I was recently talking to a high school sophomore about her favorite subject in school (World History) and why (her teacher was talking to them about buying lab-created diamonds vs. natural). "Ah!" I said. "He was making a point about Blood Diamonds!" Yes, she agreed. To which I replied, "Yep. History was always my favorite subject, too. Almost all important lessons are clearer through history."
After I said that, it hit me: this is one of the biggest challenges that our Always-On, 24x7, Connected Culture has stolen from us. The opportunity for the reflection that only works because it can include hindsight. My husband always balks at the phrase, "Hindsight is 20-20" because he maintains that people don't really learn from the past. I fervently disagree. In fact, I'd say the ONLY meaningful lessons I've ever truly internalized are because of hindsight.
An undergrad writing teacher once talked about how the different formats an author can choose are good for different purposes:
I was reminded of this as I talked to this young lady about the value of history in an adult's life. As a first-generation American, a World-o and a geopolitical nerd, historical lessons might have some moderate value to managing my own frustrations, but I've had several people pushback on the idea that they had much more practical application than that.
I've been thinking about this a lot lately. The Atlantic recently had a cover story about the rise of autocracy and why this incarnation differs from previous versions. And as I was reading it, I remember thinking to myself, "Yeah, but this is precisely what history has shown us...."
If you study history, it's clear that people are always people. Some are innately convinced of the good within humanity (e.g Ghandi, Eleanor Roosevelt, etc.), some are assholes obsessed with their own power (e.g. Hitler, Stalin, etc.), and most are somewhere in between (e.g. damn near everyone else).
But the real lens, I find, is history. How do actions stack up over time? What are the patterns that emerge and tell a much bigger story than any singular action can on its own? How does behavior look in the rear view mirror? Not always great, to be sure. FDR's imprisonment of Japanese-Americans doesn't stand scrutiny well. But 100-years from now? Who knows? We could be on the wrong end of a losing battle against racism that makes FDR look pragmatic. Does that make him right? Does that make him wrong? That is a question each of us has to answer for ourselves, but history and it's distance, lens and perspective can help.
To be fair, it doesn't turn the gray areas or moral ambiguity black-and-white. But is that really what we expect? Moral ambiguity is ambiguous because it is complicated. Do I trust anyone -- history, technology, other people -- to distill it down into bite-sized enough pieces for me to easily consume? No. Not at all. What I love -- truly and completely love -- about history is its messiness. It's complexity. It's ability to be seen via different point of view over different times, and with different lenses that may or may not actually matter.
While facts themselves may be objective, interpretation, motivation and rationale are all a matter of perspective. In our 24/7, always-plugged-in-world of digital everything, one of the things we routinely eliminate from our lives is quiet space between other things that allows us some room to THINK -- without distractions, flashing screens or background noise. Just to think and reflect. Once we do, the thing that quickly becomes obvious is that with enough time and reflection, everything can take on a different view -- even the things that seem very black-and-white at the time.
I hope that your holiday season is peaceful and relaxing, and that it includes the space you need for some personal reflection.
Great news: starting on Jan 19th, Lawrence and I will be getting back to our weekly podcast of Grow or Die. (Available on YouTube, Spotify, iTunes and Audible/Amazon.)
Happy New Year!
