history ~ upon the shoulders

I have recently discovered this man. He rocks and rolls, people. If you're into history conversation, the type you'd find among history nerds at the water cooler, then check out his podcasts. If you don't have an iPod, you can still get iTunes ~ its free ~ and download the casts and listen to them on iTunes. Anyway, here's what his words have stirred up in me so far. Expand the post to read more.

We, existing fully and consciously in the now, stand upon the shoulders of those who have gone before us ~ of those actors who have played out our history. Human nature binds us all into this matrix, in which we find ourselves. Do the winners write history? If so, then, how can we really know history? For, what of those who lost ... what of the worthy, yet much obscured, lost cause? What of men such as Tecumseh? And Vercingetorix? Did their outcomes - loss - render their cause, their vision worthy of knowing?

Are the winners, in history, necessarily correct? Don't we need to see both sides, before really learning the lessons that history begs to teach us? Why do we revere Alexander the Great, and Constantine, yet despise Hitler? Does the same distance which provides objectivity, also remove the passionate context from these figures? In 2500 years, will humans view Hitler in the same light that we, today, view Alexander the Great and Constantine? What's real? I remember learning about Constantine in Catholic school as a great man, not a brute who had his wife and son, among others, killed. How do we, who find ourselves here, and not there, know? Can we ever achieve accomplish the production of an accurate historical record? How do we utilize the stories of history ... to move forward?

Does it matter so much how the Cold War transacted itself over four decades? Or does it matter more that certain key moments and individuals in history provided the hinge upon which the Cold War swung? Can we really analyze historical events without considering their context, and the context of the major players? Do we need to consider that each person, each decision-maker, represents an entire vision, an entire culmination of life experiences and moments? Does this make a difference ... in what we grasp from history? And how it shapes us in the here and now?

I find myself drawn to dialectical process of analysing events that occur in society ~ past and present. I find history most fascinating when I pick at it ... bits and pieces that seem to fit together, despite existing in different time realms. Such as these . We forget, in our haste to react, that this has happened before to humanity ... at some point. Why do we harbour such conceit and arrogance about our superiority? So much has gone before us ... and yet, in some ways we remain blinded to the real lessons of humanity. Intriguing. How we understand so much of the universe, yet fail to understand the most important element ~ humanity. I wonder what would happen if we stopped destroying each other long enough realize that our individual self-awareness exists, only due to the existence of other humans, different or alike.