How Lineal is History?

 

How lineal is History.

We all know that the Romans built straight roads under with the belief that this was the quickest way to move from point A to B. This concept seems to have taken root in western thought with the accepted belief in a sort of lineal view of history, if only the world was that straight forward! Over the years many people have suggested to me that they can see no point in studying history, they sincerely believe in a lineal approach were the world continually develops to higher planes. We continually talk about progress, how tomorrow’s ideas will be better, that life continually improves for the better. It is as though Henry Ford’s famous remark, “there is only the present”, a belief in the continual development to a higher level of knowledge. Such ideas have some validity if we only view the world in recent or short time frames, but when the larger, longer picture takes shape, we quickly realise that there is no uphill lineal road to a better and better world. Rather our history suggests that life’s experiences are more like a ball of wool a kitten has chased all over the floor. Given the present dire state of our world at the moment there is no reason for great opportunism. We are living in a world over run by all sorts of prophets, fundamental, national, environmental, economic ones to name just a few, who are determined to ram their ideologies down our throat. In terms of our own lives the only certainties were birth and our future death, everything in between is in the hands of fate.

 Against this background what can the past teach us about the present. Firstly, it is clear history does not operate in any lineal way, it is if anything random. Athenian Democracy’s demise was primarily due to lack of strong ethical leadership, personal self- interest was allowed to take charge. The Roman Republic suffered a similar fate, likewise Augustus’ Empire created with such hope eventually meet with the ingenious sacking of Rome by barbarians, and its eventual demise. Followed by the dark ages when literacy declined over much of Europe. People often forget that such events can and do happen.  We need only recall recent event in Cambodia to realise how easily such things can happen, unless we are able to read the signs.

This is the whole point of history studies, nothing just happens, everything has a cause and effect. Studying the past enables us to identify possible causes and reasons for the ups and down of events, and hopefully allowing us time to plan possible counter measures. The past offers us examples of what has worked and what hasn’t and why. Not that history ever follow the same exact pattern, but humans, being human seem continent to read from a similar script. Peoples concerns are fairly constant, I recall reading many years ago how a young Egyptian mother in the Middle Kingdom, wrote a letter to her absent husband that their teenage son was mixing in bad company, and what should she do.

 Unfortunately humans don’t count long term memory as one of their virtues, sure they can remember their teams’ football results, but ask most citizens to relate the evening news an hour or so, after watching it you would find a large percentage of failures. This is one of the pluses of history study as fortunately most written down in a readable form. We must accept of course that all historical discourse is a particular viewpoint or personal view, but still it offers greater optimism and invaluable insight to events and circumstances at the time. Optimism is necessary to survive , but knowledge of similar past events offers greater advantages. Our current political leaders don’t appear to  offer any great insight, and most don’t seem to have any  understanding of the past, they often give the impression that society continually advances from one high to the next with only minor hiccups. Tell this to current Russian pensioners who no doubt felt after the revolution of 1917 life would improve. They hoped to be looked after in their twilight years, rather than forced to live hand to mouth on a Moscow street.

People are too easily brainwashed into untenable beliefs, history illustrates the continual pitfalls in any faith in lineal development to a better world in human affairs. Our desires and dreams remain the same, but the goal posts are continually moving. Study the past and try to understand when certain events are likely to happen from tell tail signs, only then will you safeguard yourself, your loved ones, and hopefully your country as well. We don’t need another dark age, there is no future in extreme ideologies, the past if it has anything to teach that such ideas only lead to misery and death. We can only counter such a threat by rational logical thought and personal behaviour. Dogma only leads to entrenched positions not solution. Socrates advocated the discipline of thinking about thinking, in order to develop the second-order character of the subject. Reflective thought helps the formation of belief and claims to knowledge about the world. Now is the time to start!