It seems we’re
entering another of those stupid seasons humans impose on themselves at
fairly regular intervals. I am sketching out here opinions based on
information, they may prove right, or may prove wrong, and they’re
intended just to challenge and be part of a wider dialogue.
My
background is archaeology, so also history and anthropology. It leads
me to look at big historical patterns. My theory is that most peoples’
perspective of history is limited to the experience communicated by
their parents and grandparents, so 50–100 years. To go beyond that you
have to read, study, and learn to untangle the propaganda that is
inevitable in all telling of history. In a nutshell, at university I
would fail a paper if I didn’t compare at least two, if not three
opposing views on a topic. Taking one telling of events as gospel
doesn’t wash in the comparative analytical method of research that forms
the core of British academia. (I can’t speak for other systems, but
they’re definitely not all alike in this way).
So
zooming out, we humans have a habit of going into phases of mass
destruction, generally self imposed to some extent or another. This handy list shows all the wars over time.
Wars are actually the norm for humans, but every now and then something
big comes along. I am interested in the Black Death, which devastated
Europe. The opening of Boccaccio’s Decameron describes Florence
in the grips of the Plague. It is as beyond imagination as the Somme,
Hiroshima, or the Holocaust. I mean, you quite literally can’t put
yourself there and imagine what it was like. For those in the midst of
the Plague it must have felt like the end of the world.
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