Skip to main content

Does History Repeat Itself?

The appearance of a repetitive history — or, as Mark Twain might describe it, a rhyming refrain — may strike witnesses this way only because this is the exclusive manner in which they may individually integrate or relate the new material to already-fastened ideas of the world. 

 Much as it is difficult to read script not printed upon a page or to accurately interpret intentions, witnesses to history may only perceive and translate information through the lenses of prior experience and the limits of language — of course far removed from relevant time and circumstances in space — which expediently allow them to usefully yet incompletely comprehend, report and personally respond to these events. 

 Due to the ubiquity of such likeminded, nearly diluted and simplified conceptualizations of the world, we will often thus encounter individuals of similar, incomplete yet thematic dispositions regarding worldly affairs. Our respective incapacities to relate or digest alternative scenarios, foreign customs, and sharper tellings of history, however, remain insufficient to effectively reduce the world’s many characters, various behaviors, and their near-infinite outcomes to practical terms on a timeline. Their many nuances prove unwieldy and, therefore, commonly elude general consideration to yield to the convenient condensation of material which, by nature of superficial description, only appears to resemble everything else that has been sterilized in the same manner for ease of reporting and remembrance.

 Ultimately, this may prove that history’s semblance of repetition is nothing more than a function of the popular desire to observe and preserve it that way, removing or adding blemishes where useful, and forgetting, dismissing or editorializing where convenient.   

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Deal with Tariffs

Over the course of President Trump’s two terms, there has been much talk around the matter of tariffs — taxes on imported goods. However, much of the talk seems to miss the point. After all, for those of us who seek the truth, it’s not really a question of whether tariffs are ‘good’ but whether they are preferable to other kinds of taxes — assuming, of course, that taxes are the rule, as certain as the eventuality of death. First, let’s establish the theory: beyond the generic purpose of revenue generation for the state, the institution of tariffs ordinarily serves to  reduce (or discourage) imports by making them artificially more expensive, while encouraging domestic production by making domestic products more appealing on a relative price basis. In the realm of foreign affairs, tariffs are instituted or threatened in the course of international trade negotiations in order to signal dissatisfaction with existing trade barriers and to push for more favorable trade terms; or in ord...
Post a Comment
Read more

Fischer: Tortured in the Pasadena Jailhouse (featuring the Morals of Chess by Benjamin Franklin)

Buy your copy today of  Fischer: Tortured in the Pasadena Jailhouse (featuring the Morals of Chess by Benjamin Franklin) , available at  Amazon  and Barnes & Noble . The name Bobby Fischer reigns supreme in the world of chess, yet there was a time when it hogged headlines, struck fear into the eyes of the competition, and was on the lips of folks all across the globe. More than the face of the centuries-old game, there was a time when Bobby Fischer was synonymous with the cause and spirit of America, that his moves on the chessboard sought more than checkmate but to pit the strength of “raw-boned American individualism” against “the Soviet megalithic system” which had come to dominate the game of chess at the same time it dominated Cold War politics. Fischer’s triumph over the USSR's Boris Spassky in the ’72 World Chess Championship would ultimately be celebrated as a symbolic and diplomatic victory for the U.S., but, as time would tell, it would not mean the American...
Post a Comment
Read more

Asiana Airlines Flight 214’s Over-Reliance on Automation

On the sixth of June, 2013, Asiana Airlines Flight 214 departed Incheon International Airport near the capital city of Seoul, South Korea. Its destination: San Francisco International Airport. Unfortunately for the crew and the passengers of Flight 214, that destination wouldn’t come without incident. On final approach, the aircraft would come up just short of the runway, the landing gear impacting the seawall, causing the Boeing 777 to tumble and the tail section to break off after impact. For the crew of Flight 214, this would prove to be the ultimate test and, for the total 307 souls on board, the most poignant lesson in the risks posed by misunderstood technologies, the dangers of unintuitive systems operated by fallible human beings, and the extreme costs incurred in matters of human life. In terms of numbers, for Flight 214 that cost begins at the three lives lost, the 187 who were injured, and all who suffered and who carry the trauma of the incident. As is the case in virtually...
Post a Comment
Read more