Can We Please Just Forget History? / July 4, 2014
Can we please just forget history?
Conventional wisdom suggests that we need to be aware of our history in order to avoid repeating mistakes. At a societal level we teach our kids all about our version of the many wars our particular nation has been involved in, supposedly so that we can avoid more war.
That seems not to be working so well.
Having watched England get knocked out of the World Cup (another example of history repeating itself) I was struck by two conversations I had within an hour of each other with two guys, both of whom were well versed in the game of football. One commented that he couldn't believe "England had committed to all out attack after scoring the equaliser", whilst the other bemoaned that "England had sat back and defended after scoring the equaliser".
Whether you watched the game or not, love or hate football, the point is that two equally well informed people had completely different versions to explain England's eventual, and inevitable, defeat. The one point everyone agreed on is that we did in fact lose...again!
This is why I am so suspicious of history. Two guys with exactly the same information, in fact eye witnesses, had completely different experiences of the same event. Neither was lying and both agreed on the result, but at the same time presented diametrically opposed views on the cause of the result. Did England lose because of defence or attack?
I would suggest the study of history is pretty similar. In fact many wars are re-ignited as historians fail to agree on the cause of the last one. Some wars even start simply to establish who started the last one!
There is more to history than attempting to establish facts. It is also a tool for establishing identity.
The way history is taught in schools and related by family is a direct attempt to give someone a sense of identity. There is a feeling that you have to know your history to know who you are, but in my opinion this is a load of bollocks. This imposition of identity is a divisive tool to perpetuate a story that, by definition, belongs in the past.
As an example, the first time I encountered racism at a personal level was when I went to college in Wales. Apparently the English (of whom I was a paid up representative) had supressed, ransacked, pillaged and abused in many ways the Welsh for centuries. This "history" made it acceptable for certain sectors of the Welsh population to hate me. People would insist it was nothing personal, but they just hate the English!
I repeat what a load of bollocks.
If we could collectively be stricken with amnesia one night, would we wake up and immediately hold a grudge against the French or the Muslims or the Christians or the tall people or the left handed.
Who knows? But I think we might do just fine without history shaping our identities.
And finally extend the societal to the personal and hold your personal history lightly, you are not your story,
With love
Bill