What Is History? Part 6
A basic rule of history is that the inevitable eventually happens. –William S. Lind
Every work of history constructs contexts and designs, forms in which past reality can be comprehended. History creates comprehensibility primarily by arranging facts meaningfully and only in a very limited sense by establishing strict causal connections. —Huizinga
In history there are no real beginnings. —Warren S. Smith
Poetry is of graver importance than history. —Aristotle
Though the outside of human life changes much, the inside changes little, and the lesson-book we cannot graduate from is human experience. —Edith Hamilton
History is more cunning than any of us. —Lenin
Very few of us who purport to be historians know much about history. But everything we do know indicates than history is incapable of running backward. —Marshall Fishwick
Political regimes come and go; bad habits remain. —Silone
Our responsibility to history is clear . . . to rid the world of evil. —Bush minor
After having thus taken each member successively in its powerful grasp, fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. —Tocqueville
Who knows whether the best of men be known? Or whether there be not more remarkable persons forgot? —Sir Thomas Browne
Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all: the conscientious historian will correct these defects. —Mark Twain
. . . boys had been beaten since history began, and it would be a bad day for the world if ever, inconceivably, boys should cease to be beaten. —C.S. Forester
History is what was; it is old news. New news is called current events. When enough current events pile up and get old, an historian puts them all together in a book, throws in a little interpretation, and calls it history. —Unknown high school student
Walter Bagehot's reproach that Gibbon did not know how to enter into men's hearts, and Dame C.V. Wedgwood's that the Roman historian could not sympathize with an attitude of mind not his own, are indictments that can be liberally made against modern historiography, which seems concerned to fend off the identities of the past, because it wishes to mold the future. —Michael O'Brien
Growth is the enemy of progress. —Edward Abbey
****
Contributed by Prof. Randall Ivey:
A people which no longer remembers has lost its history and its soul. —Solzhenitsyn
****
Contributed by Prof. Brion McClanahan:
To each eye, perhaps, the outlines of a great civilization present a different picture. —Burckhardt
History is the witness that testifies to the passage of time; it illuminates reality, vitalizes memory, provides guidance in daily life, and brings us tidings of antriquity. —Cicero
That historians should give their own country a break, I grant you; but not so as to state things contrary to fact. —Polybius
Since history has no proper scientific value, its only purpose is educative. And if historians neglect to educate the public, if they failt to interest it intelligently in the past, then all their historical learning is valueless except in so far as it educates themselves. —G.M. Trevelyan
The study of history is the best medicine for a sick mind; for in history you have a record of the infinite variety of human experience plainly set out for all to see; and in that record you can find yourself and your country both examples and warnings; fine things to take as models, base things rotten through and through, to avoid. —Livy
****
Contributed by Prof. S.R. Busick:
Ideology, claiming to base its authority on history, becomes history's greatest enemy. But the hostility is double-edged: if ideology destroys history by explaining it completely, then history destroys ideology by unfolding in an unpredictable way. —Vaclav Havel
The past is part of the present, it is a comfort, a guide, a lesson. —Ben Robertson
From the totalitarian point of view, history is something to be created rather than learned. —Orwell
****
Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past. —T.S. Eliot
There is no new thing under the sun. —Ecclesiastes 1:9
Entries(RSS)
"The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice."
Mark Twain
"History is more cunning than any of us. —Lenin"
I find it interesting. Lenin had reinterpreted Marxism in light of Nietzsche, rejecting under Nietzsche's influence, the positivism of the 19th century, so evident in Darwin and Marx, and in doing so had also rejected the notion of "historische Notwendigkeit," (historical necessity) which for Marx had meant that the dialectic was moving mankind inexorably forward into the state of static equilibrium and statelessness known as communism. Where Marx spoke of the dictatorship of the proletariat, Lenin hedged his bets and spoke of the dictatorship of the party, since after Nietzsche history appeared to be a little more fickle than the positivist had imagined and in its fickleness might need some "intelligent design" from the nomenclatura of the party. Yet, in the quote given infra, Lenin who had literally outlawed God, gives history a metaphysical cunningness. It is interesting that atheist cannot escape the metaphysical, even if they employ it merely as cynical metaphors.
"Ideology, claiming to base its authority on history, becomes history’s greatest enemy. But the hostility is double-edged: if ideology destroys history by explaining it completely, then history destroys ideology by unfolding in an unpredictable way. —Vaclav Havel"
Surely, the ideology which Havel has in mind is some form of Marxism which plagued Middle Europe and Eastern Europe for half a century or more. One of that ideology's weapons of deconstruction of its enemies was "the dialectic." Havel, ironically echoing Lenin, seems to realize that "history" is superior with the use of the dialectic as a weapon against its enemies than are its enemies against it. Of course, for me, history is ultimately His story, and He will tell it as He will. Perhaps Hegel, whom Marx, his left-wing Hegelian student, turned on his head, was right after all: the dialectic is the process by which God determines history.
Historians have the most difficult job because they constantly run up against power that wants to craft history to suit its propaganda.
We have this with the holocaust stories promoted by Zionists and used to justify their brutality against the Palestinians, and by the politically correct as propaganda against white Gentiles who oppose their multicultural experiment.
(#2)
“... His story ...” ... “... He will tell ...” ... “... He will ...” .... “... the dialectic is the process by which God determines history ...” (:-!)
Mr. Peters ... a grown man rambling in public like this ... ... Scared witless of “meeting thy maker” pretty soon ... no? Ergot in your rye? In any case, kindly spare us.
Chris at #2
You suppose a lot! How do you know that I am a grown man? Besides, the very last thing that I am scared of is "meeting my Maker."
Lenin and Havel are both personalities of history, and they struggled, Lenin against and Havel for, the "persona" of history. I joined them in my own understanding.
About the dialectic being the process by which God determines history I would retort that it is not orginal with me but with Hegel. You might consider taking it up with him.
"Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past. —T.S. Eliot"
This is perhaps the poets way of articulating the nature of the book of Revelation, although I cannot assert that Eliot had that writing in mind when he penned those words; for Revelation is an unfolding and revealing of the Eternal Christ. Modern eschatology, particularly that of the dispensationalists and the rapture theologians, is a manifestation of the finite mind imposing itself on the eternal, making of it a counterfeit which we have come to call the "future" and rendering the Eternal Christ and the Eternally Revealed Christ into a character in some soley future event. The secular ideologues and utopians - particularly the Marxist, fascists and social democrats - have stolen this miscreant notion of "future" and have asked us to sacrifice our fortunes and lives for a "future" which will never be. Hence rather than doing our duty today - our functional moment in enternity - with that duty for those of us as Christians being to act and be salt and light in a dark and dying world, we, like the one who hid his talent, merely wait for the great escape, not realizing that the eternal Kingdom of God is all around us and that we have some very important duties to perform in it now.
"... Eternal Christ ..." ... "... Eternally Revealed Christ ..." ... "... duty ..." ... "... eternal Kingdom of God ..."
Oh please shut up...
"Our responsibility to history is clear . . . to rid the world of evil. —Bush minor"
I am supposing that the quote is from GWB. If not, then ....
Quite the Yankee Puritan idea - going around ridding the world of evil. Bush's Connecticut origins are betrayed. The hubris of this statement is evident in that the Ontological Absolute Himself, alone capable of and alone having the authority to rid the world of evil, will wait until the wheat and the tares are ripe so as not to destroy the good wheat along with the evil tares. These "Puritans," however, are quite willing to destroy the good with the evil which they perceive.
I was also unaware that we had a "responsibility to history." It rings no little blasphemous in my ear. One supposes that "Bush minor" has a little history shrine somewhere; or perhaps, Iraq/Afphanistan is his history shrine and those dying there are "his" sacrifices, although I thought that even the pagans frowned on offering up the first born of others. The oblation should be of one's own.
If "Bush minor" isn't GWB, then this was still "fun" to write and perhaps says something true about GWB anyway.
While I find Mr Peters' posts entertaining and enlightening, I find the childish posts of 'Chris' not to be. Whatever your age, Chris, shut up, child, stop being a pest, and go home.
I reference to the quote provided by Dr Wilson, which comes from an unknown high school student, there is a historically oriented publication called 'Old News' which is interesting to read. Appatently based on old newspaper articles, it's more interesting than most modern 'histories', and probably more accurate, since it doesn't seem to have any particular ideological axe to grind.
The Vaclav havel quote from Prof. Busick strikes me as very perceptive. I think history is about to unfold in a way that will destroy the Yankee ideology of 'Americanism' as well as cultural Marxism.
Mr. Wilson at #8
Back in the 1990's Havel gave several speeches in the U.S., including one before the Congress of the United States. I am paraphrasing; but he essentially said that the left-wing Hegelians - Marxists, fascists and social democrats - had turned Hegel on his head. Hegel held philosophically that Consciousness (the Ontological Absolute =Mind = God) precedes being = that which is experienced in the phenomenal world, including man. The left-wing Hegelians kept Hegel's notion of the dialectic and intended to use it as a weapon for the deconstruction of Western society. They, however, turned his understanding of Consciousness precedes being on its head and asserted that being - matter, material and the mind of man which "springs" therefrom - precedes consciousness, written in minuscule, with consciousness being merely the product of the mind of man coming from matter or material.
Havel stated that his country had suffered enough under Marxism and fascism and that we needed to return, for a new beginning, to Hegel's original understanding, namely that Consciousness = God brings forth being = us.
One imagines that his words, for the most part, fell on deaf ears in the U.S. Congress. Some were likely asleep or drunk; some fantasizing about pages; and yet others worried about making their appointments with lobbiests who would send them and their wives/mistresses/"friends" to some exotic place.
"History creates comprehensibility primarily by arranging facts meaningfully and only in a very limited sense by establishing strict causal connections." -H
History for me is - am I happy (and i suppose, still alive as a given) or not.
Because, gentlemen (and blesses - love those who visit this site and consider these things) what did posterity ever do for me?
The answer is - i don't know by then - i'm dead. ?
In the meantime since we are conceptual creatures then inevitably -who has the airwaves and the media rules...
so COMING UP - on this Tuesday December 18, 2007 in the Year OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST ...
please make sure when the FCC which now is only a Front for your Oppressors... and even your Congress & your Senate has publically called THEM into account (apparently to no avail)... but they've been so BRIBED by gifts and future corporate positions.... [regardless] -
They will yet Further consolidate YOUR media and press... in Effect further (if that's possible) erroding its diversity - and making it sh-t.
You know - 'sh-t'. that's important too... but only in the outhouse or in the arguabley most important room at home - the bathroom.
but that's what they'll put in your brains... (not good for brains...)
BURN DOWN THIS UNHOLY MISSION IF YOU WANT TO STAY ALIVE... AND GO ON IN YOUR OWN GOD GIVEN, PERSONAL EVOLUTIONS & beautiful lives, under God. ... No?
Chance Gardner, you ever bougth Dr. Bronner's soap? Its wrapping has text very much resembling your writing above. You are a good kid, when you become geezer you don't want to fall off deep end like that peters jeezus freak, see what became of the sorry thumper, you still got a chance Chance.
"Blow, blow Seminole wind. Blow like you're never gonna blow again.
I'm calling to you like a long lost friend, but I know who you are."
Culturism, the book, bases much of its argument on history. George Orwell was very right concerning those who control the past controlling the future.
We have a culturist history; that is we have traditionally been concerned with the declension of our cullture and its implication for our security. Since the Puritans we have guarded and guided our culture. We had the abolitionist movement, prohibition and the Americanization movement in order to protect our culture. We had the Immigration Act of 1924 to secure our culture. The FCC was created to regulate our public media. If you realize we are traditionally culturist, it helps us realize that uncontextualized individualism is not what our nation has been about.
Another history lesson comes from the World History and culturism chapter. The renaissance ended the Dark Ages by remembering our classical heritage. Part of the Chinese dynastic cycle involves a retrenchment in classical styles. When you have awareness of history you have more choices. When you don't remember your history, the climb civilization takes, and the standards of excellence history has to offer, you are well on your way to being barbarian.
http://www.culturism.us
Although it is denied, more than rumor suggests that the CIA bought Havel. In any event, he was a weak politician and a stooge for the US, especially during the war against Kosovo, which he declared the first war fought for human rights. For that statement along, he gets my vote for the silliest person in public life during my lifetime, siller than Madonna and sillier than Dr. Bronner and his disciples.
(Re. comment #15)
TJF is right about Havel. A few years back I read a report on Havel's past activities and behavior, that fully meshes with what TJF says. During the eighties, Havel was a CS "dissident playwright" (to me it does read like a CIA rank, although his affiliation was more formal), and his plays, banned in CS, were performed in post-Tito Belgrade, where he was most warmly accepted and sincerely befriended by Serbian writers and actors. In 1999 he paid back for all that warmth and kindness - by leading the vultures in bombing of his Belgrade friends.
It's just a quotation.