History

       Each generation has the tendency to look backward at history and to the personalities that shaped it, to re-evaluate it and judge its main actors.  Historians evaluate history and historical figures in the normal practice of their profession; most attempt to do this work to a high-standard, scientifically, and without personal prejudice.  However, history is often used as a tool by unscrupulous people within a society to promote their personal and particular points of view; history may be manipulated or re-written to accommodate these purposes.  Though to some degree, the public shows little overt regard for history as something essential to the society, in truth, history has been and remains an integral component of a society’s identity.  

       The honest interpretation of history and the figures that made history is an extremely delicate and difficult task that requires a studied professionalism to achieve.  To look backward into history and to gain any meaningful insight, one must first be able to place aside his own modern and personal views; it is essential to leave aside preconceptions and to construct concepts only on the basis of actual material from the period in question.  Even when a good deal of material is available for a period of history, the researcher must be prepared to accept that the best reconstruction of that period will never be complete.  When a historical figure is the subject of research, the difficulty of reconstructing the life and mentality of that figure increases. To reconstruct a historical figure, a very good understanding of the world that figure lived in is required. Only by first understanding the circumstances around the historical figure can a historian hope to have any understanding of the mentality or actions of the person in question.  In all cases, the depth of understanding that can actually be achieved for any historical period or personage is very limited, more limited than what we can achieve for our own period and public figures alive in our own time.  The gaps in understanding and available historical information leave ample room for creative minds with dubious intentions to base their own theories and agendas on.

        Various politicians, pseudo-historians, obscure political groups, social movements, and those who find a means to personally benefit from creatively manipulating incomplete historical views or the fragmentary understanding of historical personalities do so, with little reserve, and often.  For politicians and fringe political groups, history and historical figures, which an entire society knows about, are useful material to use for bolstering their positions. 

        What better commercial can be found for a politician and a political party, than they are the historical descendants of a Lincoln or a Churchill? To accommodate that commercial, it may be needed to bend history a bit, to change Lincoln’s particular view ever so slightly, they will have Churchill be quoted as having said one thing instead of another; it is possible to re-write history and considered expedient to do so when it serves current needs. This practice is the natural consequence of these politicians and political groups having little value or importance in themselves and thus gaining great benefit from using the historical greats to lift them up. 

       Periodically a new social movement will emerge which promises to advance society in one way or another, usually in opposition to some evil which is perceived as historical in origin. Again, history and historical figures will be manipulated or re-written to serve the current movement in its objectives. 

       Living people are, as a habit, occupied in the pursuit of going about their particular personal interests without an awareness of the  long history and countless lives lived that have unfolded long before they ever existed. Yet without these historical people and their histories, we would not be where we are or doing the things we do today. History and the many lives lived by countless people may be virtually without conscious importance to most living people, but every living person, every society, every custom, every law, tradition,  habit, and fashion we have is derived from them. It is common for living people to follow traditions and customs without really understanding why; as far as they know, this is how things have always been done, this is what they have been taught, and so this is what they do.

       Knowing history, and learning what the origin of our traditions and customs are may be very useful to modern society. Often a tradition or custom originated under particular circumstances and for particular reasons; it may be found that modern circumstances are completely different from those that originated the custom or tradition. In some cases, discarding the tradition or custom would be of benefit to the society. However, to make such a choice consciously and with a rational mind, requires a good understanding of the historical circumstances of that tradition and what the ramifications would be in changing it.

        In many cases laws have been made under certain historical circumstances which have changed in the course of time. Many times it has been found that a law that once worked well for its period became unjust and out of place as times changed. Having a good understanding of the historical circumstances of the law’s origin and how circumstances changed in time have allowed reasonable people to enact reasonable changes to those laws so that they align more harmoniously with modern living people.

       In understanding history and the origins of our modern world, we obtain the informed possibility to rationally view our society and rationally decide what is beneficial to it as well as what is detrimental to it. A good and accurate view of history gives us one more useful tool to constructively manage our lives and the world we live in. History can educate and illuminate society; it can help guide us in difficult choices we face today by showing us, at least partially, what has come before when others have had similar choices.

       One proof of the importance history plays in relation to our modern society can be deduced by how often and how insistently many unscrupulous individuals and governments seek to distort or outright re-write our history. Though we may naturally regard ourselves as superior to generations that have come before us, and view their perspectives as inferior and less developed than our own, we are where we are exactly because of their views, mentalities, and actions; to understand ourselves completely and the world we now live in, it is essential to understand how it came to be. The importance of history to modern people cannot be over stated, the importance of treating it with care is equally difficult to over emphasize; the ease with which it can be misused is frightening, and should, as in such cases, cause each of us to approach it with a critical mind when we see its use in our modern world.