I don't know about other people, but I study the past in order to keep from repeating it. That includes the ruins, the writings, the art, and the science of the time.
My favorite saying is, "Those who don't study history are doomed to repeat it, while those who do study history are doomed to watch those who didn't study history, repeat it."
Maybe if more people studied history and understood it, we could have avoided the Ukrainian conflict, the quagmire in Afghanistan, and the mess in the Middle east.
If we studied history, we'd know that some groups of people don't mix well with other groups of people.
If we studied history, we'd know that there is no such thing as a Marxist/Communist Utopia.
Somebody called Dumbledore claims people will somehow feel a desperate "pull of the heart", and know their "true desire". I would say there is nothing noble or even credible about that desire, but more than that, nobody that I have ever met knows even what life is about, much less how to attain it.
If you allege there is some inner knowing there, (magic) and you can reach it, what is that? Is that your concept of god? Of an innate principle that exists before our lifetime? On what basis? Or is it just an escape from the humdrum? Let it be true or not; but please don't base your plans for life on it.
I know what people would want, if they could think about it. They would want the full freedom to engage in the process of living. That is easily said as the full use of your facilities, mind, body, hands, feet, ears, and eyes to fulfill your needs and ensure your security. The moment that there was a social structure, (10,000 years ago), that freedom was constrained. We can never go back, nor do we want to.
The past was ruthless. For the most part it was genocidal on all continents. (I don't know much about the Americas, because there is not a rich history written about the native Americans). But in redemption, the past was more fragmented. People could do bad, but not on a scale of the consolidations in today's world. That puts us into a different kind of box.
You are saying that nobody wants to do the work to create a better world. There is a great error in that statement. Those people that are working to create a better world are doing an unimaginably marvelous job at it. It is the billionaires, who are doubling their wealth every couple years. The gross error is to imagine that the "better world" is for you and me.
You say that there is nowhere to go, (the shoebox), and thus claiming a better world has to be a project of colonialism, where you get free land? (You can try to get into Russia, there is plenty of room there, and they need people.) And there is definitely the eye of Sauron, call it Apple, Google and Facebook, and now you'll probably be spilling your heart out to ChatGPT. You are all lined up, but only to turn yourselves in.
Here's a good one:
"This sense of deadly, suffocating entrapment has affected not only our vision for our practical lives, but our creative ones as well. Culturally, we’ve stagnated—and no wonder. With the world ever shrinking into the dimensions of a black rectangle, what wide open frontiers are left to capture the imagination of the artist?" But the wide open space need not be the great plains with herds of Bison. It must be a mental space.
Science fiction is a world of dreams were disempowered people gravitate. “It doesn’t do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.”
Most optimistic people quote plans that, "people need to get together" and use the power of numbers to demonstrate, to build a coop, to work for elections, or even to make a revolution. Let's face it: In our day and age, isolated, solitary, distrustful people are not going to "get together" for any reason. Those few that could, are too small in number, and their every move will be tracked and surveilled. In other words prescriptions that say what the other person need to do, are powerless. So what will I do?
I am here on Substack, seems like a good platform and you find some intelligent people here. Of course we all have our hang ups and limitations. We probably don't know much about how to relate to another person without upsetting them. We also have no-go zones, where we get upset.
These are the preliminary things that we have to work through, interpersonal relations. First be respectful, second don't live in glass-houses. Maybe I was a little rough on this, your post. Of course I meant for the better. Let's see how it goes down.
One of the problems with worshipping the Past is that even if you get there, you're just retracing the steps that led us to the Present. Even if you were able to recreate a medieval European mindset, you'd be faced with a new "Enlightenment" within a few generations. Santayana only got it partially right. Even those who remember their past are doomed to repeat it.
'...things are not like they used to be, and they never were...'
You have really hit on the fundamental requirement for humanity to thrive. Freedom and responsibility.
Enter the visionaries. The path forward needs to be re-imagined, with freedom and responsibly as the hallmark.
I don't know about other people, but I study the past in order to keep from repeating it. That includes the ruins, the writings, the art, and the science of the time.
My favorite saying is, "Those who don't study history are doomed to repeat it, while those who do study history are doomed to watch those who didn't study history, repeat it."
Maybe if more people studied history and understood it, we could have avoided the Ukrainian conflict, the quagmire in Afghanistan, and the mess in the Middle east.
If we studied history, we'd know that some groups of people don't mix well with other groups of people.
If we studied history, we'd know that there is no such thing as a Marxist/Communist Utopia.
Hello Emily Morgan,
Somebody called Dumbledore claims people will somehow feel a desperate "pull of the heart", and know their "true desire". I would say there is nothing noble or even credible about that desire, but more than that, nobody that I have ever met knows even what life is about, much less how to attain it.
If you allege there is some inner knowing there, (magic) and you can reach it, what is that? Is that your concept of god? Of an innate principle that exists before our lifetime? On what basis? Or is it just an escape from the humdrum? Let it be true or not; but please don't base your plans for life on it.
I know what people would want, if they could think about it. They would want the full freedom to engage in the process of living. That is easily said as the full use of your facilities, mind, body, hands, feet, ears, and eyes to fulfill your needs and ensure your security. The moment that there was a social structure, (10,000 years ago), that freedom was constrained. We can never go back, nor do we want to.
The past was ruthless. For the most part it was genocidal on all continents. (I don't know much about the Americas, because there is not a rich history written about the native Americans). But in redemption, the past was more fragmented. People could do bad, but not on a scale of the consolidations in today's world. That puts us into a different kind of box.
You are saying that nobody wants to do the work to create a better world. There is a great error in that statement. Those people that are working to create a better world are doing an unimaginably marvelous job at it. It is the billionaires, who are doubling their wealth every couple years. The gross error is to imagine that the "better world" is for you and me.
You say that there is nowhere to go, (the shoebox), and thus claiming a better world has to be a project of colonialism, where you get free land? (You can try to get into Russia, there is plenty of room there, and they need people.) And there is definitely the eye of Sauron, call it Apple, Google and Facebook, and now you'll probably be spilling your heart out to ChatGPT. You are all lined up, but only to turn yourselves in.
Here's a good one:
"This sense of deadly, suffocating entrapment has affected not only our vision for our practical lives, but our creative ones as well. Culturally, we’ve stagnated—and no wonder. With the world ever shrinking into the dimensions of a black rectangle, what wide open frontiers are left to capture the imagination of the artist?" But the wide open space need not be the great plains with herds of Bison. It must be a mental space.
Science fiction is a world of dreams were disempowered people gravitate. “It doesn’t do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.”
Most optimistic people quote plans that, "people need to get together" and use the power of numbers to demonstrate, to build a coop, to work for elections, or even to make a revolution. Let's face it: In our day and age, isolated, solitary, distrustful people are not going to "get together" for any reason. Those few that could, are too small in number, and their every move will be tracked and surveilled. In other words prescriptions that say what the other person need to do, are powerless. So what will I do?
I am here on Substack, seems like a good platform and you find some intelligent people here. Of course we all have our hang ups and limitations. We probably don't know much about how to relate to another person without upsetting them. We also have no-go zones, where we get upset.
These are the preliminary things that we have to work through, interpersonal relations. First be respectful, second don't live in glass-houses. Maybe I was a little rough on this, your post. Of course I meant for the better. Let's see how it goes down.
.
One of the problems with worshipping the Past is that even if you get there, you're just retracing the steps that led us to the Present. Even if you were able to recreate a medieval European mindset, you'd be faced with a new "Enlightenment" within a few generations. Santayana only got it partially right. Even those who remember their past are doomed to repeat it.