No Past, No Future
Can we evaluate the past by the standards of the present? Numerous seem intent on showing not just that we can, but that we must. Social critic Douglas Murray does not agree, and he discusses why in this thought-provoking video.
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Script:.
What kind of future do we have if we damage our past?
Has anybody who has pulled down a statue of Churchill, Lincoln, or Columbus thought to ask themselves this concern?
I doubt it.
The anticipation that we can stand in perfect judgment over the lives of historic figures is not merely absurd and unreasonable, it’s hazardous.
Consider what the statue destroyers are, in impact, stating.
They are stating that individuals in history should have understood what we know.
That’s identical to stating, they should have understood the future.
This is, of course, ridiculous.
Yet increasingly more, individuals believe it.
Why?
Simple.
It’s what they are taught.
It is the fruit of an education system that long earlier focused on “compassion” over facts; that thinks the ultimate point of history is not to learn lessons from it, but to judge it from the pre-ordained left-wing conclusions about such ill-defined concepts as social justice, equity, and tolerance.
Apart from reproducing lack of knowledge, this kind of education welcomes the student (the kid, really) to be judge, jury, and executioner over concerns that they (and progressively their instructors) know little or nothing about.
Because nobody has actually bothered to teach them the subtlety, intricacy, and context that is history.
It also breeds conceit:.
” I understand things these people did not know. They have nothing to teach me.
And down comes the statue.
A new, “better” history should take the place of the old one.
In America this impulse has actually culminated in The 1619 Project– an effort begun by The New York Times and now in schools all over– which attempts to make the arrival of the first African slaves into the American colonies the fundamental date of the American republic.
In the new history that was simply about safeguarding the Founders’ servant interests. These men– some of the most exceptional humans to have lived at any time– are to be understood simply by their mindset towards this one concern.
The 1619 Project looks for to represent America– the freest, most thriving country in world history– as extraordinary just in one respect: insofar as being extremely bad.
This is an actively devastating view of history. It is one intended to take down rather than build up.
A healthy, humane, and– in the truest sense– liberal mind does not view history as a simple playpen for our ethical judgment. It acknowledges that individuals in the past acted on the information they had, simply as we do today.
Sure, it would have been good if the Founders of America had eliminated slavery in its Constitution. A compromise balancing the interests of the northern states and the southern states was reached.
It would have been great if the Japanese had actually surrendered before atom bombs were dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but they didn’t. President Truman needed to make his choice based on the details he had at the time– that an Allied invasion of the Japanese home island would cost a minimum of a million lives, both Japanese and american.
Of course, the woke mind hates these subtleties. It knows that it is best which everyone before our current age– year zero– ought to have known much better. Anyhow, they were all bigots. Why should we give them any benefit of the doubt, not to mention appreciate them or gain from them?
Well, maybe due to the fact that, like everybody else, the terrific figures of the past did the very best they could under the circumstances in which they discovered themselves. That their efforts mostly succeeded is why we are here.
For the total script see https://www.prageru.com/video/no-past-no-future.
source
Can we judge the past by the requirements of the present?” I know things these people did not understand. In the new history that was just about securing the Founders’ servant interests. These guys– some of the most impressive humans to have lived at any time– are to be comprehended just by their attitude towards this one problem.
It understands that it is ideal and that everybody before our present age– year zero– must have known much better.
