The Power of Perspective
The Right Perspective
History may not seem very important to you personally, right? Who cares about what some dusty, old men did centuries ago in a place you’ve never visited? Well, allow me to retort; it depends on the lens you view it through. In simpler words, what perspective you decide to use makes all the difference. This blog isn’t going to function as a documentary or a textbook. Instead, it’s going to be a playground for us to experiment with ideas, events and historical figures. We will look at history with a critical, contemporary lense.
Perspective is the driving force of history.
Any event you learned about in school, every historical figure you read about in a book has been shaped by an ongoing narrative. The emotions we feel and the lessons we learn from history is decided by us. Without realizing it, we are participating in how society will see our current events in the future.
Look at the 2016 election…we decide how they will remember us.
To hammer this point to you, dear reader, let us look at two titans of Russian history: Ivan the Terrible vs Peter the Great.
Why is one associated with being terrible while the other is revered? Perception. These men were far similar than the “grand historical narrative” likes to admit.
They both:
- Increased Russia’s size and prestige by waging wars and decimating any group of people that stood in their way.
- Restructured Russia using the blood and bone of their own people (no, seriously, Peter included the bones of the workers in his construction projects)
- Murdered their own son and heir.
The list goes on and on. The answer is simple; their legacies were shaped by how people decided to focus on them. Peter “westernized” Russia. Ivan? Well…
Ivan is remembered for murdering his son in a rage. Peter committed filicide as well, but that doesn’t seem to matter…
So, what’s the point I am getting at?
Screw the Narrative
This blog isn’t dedicated to the art of being pedantic and it isn’t supposed to tell you what to think. Instead, I only want to offer a fresh perspective…a new lense for you to use to make your own conclusions.
The goal of this blog is to show you how relevant history still is in our modern, contemporary lives.
Right now, we are deciding the fate of the future and what our lasting legacy will be. How will your great-grandchildren remember your generation? How will they remember you?
People aren’t used to thinking in such a long-term way…
But if you don’t want to end up like poor Ivan here, you need to start asking these hard questions now.
Join me on this journey and let’s decide, together, how this narrative will be written.
