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

[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.