAINWASHED (yeah I'm not afraid to ssay it! hehe) that it's literally become "uncool" to talk about anything that actually matters. Well that in itself needs to be "uncooled"!! if ya happen to get a chance, pick up Naomi Klein's book called "No Logo". It basically sums up our history in a nutshell, I know you'll enjoy it!

 

It's good to learn about what happened before, and use it to make better decisions in the present. It also means you don't just have to take what the media tells you as final.

 

Now is real. It gets less real as you go further back or forwards. You need history to put things in context it's true, to see how fucked up the world has been and especially how governments in the past have been guilty of misleading and coercing their people.

Historians are allowed to speak the truth about other governments in a way no one is allowed to speak of current ones for fear of being labelled unpatriotic or traitorous. But it's not the truth. History is written by the winners, remember that as you read the books. The real truth of the past is as unknowable as the future.

Having said that, there are certainly insights to be gained. Learn to make up your own mind based on independant corrobaration and always take reasons for bias into account.

Listen to this next guy - he's got something important to say

 

And learn that it's possible to make YOUR OWN history by joining currently existing social movements. Do it while they are around, like now, because some decades (like the 80s and most of the 90s) there are no movements of influence to take part in. Now there are, in fact like never before. All ya gotta do is type a few words of interest at google, and you'll find mountains of information to help get ya started.

 

born in 1989 huh? weird... i remember that year... was a young boy of 14....

 

Just like what they say:

To concieve the present, and to move into the future: one must first understand their history.

 

if you choose to ignore history you choose to ignore all of the things that make you what you are be it through america's loss of vietnam that in truth completly reshaped our national psyche, the credibility gap, the begginings of M.A.D. the nuclear explosions at hiroshima and nagasaki, without these things we aren't who we are, our society is completly different, each of them shapes your day to day life more than any decision that you personally can make, that is why history is important, that is why it is relevant and that is why it is powerful, we cannot forget the past lest we forget who and what we are

 

I reckon....that as you become more aware of the world as a whole, evolving thing...that if you can keep that spirit you showed in the first post of this thread...you'll never go far wrong

Don't become old and jaded as so many of us have done...

Good luck...and have a safe journey of discovery

 

historians lie but we must look to the past to live the future, therefore history is RELEVANT...although most of it are lies.
only the history of the vanquished tells the truth, Aztecs , Mayans , druids , africans,the japanese name it and if it seems abit dark to your psyche, somebody edited it to fit the three siblings---> Science, religion and government. all vying for control and domination.

the true history has been mapped into all of us , its the kind of thing we call gut feeling , instinct or whatever...so be true to yourself and use it to sift through eveything else.

Its not bad that you feel the way you do, most minds have been soiled by an eternity of deceit, nothing has remained the same since creation and behind every new craze in history is a lie well steeled with marketing propaganda. To beware of this is the beginning of liberty.
, its good to open up a revolutionary portal in your mental dimensions, the time has come when the old order will be demystified.

problem here is that truths are all round but the blindness of ''visionaries'' has colonised the greatest minds of our time...and left us at the mercy of bloodhounds in the media while the custodians of truth procrastinate and watch hopelessly.


peace and love
xxx

 

History was never my fave subject in school, I couldn't remember shit about who invented what or who discovered which place, but I remember 1989 cuz my 4th child was born then.
I ended up marrying a guy who studied history in college and most of our kids are interested in history now.

 

I failed history at school:S

But completely see how its important. I believe its especially important that all children are taught about the world wars, and the holocaust. It may make them more alert to the signs theyre being ruled by racist, uncaring dictators under another name...which we certainly need right now.

Love-Maxi.Xx

 

People make the same mistakes over and over even with the knowledge of what happend in the past. It's our curse.