How easily can you frame the happenings of today against the backdrop of the past?
There are progressions of choices and events that led us inexorably to the issues we face today.
I never thought much about this until I encountered a professor with amazing historical awareness. He draws on history from the recent to the ancient, tapping into sociology psychology anthropology paleontology archaeology and cosmology to put forth some propositions that are amazingly compelling ways of understanding the now that we all face.
Do you think this is a valuable skill? Would it be worth devoting some time to developing?
If you think it’s valuable what might we do to present in a more meaningful and effective way, particularly to our young people?
© 2026 – SoulSequel
8 responses to “How good is your historical awareness?”
What time frame of history? How soon of today? I have a limited awareness of the past. As far as today’s events historically, I basically have no awareness of today’s events, as i don’t pay attention to the news.
@Jear77
“Today’s news” is mainly just an entertainment event fishing for ratings and “likes”.
There are however, issues of prime human importance that rise to the fore. One often doesn’t need a news feed to be aware of them. These are the issues that are commonly accepted as “needing resolution”. Or at least “better understanding” unto a future resolution.
What time-frame of history? The broader the frame, the more information about the issue is available. More information is superior to less.
I find it interesting too, that a concept I am now hearing about in a University-level course . . . is quite identical to the ancient Native vision of “The Longer Now” — where a vision of a time-frame stretching all the way back to the dawn of conscious awareness (and perhaps beyond) is achieved.
The Southwestern Native “Cave of Eternity” is one such variation on the vision.
Academics having literally nothing else to do, but accumulate knowledge and then try to find a way to apply it, but do they actually DO anything with the information to elecit change or do they just talk to other academics who say, “hmmmmm”?
So, that being said, my historical awareness doesn’t really go past my own parents time. Do I think finding a piece of pottery makes a difference to the society, on a very broad scale, where I live? Nope. Some guy and his team of academics got paid for him to make something seem productive. and so people go hmmmm. Do I think understanding how a society prospered and eventually died out matters in our current state of existence? Not really. Look around.
I think the phrase, those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it is pretty dumb. Well guess what? Those who know history are doomed to repeat it too.
Here is a timely example. Cinco de Mayo just past. I’d say that very few Americans know this bit of history. The date is a celebration of the victorious Mexicans over the French in a village called Puebla in 1862. The French were trying to establish a base, so they could assist the South during America’s Civil War. If the French had succeeded, the America that exists today might be far different. And the reward for that bit of support? I think you know the answer to that.
@spitfire3dc
The effective academia is able to pass not just knowledge on to the next generation, but the much more valuable thirst for not just knowledge, but the functional understanding from which effective change can come.
Not as a prize to sit on the shelf or bandy about with other prize-winners, but as something the next generation will carry either to conclusion . . . or to pass on to the next generation.
We are stubborn and tend to want to make our own bloody mistakes, thank-you-very-much! But some of those mistakes ought not to be made again . . . let alone over and over just to satisfy our zeal to make our own bloody mistakes just so we can call them our own.
I’ve heard of Cinco de Mayo but have not studied it. The “reward”? Well, perhaps not everything is about reward. People gave their lives for this event to unfold the way it did. And we find benefit in the world as it is today. So any measure of understanding into how I come to be so blessed today is to me at least, valuable information.
If nothing else, it helps me not to be ungrateful or take things for granted.
And perhaps if I’m wise enough, I MIGHT be able to help avoid the repeating of a mistake that ought not to be repeated.
It was through this process that I discovered and was able to confirm, that various victimhood groups that are running amok in our society are actually neo-Marxist.
And THAT my friend . . . is a social experiment that really and truly ought NOT to be repeated! So now I work to educate others on not just this, but other threads back through time that have come to light in my investigations.
I may not solve any critical Human issue with it. But somewhere out there, is the person or people who will.
@griz I’m not saying that learning from history is a bad thing. I’m saying it isn’t happening. The Nazi social experiment is being repeated. From the lies being told and the accusations of lies through the mechanisms where the masses once thought truth existed, to the new mechanisms constructed to disseminate information to a easily manipulated public.
WW2 was supposed to be the war that ended all wars. What a lesson?! 60-80 MILLION deaths attributed to that conflict. …and since then, based on the learnings acquired? 250 major conflicts and 50 MILLION deaths and tens of MILLIONS left homeless.
There is an inherent flaw in humanity. We can recognize good, but seem to willing choose to ignore it en masse, if an option exists where personal gain is realized. That’s a very broad brush statement, but people are very easily manipulated when that particular trigger get applied.
It seems to me that as all of our decisions are made based on love or fear, that the default falls closer to fear more times than not, and history has very little influence on that decision mechanism.
Another case in point. History teaches that Pompeii was a dangerous place to live. Living next to an active volcano, not so good. And yet…
@spitfire3dc
We justify doing that which our feelings and emotions have already settled on. Volcanic soil is very rich in besides their ancestors have always lived there!
That is the foundational base of their map of meaning in that particular case. Thoughts and perceptions are blinded to all else; and it’s only when they’re blown out of their bed in the middle of the night and find they cannot breathe that they may consider their map to be in error!
Many people know OF the Nazis and World War 2. I wonder how many have troubled to study ABOUT it? Greed and fear provide little motivation traction.
so I returned the supposition of more people knowing about it rather than just of it, as a possible cure for not repeating it.
Would that be worth “the bother” of developing a better historical awareness?
It could be said that it all began with mans down fall from grace in the Garden of Eden. When man first sinned against God by eating the forbidden fruit. Then later, when Cain slew his brother Abel. These events set mankind on the path of self destruction, and it has only gotten worse from there.
The horses are out of the stable, saddled and ready to ride…and the four horsemen are coming. War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death…because mankind is either too arrogant or too stupid to change his ways, and all will perish in the righteous flames of Gods judgement.
So what shall we tell the next generation, if there should be one, that the day of their doom and eternal damnation can be avoided? What words shall we use that will open their eyes and their hearts?
Perhaps we should use the video game analogy: There is no re-set button, no re-spawn, no do over, and no game cheat program…there is only GAME OVER, and you lose.
@immortal_pirate
I don’t disagree.
The Genesis stories tell not just about The Act of Creation, but about the dawn of self conscious awareness (the knowledge of Good and Evil). Adam and Eve weren’t trying to hide from God in a bush, for they knew he was omniscient! They were trying to hide/isolate from the new perceptions of negative emotions that came with that terrible knowledge of self-awareness.
Flash forward to today. We still have that same terrible knowledge, and still try to run in isolate ourselves in a bush from it. ( or from the negative feelings of it): rather than accept God’s wise counsel on how to reconcile it unto life and life more abundantly.
How do we communicate this to the next generation? Perhaps not with knowledge or abstract games, but with wisdom. And isolating ourselves in a protective bush, doesn’t seem likely to accomplish this.
And what they then do with this, becomes what they have to explain to future generations.
We’ve already seen the great positive effect just one person can have on the society. If what I share falls on a million deaf ears before reaching that one set of ears that can make a difference, I count this as worth it
I’m not ready to throw in the towel just yet!