November 2013
AGAIN OR NOT
A more common attitude toward history than some of us would like to admit may be summarized in statements such as these:
“I don’t know or care much about long ago. But I know what I believe. I care about me and mine. So just tell me how I can get what I want.”
Does this sound a little self-centered? Perhaps a bit selfish?
Published during World War II in a book titled “Everybody’s Political What’s What”, George Bernard Shaw put it this way when talking about the decline of England’s landed aristocracy and the rise of the merchant class:
“When the development of commerce forced the universities to add political economy to their curriculum, it was tolerated and even welcomed as proving that a business policy of entire selfishness, politely called individualism, would automatically produce continuous employment at subsistence wages for the whole population, headed by a superior class in sufficient affluence to accumulate capital and maintain culture. . . “
Whatever view one may hold regarding “individualism”, “business policy” , and college education, a couple of things are known without doubt:
- Most of those in positions of power have graduated from college
- What is taught in colleges influences the beliefs of students
More generally the views and opinions of all of us are set by known causes:
- what happens to us
- what those important to us have said is true
- what we have read
- what we have seen on television or on the movie screen
- how others respond to what we say or do
In other words, our beliefs are a result of our experience.
Nothing is unclear about that.
In turn, our beliefs and opinions determine the frustration, the confusion, or the clarity that we have when we react to what we see, hear, or read about things that happen:
- beyond our house
- across our town
- in another city
- in another state
- in another nation
- anywhere in the world
Writers of history books and film makers of documentaries feed upon our desire to know:
- what is now happening
- what has happened in the past
- how such events have shaped our world
- how our future lives may be changed by those events
Most of us remain curious about what happens in world around us and why things turn out the way they do unless we have chosen:
- to go it alone
- to pay attention to no one but ourselves
- to ignore anything that exists outside of our personal lives
If we ignore others and others ignore us, is there any meaning left in the concept of “society”, of “nation”, of “country”? Or are each of us simply left to fend for ourselves regardless of the hand we may be dealt by bad circumstances or misfortune?
I prefer to believe in the possibility:
- that everyone may be secure in their prospects for life
- that no one must live in wretched poverty
- that none will be left to die from a preventable or treatable disease
There are many who share this hope.
However, none of us claim that all of our beliefs are absolutely true. We know that we have sometimes been mistaken. Since a monopoly on truth is held by no one, it is sometimes useful to consider the contrary view of one who may have a different opinion than our own.
In life it is quite common to find ourselves primarily focussed upon our immediate needs and concerns. One of the wonderful things about books is the possibility they provide for us to look at a larger panorama of life and the greater world - both past and present- in which we have lived and are living.
For past generations of Americans, for much of the Twentieth Century, and even to this day the idea of on-going “progress” in a positive sense has been a widely accepted view.
When it comes to the historical “Big Picture”, William Ophuls is one who perfectly fits our need for a contrary point of view. Mr. Ophuls has authored the book, “Immoderate Greatness: Why Civilizations Fail”.
At one point in his book Mr. Ophuls writes:
“. . .civilizations suffer from a structural incapacity to respond to altered circumstances.
It could not be otherwise. Institutions are by their very nature resistant to change, for if not, society would be in constant state of flux. As time goes on, institutions therefore grow steadily more hidebound, inflexible, and unresponsive.”
The rigid divide in our current day Congress and in our country is enough to let us know what being unresponsive means.
Perhaps we should give history a second chance.
For a quick and easy read of how and for what reasons civilizations rise and fall take a look at William Ophuls’ book:
“Immoderate Greatness: Why Civilizations Fail”
An e-book version is available from Amazon.com for $4.99.
