Your History Teacher Got It All Wrong (Shocker)
What history has really taught us
If history has taught us anything…
In the past year or so, I feel this phrase has made an abnormal resurgence. Beyond being an obvious cliche, we use this saying as a catch-all explanation to capture anything complex. We use it to explain why people make certain choices or why trends come and go; to belittle our enemies and uplift our closest friends. As someone who has a deep passion for history, I can say there is a tinge of regret in how nonchalant this phrase is used, not because it isn’t accurate or appropriate, but because history actually does teach us a lot — but rarely do people give history the time of day.
While researching, I discovered that the origin of this phrase is attributed to The Godfather, Part II:
“If anything in life is certain, if history has taught us anything, it is that you can kill anyone.”
While I have no doubt these words were circulating long before Michael Corleone’s nefarious warning, the phrase illustrates one main point: history is subjective, and so too are the lessons derived from it.
If we think of history in its simplest definition, then history is just the study of past events. The current moment is the present, the future is yet to come, and the rest is history — quite literally. What you did yesterday is history, even if all you did is eat ice cream and watch your favorite shows.
Trust me, centuries from now, historians will be dying to know how people filled their time in the early 21st century.
As a society, we have been forced to reflect on many social, economic, and political underpinnings of society — AKA our history. Do our current systems work? Probably not. Can we change them? Yes, but will we? Who knows. As I was reflecting on what history has taught us, in the context of our contemporary struggles, these are the conclusions I drew.
Lesson 1: If history has taught us anything, it’s just what humans are capable of
I mean this in both a positive and a negative sense. In the past few hundred years alone, humans have discovered calculus, created masterpieces, and achieved greater equality than ever before (this is not to say we don’t still have a lot of work to do). Conversely, humans enacted genocides on others, both humans and animals, created weapons that threaten Earthly survival and exacerbated global warming. Each of these has a subjective weight, and I am not here to lecture you to be proud or ashamed of what our species has accomplished.
Looking at those examples alone surely prompts more ideas that figure on both sides of the scale. Our history is littered with innovation and destruction, which gives us a glimpse into our present and our future.
Many people subscribe to the idea that the possibilities of the future are endless, but this is usually framed in the context of positive opportunities: achieving our dream career; humans living on Mars someday; and lofty visions of telling stories to our grandchildren on our porch.
And this is fine, but it’s also a delusion to think the endless possibilities do not include more perilous events. These aren’t necessarily harder to imagine, but who wants to think of their future as filled with pain or trying times?
I am both terrified and galvanized with how recent some of the most monumental events in history were, such as the Rwandan Genocide or the invention of the internet — both of which happened in the 90s. We are capable of so much, and with our current rate of technological innovation, it should be expected that the future holds vast opportunities — good and bad.
Lesson 2: If history has taught us anything, it’s that we can’t predict what’s important
When we read a book or an article that is well written and littered with evidence, we are apt to believe the author’s words as objective truth. This is really not the fault of our own — our primary education, at least in America, sanctions unquestionable acceptance of authority, a habit we take with us into our adult lives.
But inquiry and knowledge of any kind — including history — should not be seen as an objective study. In fact, you should question my argument right now.
I recently read an article that highlighted how history is an interpretive process, and further, one riddled with power dynamics. Why are certain stories told to us, and not others? Who decided to place Rosa Parks on a pedestal, but not her equally committed contemporary, Fanny Lou Hammer?
The point is not to say everything should be equally weighed in historical memory — not only is it impossible to track every person or event with striking detail, but our human brains can only store and recall so much information effectively.
In that sense, which of today’s current events will be remembered is not up to us to decide. The future, with its own moral lens and priorities to hash out, will look back on the early 21st century and make its own opinion of what was important.
If the future is unpredictable, we might as well lean into this world’s chaos and do what truly speaks to us. Currently, society looks down upon video gamers as “wasting time,” but what if in 100 years, our world is just a virtual reality universe? Our progeny will look back on the early 21st century as the beginnings of their society, and that’s pretty cool.
We cannot predict what the future will deem important, but we can try our best to influence our posterity by staying true to what matters to us. I find that incredibly liberating.
Lesson 3: If history has taught us anything, it’s that people are terrible listeners
This lesson is derived from the words of writer André Gide, who said:
“Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But, since no one was listening, everything must be said again.”
I came across this quote in the book Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon, who used the quote to inspire creativity. And ironically, I’m using Gide’s words, ones that were said over a century ago, for my own argument. Case in point.
In my previous post about Stoicism, I spoke of the lessons I derived from Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations, which was written almost 2000 years ago! Yet with every page flipped (or more accurately swiped because I used a reader), the lessons were so elemental that it could have been written yesterday and landed a spot on New York Times bestseller list as a self-help book.
In this sense, why we exist is very puzzling. We have the same existential issues with each coming century because people have terrible listening skills. History is constantly repeating itself because even if humanity learns a lesson the hard way, within a couple of hundred years, the empathetic attachment has run dry and humans are destined to make the same mistake again, but with new justifications.
I would like to think that our burgeoning liberalism and individualistic ideals mean we will not return to the likes of American slavery or European colonialism. But as I mentioned earlier, if history has taught us anything, it is what humans are capable of.
In terms of how we go from here, I don’t have all the answers. If we look at history through this lens — that people are terrible listeners — then maybe we can fix the root of the problem: communication of the past.
But who knows. These words will probably be written again in a fully holographic book in 150 years. Maybe next time they’ll get it right.
