Yes Bill, we appeal to history. The question remains who judges? Who says what it means?
KKK is an historical fact in America’s South. But what does it mean? What did it mean for the people involved on all sides at the time? What does it mean today?
What is the history of the conquistadors?
It depends on who tells the story.
Research endeavors to uncover the facts. However, history doesn’t only refer to facts, it attempts to put the facts into context. That leaves us back where we started, with each person bringing their own life history into the mix.
Ultimately, history is simply the set of stories we pass on.
Referring back to Mandy’s post that began this thread, her message seems to be that each of us interprets the past based on our own knowledge. This may include other people’s research and opinions we encounter, as well as first hand knowledge. It is well known that memories may alter to suit preexisting biases, or that aspects are simply forgotten, or events that never happened filled-in to make a complete story.
Others, may say our story does not gel with the facts as they know them, but they too may be mistaken, or have a specific agenda that they are pushing.
Say your history is one of being in an abusive relationship. Often, the person is trapped because the abuser can be extremely loving before an abusive episode, but then turns, and afterwards is again very sorry and loving. The abused person hangs on hoping to ‘save’ the abuser, so their better side blossoms.
As the abused, how should you remember this time in your life? Do you remember the pain and suffering and allow it to darken your life today. Or do you remember the good times and understand that the abuser too suffered. That they were trapped by their own jealousy or pain from abuse in their life. Do you remember their pain and forgive them and move on. Do you now realise that you could not change them, because it was their pain that motivated them? Or perhaps they really were psychopathic, without a shed of empathy. And being born this way was their lot, not something you could change. Do you now remember the signals that alert you to an abusive nature, so you don’t fall into the trap again, Or do you remember all the pain you suffered and the lost opportunities and regrets. The lost opportunities are just stories you tell yourself, because they never happened. They just add to you pain today.
The past always exists as a memory and memory is not only or even primarily factual. It is not encoded like a computer program that is simply retrieved. It is reconstructed every time it is recalled.
Mandy is suggesting that formulating negative stories in our heads about the past (say as a victim of abuse) does not help us now. Instead, we should look to what we remember of the past to learn what we can to make our present better.
If you change the story in your head, you do change your past in so far as it affects the present. And the story in your head, is the only past you know.
