Ah, history, you are written by the victors, and where victory is lacking, we flatter ourselves with Hebrew Bibles, some Hollywood spin on Vietnam and so on.
By far, the central function of history is egoistic and culture preserving. Histories rarely function to raise questions and learn lessons about how to forge a social, political and culture system that values comedy over tragedy, children over pride and tradition, and art over consumerism and greed… Until such transformations are made, no culture will ever avoid violence and corruption. But most historians are too meek for such grand ideals, and being mired in the language of war, history treats peace and freedom as ultimate goals. Peace, however, is not a not a goal, it is the state that follows the successful pursuit of the three (and possibly other) goals I mentioned. And freedom is a useless word unless it is married to the idea of absolute submission to sensible rules that obviously do not yet exist.
Well, but perhaps I am wrong. Who knows? At least, let us try something different and experiment a little. For, if history has any meaning at all, it is that experiments are needed to end the cycle of violence and the spread of hunger and environmental destruction.
Perhaps I wax too serious in speaking of history. Enough history has been written, and I can say, with utmost confidence, that thanks to the historians for constantly reminding us about the horrors of history we won’t have any more of that war nonsense!
And, thanks to the historians, next time Hitler flaunts his brazen face in Germany, we’re gonna tell him to sod off!
Ah, yes, but that’s just the trouble, isn’t it? History never repeats itself exactly, and people don’t recognize the billions of Hitlers and potential Hitlers walking among them. The whole art of recognizing patterns and similarities remains undeveloped, and the understanding that small domestic injustices are worth as much attention as the same injustices committed on the political or “historical” scale—this knowledge hardly exists, and Timothy Findley’s The Wars is one of the few books I know that hints at it.
The historian must reveal the universals in the particulars of history, but even then, without a scientifically grounded vision of how to attain a better future and how we can improve ourselves, history can only teach us to avoid history.
In the end, the past must be forgotten, for whatever enemies we faced in the past, one universal, immortal enemy awaits us, an enemy who we can only conquer by befriending, and if we fail at that we will never be rid of mortal enemies and irrational fears.
In the end, the past must be forgotten, for whatever mistakes we committed in the past, tomorrow we can commit better ones, funnier ones. Or will tragedy never be turned into comedy?
