History is Myth

[sdi]

History is a way of flattening out and making sense of the infinite complexity of happenings in nature, and so is necessarily a narrative. (Indeed, it a political propaganda narrative: we say that "history is written by the victors.") Nature itself doesn't deal in narratives, only humans do; so narratives are an artificial, social construct. Being a narrative, history therefore belongs to the realm of myth, not to "objective" "fact."

It is as if history was invented for propaganda purposes a few thousand years ago and we lost the thread, and have been for generations blindly obeying the propaganda of states that no longer exist. Much better, I think, to regard it for what it is so that we are not enslaved to it.

Comments

[ehu]

thanks for this. The deafening roar of propagandistic farces has been.. worse.. of late.
your reminder is much appreciated by this old fool here.
as is your shared work here, in general. An oasis for the mind, really

[sdi]

❤️

[thinking_turtle]

You're entirely right! I've got to say I believed in history for most of my life. My eyes opened only during the past few years.

[sdi]

Mine, too: in fact, one of my earliest blog posts here on Dreamwidth marks the beginning of my exploration down this particular path! I imagine it's an increasingly common experience, as "history" is used as a justification for an increasingly-insane status quo.