Why our history is important.

R

ray9

Verified User
History gets a bum rap these days just as it did 50 years ago when I was still in school. It was boring to study all those past figures that wore wigs and strutted in funny clothing. In America we yawned as we learned about our escape from King George with citizens along with Indians dumping tea into a harbor. There was a Boston Massacre where some people died standing up for something. It was tedious and so long ago. I wanted to play my guitar in a rock band because I was distanced from that history by the arrow of time. I know now that I should have paid more attention to what others were trying to tell me.

History is a collective memory of how we got to where we are today. Mistakes were made. Repeating mistakes is the first rule of de-evolution and any living thing that does not learn from mistakes will vanish, Darwin made that clear. Ideas, beliefs, and cultural aggregations are like living things, they can evolve or devolve in the same way. Past mistakes can only be atoned by not repeating them; there is no way to undo past missteps.

If you step on a rock and twist your ankle you must suffer the consequences but your personal history establishes a record that warns you not to step on that rock again or any similar rock without care to avoid the same outcome. Historical events are no different. We memorialize them to remind others about the pitfalls of mistakes that came before them.

We are in a revolutionary moment in our history not unlike Banana Republics or ethnically-cleansing balkanizing federations in other countries. When Donald trump was elected on a platform of nationhood over globalization this energized globalists to take him out. Now some of our cities look like Kosovo or Caracas because Trump’s threat to the powerful people that have been selling us out is seen as dire.

This is accompanied by the cowardice of a Republican leadership that fears being exposed as recipients of the benefits of the insurrection and missing the boat of the side they think may win. Statues topple, monuments are defaced, and bedlam wracks our cities. This is not new. Venezuela went down the same way in recent history.

You see why history is so important? I wish I Had seen it all those years ago.
 
Hello and welcome ray9,

Before I respond to your thread I would like to acquaint you with my Personal Ignore Policy because my rules are more strict than the site rules. Hopefully this is reasonable:

Personal Ignore Policy PIP: I like civil discourse. I will give you all the respect in the world if you respect me. Mouth off to me, or express overt racism, you will be PERMANENTLY Ignore Listed. Zero tolerance. No exceptions. I'll never read a word you write, even if quoted by another, nor respond to you, nor participate in your threads. ... Ignore the shallow. Cherish the thoughtful. Long Live Civil Discourse, Mutual Respect, and Good Debate! ps: Feel free to adopt my PIP. It works well.

If this is agreeable then I hope we have many interesting discussions. If not, we won't be talking long.


ray9 said:
History gets a bum rap these days just as it did 50 years ago when I was still in school. It was boring to study all those past figures that wore wigs and strutted in funny clothing. In America we yawned as we learned about our escape from King George with citizens along with Indians dumping tea into a harbor. There was a Boston Massacre where some people died standing up for something. It was tedious and so long ago. I wanted to play my guitar in a rock band because I was distanced from that history by the arrow of time. I know now that I should have paid more attention to what others were trying to tell me.

History is a collective memory of how we got to where we are today. Mistakes were made. Repeating mistakes is the first rule of de-evolution and any living thing that does not learn from mistakes will vanish, Darwin made that clear. Ideas, beliefs, and cultural aggregations are like living things, they can evolve or devolve in the same way. Past mistakes can only be atoned by not repeating them; there is no way to undo past missteps.

If you step on a rock and twist your ankle you must suffer the consequences but your personal history establishes a record that warns you not to step on that rock again or any similar rock without care to avoid the same outcome. Historical events are no different. We memorialize them to remind others about the pitfalls of mistakes that came before them.

We are in a revolutionary moment in our history not unlike Banana Republics or ethnically-cleansing balkanizing federations in other countries. When Donald trump was elected on a platform of nationhood over globalization this energized globalists to take him out. Now some of our cities look like Kosovo or Caracas because Trump’s threat to the powerful people that have been selling us out is seen as dire.

This is accompanied by the cowardice of a Republican leadership that fears being exposed as recipients of the benefits of the insurrection and missing the boat of the side they think may win. Statues topple, monuments are defaced, and bedlam wracks our cities. This is not new. Venezuela went down the same way in recent history.

You see why history is so important? I wish I Had seen it all those years ago.
Click to expand...

I didn't find history very interesting when I was in school either, but recently I have taken an increased interest. I like to read and also watch videos and programs. I have tried to figure out where the beginning of civilization was and it seems the most popular western idea is Mesopotamia, current day Iraq, something like 8 or 9 thousand years before Christ. Humans existed for thousands of years prior to that, but apparently as hunter / gatherers. Civilization does not seem to have changed much since Mesopotamia. The first civilizations were City-States and they both fought and traded with one another. It's almost comical how they traded lands. There would be a leader who mobilized an army to attack neighbors, but then could not hold what was taken, so the borders kept shifting constantly back and forth over the years. They all needed things from all over in the bronze age because the elements of copper and tin (to make bronze) were not found where there was good land for cultivation and food production.

And what has really changed since then besides technology? We still have no consensus on religion or morals. Logically, all humans on Earth should be part of one big collective. Physically, we are a big collective for the same reasons as the bronze age. So what on Earth is all the squabbling about? We all have the same basic needs. Most citizens of most countries don't really care where you are from. If you meet them, they are nice to you and they want the same things most of us want - to live and let live. So what's the problem? Egocentric leaders telling us we are different and we have to fight, basically. It is the rich and powerful who decide nations and peoples should fight, not the everyday people. People only hold hatred for others because they have been taught it.

As technology has advanced we have lots of fancy stuff and lots of people who get pretty mixed up about right and wrong. Plato had pretty good thoughts about right and wrong. Right is what is good for society. Wrong is bad for society. Nations don't matter. People do.

John Lennon had the right idea:

 
PoliTalker said:
Hello and welcome ray9,

Before I respond to your thread I would like to acquaint you with my Personal Ignore Policy because my rules are more strict than the site rules. Hopefully this is reasonable:

Personal Ignore Policy PIP: I like civil discourse. I will give you all the respect in the world if you respect me. Mouth off to me, or express overt racism, you will be PERMANENTLY Ignore Listed. Zero tolerance. No exceptions. I'll never read a word you write, even if quoted by another, nor respond to you, nor participate in your threads. ... Ignore the shallow. Cherish the thoughtful. Long Live Civil Discourse, Mutual Respect, and Good Debate! ps: Feel free to adopt my PIP. It works well.

If this is agreeable then I hope we have many interesting discussions. If not, we won't be talking long.




I didn't find history very interesting when I was in school either, but recently I have taken an increased interest. I like to read and also watch videos and programs. I have tried to figure out where the beginning of civilization was and it seems the most popular western idea is Mesopotamia, current day Iraq, something like 8 or 9 thousand years before Christ. Humans existed for thousands of years prior to that, but apparently as hunter / gatherers. Civilization does not seem to have changed much since Mesopotamia. The first civilizations were City-States and they both fought and traded with one another. It's almost comical how they traded lands. There would be a leader who mobilized an army to attack neighbors, but then could not hold what was taken, so the borders kept shifting constantly back and forth over the years. They all needed things from all over in the bronze age because the elements of copper and tin (to make bronze) were not found where there was good land for cultivation and food production.

And what has really changed since then besides technology? We still have no consensus on religion or morals. Logically, all humans on Earth should be part of one big collective. Physically, we are a big collective for the same reasons as the bronze age. So what on Earth is all the squabbling about? We all have the same basic needs. Most citizens of most countries don't really care where you are from. If you meet them, they are nice to you and they want the same things most of us want - to live and let live. So what's the problem? Egocentric leaders telling us we are different and we have to fight, basically. It is the rich and powerful who decide nations and peoples should fight, not the everyday people. People only hold hatred for others because they have been taught it.

As technology has advanced we have lots of fancy stuff and lots of people who get pretty mixed up about right and wrong. Plato had pretty good thoughts about right and wrong. Right is what is good for society. Wrong is bad for society. Nations don't matter. People do.
Click to expand...

"Civilization does not seem to have changed much since Mesopotamia?"

You don't really mean that do you?
 
As a semi-professional (I write books and articles for "beer money" but don't do it for a living) military historian--my expertise is particularly in the area of technology-- I can tell you most historical texts of a general nature get stuff wrong in minor ways that can make major differences. I say this because most of those writing textbooks for K-12 education today get history, science, technology, and related subjects wrong in ways that teach the students to believe in nonsense and things that are bad for society and the economy.

For example, would you agree or disagree with this statement:

In World War II, the Germans / Nazis had technology well in advance of the Allies (US, Britain, USSR). Do you agree or disagree with that?
 
ray9 said:
Trump is an adversary of globalization and it is globalization that is the world's biggest threat to democracy.
Click to expand...

I thought I smelled bullshit. Now I'm sure.

Trump is a globalist himself, mark. Do you think those MAGA hats and his other campaign gear are made here? Pfft. He's got scam... er, hotels, golf courses, etc. all over the world. All that money flows into his coffers.

You've been scammed, kid.
 
jacksonsprat22 said:
I have no idea what you mean by "globalization." I suspect you do not either.
Click to expand...

Globalization can only coexist with democracies on a very superficial level. In order for a leadership in a democracy to implement the ideology of full globalization onto its people it must take away self-destiny and local control of survival in favor of a hive mentality that dictates what is good for the hive, not the individuals in the hive. “We the People” is incompatible with hive culture and philosophy. Globalization is an insectoid model foisted on thinking humans to remove the thinking and supplant it with artificially instinctive behavior using fear and remote alien power as an enforcing agent.

The raw power and central planning of Globalization is a fatal threat to democracies everywhere on Earth. For instance, biological warfare was outlawed in 1925 with the Geneva Protocol. The People’s Republic of China, the leading beneficiary of modern globalization, used a bacterial agent (Wuhan Virus) to ensure the survival of the hive at the expense of people. They first used Sun-Tzu infiltration methods to bribe the US Congress to cede control of the US pharmaceutical industry so no American leader could accuse them of the violation without causing great pain and expense to the people.

The odds that Covid-19 came from nature just at the perfect time to destroy a US economy that was surging are about the same as a person winning Powerball every day for the rest of his life. But thinking was removed by insectoid globalization so many believe that it was just by chance. Globalization requires the human race to give up thinking which is the one thing that separates humans from animals.

The Chinese regard all the nations of the world as collateral damage in a globalization war against the US that they want to replace as a template for the world’s greatest power.
 
The key point is that people should study the history that caused the problems: colonialism and class rule in our case, racist slavery and big business dominance in yours. Made-up, bosses-type history is all trooping colours, Mt Rushmores and such, the sort of codswallop that has all the trumpers beating their hollow chests and falling over.
 
Listen carefully when you hear someone talking about "erasing history." What they really mean is that they don't want *their* white-washed version of history supplanted by realism.

Why is globalization so scary to the far right? After all, we managed to combine separate regions and states with their own cultures, accents, religions, etc. into a successful cohesive (mostly) whole called the "United States." Our different regions still enjoy their autonomy and differences, despite one segment trying to break us up in the 19th century. Why can't the entire world do the same?
 
PoliTalker said:
Hello archives,



Yes, I do. There were wars then - caused by idiots in power - and it is the same today.

The powerless fight and die because the powerful say they should.

The powerful constantly seek more power.

Look at Xi Jinping, Putin, DT.

What has changed in that respect?
Click to expand...

It has been known since ancient times that wars are about money. They want to take resources and land from others. It did not change in America. Read about Smedley Butler , his book War is a Racket. Here is what we covered up in our history. https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/N...ey-Butler-and-the-1930s-Plot-to-Overthrow-the
 
History, both good and bad is vitally important. History should be taught in schools, in museums, and at historical sites. Celebrating a Confederate General in the town square of Podunk Alabama has nothing to do with history, and everything to do with celebrating individuals who fought to keep the institution of slavery and were traitors to their country. Period. End of story.
 
ray9 said:
Globalization can only coexist with democracies on a very superficial level. In order for a leadership in a democracy to implement the ideology of full globalization onto its people it must take away self-destiny and local control of survival in favor of a hive mentality that dictates what is good for the hive, not the individuals in the hive. “We the People” is incompatible with hive culture and philosophy. Globalization is an insectoid model foisted on thinking humans to remove the thinking and supplant it with artificially instinctive behavior using fear and remote alien power as an enforcing agent.

The raw power and central planning of Globalization is a fatal threat to democracies everywhere on Earth. For instance, biological warfare was outlawed in 1925 with the Geneva Protocol. The People’s Republic of China, the leading beneficiary of modern globalization, used a bacterial agent (Wuhan Virus) to ensure the survival of the hive at the expense of people. They first used Sun-Tzu infiltration methods to bribe the US Congress to cede control of the US pharmaceutical industry so no American leader could accuse them of the violation without causing great pain and expense to the people.

The odds that Covid-19 came from nature just at the perfect time to destroy a US economy that was surging are about the same as a person winning Powerball every day for the rest of his life. But thinking was removed by insectoid globalization so many believe that it was just by chance. Globalization requires the human race to give up thinking which is the one thing that separates humans from animals.

The Chinese regard all the nations of the world as collateral damage in a globalization war against the US that they want to replace as a template for the world’s greatest power.
Click to expand...

None of that made any sense.
 
Nordberg said:
It has been known since ancient times that wars are about money. They want to take resources and land from others. It did not change in America. Read about Smedley Butler , his book War is a Racket. Here is what we covered up in our history. https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/N...ey-Butler-and-the-1930s-Plot-to-Overthrow-the
Click to expand...

I read the account. It is a mix of history with conspiracy theory. Note how throughout the piece names are dropped of various rich elites but nothing is actually said of their supposed involvement. Instead, it makes a guilt by association argument against them. One might also note that it favors the House Un-American Activities Committee, the same committee that in the 50's was pilloried for going after the Left and Communists.
Also, wars can be about money, but they don't have to be. There are also those who take war as an opportunity to make money, just as those in the business world often take any event negative or positive as such an opportunity.

On the whole, the article really doesn't explain much of anything and certainly doesn't do it well.
 
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