Post by marsatax on Jul 6, 2021 18:32:46 GMT
7 Things You Realize When You Read History
Megan Holstein
Jan 1, 2020
Jan 1, 2020
For most of my life, I have not cared about history. Outside of what history I had to learn for school or for specific research purposes, I simply wasn’t interested. As a result, I knew nothing about history.
However, I’ve spent the last two months learning about history for the first time, and what I’ve learned simultaneously amazes and horrifies me.
However, I’ve spent the last two months learning about history for the first time, and what I’ve learned simultaneously amazes and horrifies me.
1. People are really shitty
Game of Thrones is famous for having characters who are lazy, nasty, manipulative, horrible, and evil. Rape, torture, and genocidal tendencies frequently make appearances in that show. Some of the antagonists in that show are the most unsympathetic characters you could imagine.
Before I knew anything about history, I thought Game of Thrones represented the worst of humanity. After I learned about history, I realized Game of Thrones is tame. The things people throughout history have done, both on an individual level and at scale, are horrible.
My personal favorite is the story of what happened to the body of Gaius Gracchus late in the Roman republic. A man named Opimius, a consul of Rome, had put a bounty on the head of Gaius Gracchus. He said any man who returns the head of Gaius will receive the weight of his head in silver. Rome was in flames while everyone looked for Gaius Gracchus.
Still alive at the time, Gaius fled, but ultimately realized he would not escape. In Rome, honor-based suicide was not uncommon, so he commanded a slave to slash his own neck. His body was left abandoned where it lie. Someone came across it, and, realizing the bounty was still open, made use of his head:
“After his body was found, Gaius’s head was duly cut off and secured by a savvy former supporter. The erstwhile Gracchan carried the head home and “bored a hole in the neck, and drawing out the brain, poured in molten lead in its place.” Then he carefully “stuck the head of Gaius on a spear and brought it to Opimius, and when it was placed in a balance it weighed seventeen pounds and two thirds.” Opimius paid him in full.”
— Mike Duncan, The Storm Before The Storm
This story scandalizes me so much because it shows the worst of humanity; on a mass scale, we’re willing to raze entire cities to terrorize each other. On an individual scale, we’re willing to mutilate bodies we find and fill them with lead, just for a payday.
Game of Thrones is famous for having characters who are lazy, nasty, manipulative, horrible, and evil. Rape, torture, and genocidal tendencies frequently make appearances in that show. Some of the antagonists in that show are the most unsympathetic characters you could imagine.
Before I knew anything about history, I thought Game of Thrones represented the worst of humanity. After I learned about history, I realized Game of Thrones is tame. The things people throughout history have done, both on an individual level and at scale, are horrible.
My personal favorite is the story of what happened to the body of Gaius Gracchus late in the Roman republic. A man named Opimius, a consul of Rome, had put a bounty on the head of Gaius Gracchus. He said any man who returns the head of Gaius will receive the weight of his head in silver. Rome was in flames while everyone looked for Gaius Gracchus.
Still alive at the time, Gaius fled, but ultimately realized he would not escape. In Rome, honor-based suicide was not uncommon, so he commanded a slave to slash his own neck. His body was left abandoned where it lie. Someone came across it, and, realizing the bounty was still open, made use of his head:
“After his body was found, Gaius’s head was duly cut off and secured by a savvy former supporter. The erstwhile Gracchan carried the head home and “bored a hole in the neck, and drawing out the brain, poured in molten lead in its place.” Then he carefully “stuck the head of Gaius on a spear and brought it to Opimius, and when it was placed in a balance it weighed seventeen pounds and two thirds.” Opimius paid him in full.”
— Mike Duncan, The Storm Before The Storm
This story scandalizes me so much because it shows the worst of humanity; on a mass scale, we’re willing to raze entire cities to terrorize each other. On an individual scale, we’re willing to mutilate bodies we find and fill them with lead, just for a payday.
2. Most people who have ever lived had terrible lives
Nearly everyone from history, terrible and not-terrible alike, had terrible lives. Up until very recently in human history, people all over the world, rich and poor alike, struggled with:
Fatal disease and regular plagues
Nearly everyone from history, terrible and not-terrible alike, had terrible lives. Up until very recently in human history, people all over the world, rich and poor alike, struggled with:
Fatal disease and regular plagues
A sky-high child mortality rate
Regular food shortages and famine
A nearly-constant state of war
These things don’t plague the citizens of modern first-world nations. But historically, even the most advanced civilizations were still taken out regularly by threats like these. For the people who lived in these civilizations, learning to deal with the death of a child or a disease wiping out a fifth of your town was just another part of being alive.
While there are now parts of the world where these things aren't a problem, there are still many parts of the world that are. Starvation and war still terrorize areas like Syria and South Sudan. Even some areas of the US still struggle with food shortages. We've come a long way, but we still have a long way to go.
These things don’t plague the citizens of modern first-world nations. But historically, even the most advanced civilizations were still taken out regularly by threats like these. For the people who lived in these civilizations, learning to deal with the death of a child or a disease wiping out a fifth of your town was just another part of being alive.
While there are now parts of the world where these things aren't a problem, there are still many parts of the world that are. Starvation and war still terrorize areas like Syria and South Sudan. Even some areas of the US still struggle with food shortages. We've come a long way, but we still have a long way to go.
3. Everything you think you know about life is wrong
We all have a set of preconceived notions we accept without question that we inherit from our parents, friends, and our culture at large. For a white American, these notions include ideas like:
love-based monogamy is the best style for a relationship
having a good career and making money is one of the most important things people can do with their lives
the purpose of human life is to maximize potential
murder and war are not desirable and should be avoided
When you study history, you will eventually find counterexamples for almost every preconceived notion you have.
While most societies throughout history have featured some kind of marriage, these marriages were taken to be business contracts, not agreements about monogamy. One or both partners were frequently not faithful, and this was not always a problem.
In many societies, being a merchant or going into business was considered an inferior vocation. Many societies honored political participation and scholarly pursuits over business ownership.
America has a very self-oriented way of looking at life. Many societies did not. In many civilizations, the purpose of human life was not its own satisfaction, but service to the larger civilization.
Many civilizations regarded expansion as one of their moral imperatives. They felt that they were either expanding or dying. There exist societies throughout history whose sole purpose was to make war. For humanity, the idea that war is something we must necessarily avoid is new.
It’s safe to assume that if you have a preconceived notion about something, it’s very unlikely that all humans who have ever existed had the same preconceived notion. This gives you a healthy dose of humility about your own beliefs.
It’s safe to assume that if you have a preconceived notion about something, it’s very unlikely that all humans who have ever existed had the same preconceived notion. This gives you a healthy dose of humility about your own beliefs.
4. The way the world works is arbitrary
In 1200 B.C., the world was working pretty well. Thanks to major kingdoms like the Egyptian Empire, the Mycenaean kingdoms, and Babylonia, trade routes allowed people in the ancient world to access many goods and services. Literacy was not unheard of (most aristocrats and merchants knew how to read), and people had access to what they needed.
By 1150 B.C., the world had collapsed. According to Wikipedia:
The half-century between c. 1200 and 1150 BC saw the cultural collapse of the Mycenaean kingdoms, of the Kassite dynasty of Babylonia, of the Hittite Empire in Anatolia and the Levant, and of the Egyptian Empire;[1] the destruction of Ugarit and the Amorite states in the Levant, the fragmentation of the Luwian states of western Asia Minor, and a period of chaos in Canaan.
The effects of this were enormous. Literacy rates plummeted. People suffered from starvation and plagues. Quality of life dropped precipitously.
Within a period of forty to fifty years at the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the twelfth century almost every significant city in the eastern Mediterranean world was destroyed, many of them never to be occupied again.
— Robert Drews, Historian
But what if these empires hadn’t collapsed. What if the ancient Egyptian Empire survived as a major world power? Would philosophers and politicians have transitioned to a representative style of government, or would we have persisted with state-religion monarchies?
You can ask this question of any change in history. What if the Roman Empire hadn’t collapsed? We would not have lost prized ways of handcrafting goods and services. Would human society have industrialized?
Looking back, it seems like advancements like representative governments and industrialization were bound to happen, but that’s our cognitive biases at play. If certain people in history had made one choice instead of another, we would have been living in a vastly different world today. The reason we’re not living in a vastly different world is simply that they didn’t.
This attitude enables me to question the construction of society around me. What societal norms of those around me are simply things we do because that’s the way it’s done? What norms could I take part in changing? Which aspects of society are fundamental to humanity, and which aspects are invented?
In 1200 B.C., the world was working pretty well. Thanks to major kingdoms like the Egyptian Empire, the Mycenaean kingdoms, and Babylonia, trade routes allowed people in the ancient world to access many goods and services. Literacy was not unheard of (most aristocrats and merchants knew how to read), and people had access to what they needed.
By 1150 B.C., the world had collapsed. According to Wikipedia:
The half-century between c. 1200 and 1150 BC saw the cultural collapse of the Mycenaean kingdoms, of the Kassite dynasty of Babylonia, of the Hittite Empire in Anatolia and the Levant, and of the Egyptian Empire;[1] the destruction of Ugarit and the Amorite states in the Levant, the fragmentation of the Luwian states of western Asia Minor, and a period of chaos in Canaan.
The effects of this were enormous. Literacy rates plummeted. People suffered from starvation and plagues. Quality of life dropped precipitously.
Within a period of forty to fifty years at the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the twelfth century almost every significant city in the eastern Mediterranean world was destroyed, many of them never to be occupied again.
— Robert Drews, Historian
But what if these empires hadn’t collapsed. What if the ancient Egyptian Empire survived as a major world power? Would philosophers and politicians have transitioned to a representative style of government, or would we have persisted with state-religion monarchies?
You can ask this question of any change in history. What if the Roman Empire hadn’t collapsed? We would not have lost prized ways of handcrafting goods and services. Would human society have industrialized?
Looking back, it seems like advancements like representative governments and industrialization were bound to happen, but that’s our cognitive biases at play. If certain people in history had made one choice instead of another, we would have been living in a vastly different world today. The reason we’re not living in a vastly different world is simply that they didn’t.
This attitude enables me to question the construction of society around me. What societal norms of those around me are simply things we do because that’s the way it’s done? What norms could I take part in changing? Which aspects of society are fundamental to humanity, and which aspects are invented?
5. The world can go from peaceful to war-torn overnight
In June 1914, the European nations were at peace with one another. In August 1914, just two months later, almost every European nation was engulfed in World War I, the bloodiest conflict the world had ever seen. The world went from peaceful to hellish over the course of just thirty days.
Before studying history, I thought people who were afraid of nuclear disasters or global conflicts were just worrywarts. I thought global catastrophes didn’t happen overnight, especially in our internet-connected world. After studying history, I realize that while global catastrophes often come with some kind of warning sign, it’s often not the kind most people understand. After all, if we understood red flags for what they were, global catastrophes wouldn’t come to pass.
In the nuclear age, the threat of total war looms even larger. Most nuclear powers have what is called a first-use policy, meaning they have agreed not to be the first person to detonate nuclear weapons. However, not every nuclear power does — countries like Pakistan have no-first-use policy, meaning they are willing to be the first person to use nuclear weapons in a conflict. And once one person starts firing nukes, everyone does.
In June 1914, the European nations were at peace with one another. In August 1914, just two months later, almost every European nation was engulfed in World War I, the bloodiest conflict the world had ever seen. The world went from peaceful to hellish over the course of just thirty days.
Before studying history, I thought people who were afraid of nuclear disasters or global conflicts were just worrywarts. I thought global catastrophes didn’t happen overnight, especially in our internet-connected world. After studying history, I realize that while global catastrophes often come with some kind of warning sign, it’s often not the kind most people understand. After all, if we understood red flags for what they were, global catastrophes wouldn’t come to pass.
In the nuclear age, the threat of total war looms even larger. Most nuclear powers have what is called a first-use policy, meaning they have agreed not to be the first person to detonate nuclear weapons. However, not every nuclear power does — countries like Pakistan have no-first-use policy, meaning they are willing to be the first person to use nuclear weapons in a conflict. And once one person starts firing nukes, everyone does.
6. You realize you can become anything
Generally speaking, women and minorities are oppressed. But even in the most oppressive societies that have existed, there have still been female and minority emperors, conquerors, and other important figures.
For instance, Roman emperor Justinian married a woman named Theodora. Theodora started her life as an actress — a job that, in Rome, often included sexual performances and sexual services provided off-stage. In other words, as a prostitute. That didn’t stop heir to the throne Justinian from falling hopelessly in love with her, despite the pairing being against Roman law.
Generally speaking, women and minorities are oppressed. But even in the most oppressive societies that have existed, there have still been female and minority emperors, conquerors, and other important figures.
For instance, Roman emperor Justinian married a woman named Theodora. Theodora started her life as an actress — a job that, in Rome, often included sexual performances and sexual services provided off-stage. In other words, as a prostitute. That didn’t stop heir to the throne Justinian from falling hopelessly in love with her, despite the pairing being against Roman law.
7. Even in the worst moments, something good can happen
World War I was a bloodbath. But even in the midst of that bloodbath, good things happened. Consider the Christmas Truce of 1914:
The Christmas truce (German: Weihnachtsfrieden; French: Trêve de Noël) was a series of widespread unofficial ceasefires along the Western Front of World War I around Christmas 1914.
…In the week leading up to the 25th, French, German, and British soldiers crossed trenches to exchange seasonal greetings and talk. In some areas, men from both sides ventured into no man’s land on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to mingle and exchange food and souvenirs. There were joint burial ceremonies and prisoner swaps, while several meetings ended in carol-singing. Men played games of football with one another, creating one of the most memorable images of the truce. Fighting continued in some sectors, while in others the sides settled on little more than arrangements to recover bodies.
— Wikipedia, Christmas truce
The ceasefire was not orchestrated from above or commanded as part of foreign policy. Soldiers in the trenches fighting on both sides of the war just… stopped. It was as if American Marines and Afghani terrorists just stopped shelling each other for a little while and decided to play some baseball instead. Holidays or no, that’s amazing.
World War I was a bloodbath. But even in the midst of that bloodbath, good things happened. Consider the Christmas Truce of 1914:
The Christmas truce (German: Weihnachtsfrieden; French: Trêve de Noël) was a series of widespread unofficial ceasefires along the Western Front of World War I around Christmas 1914.
…In the week leading up to the 25th, French, German, and British soldiers crossed trenches to exchange seasonal greetings and talk. In some areas, men from both sides ventured into no man’s land on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to mingle and exchange food and souvenirs. There were joint burial ceremonies and prisoner swaps, while several meetings ended in carol-singing. Men played games of football with one another, creating one of the most memorable images of the truce. Fighting continued in some sectors, while in others the sides settled on little more than arrangements to recover bodies.
— Wikipedia, Christmas truce
The ceasefire was not orchestrated from above or commanded as part of foreign policy. Soldiers in the trenches fighting on both sides of the war just… stopped. It was as if American Marines and Afghani terrorists just stopped shelling each other for a little while and decided to play some baseball instead. Holidays or no, that’s amazing.
