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Re: History repeats itself! Is this true?

Posted: April 18th, 2021, 9:36 am
by Alias
Sushan wrote: April 18th, 2021, 7:55 am Yes, you have raised a valid and a valuable point. History is written by winners.
History is written by winners, losers and bystanders. Each perspective is different, and each participant and witness has a different level and kind of interest in the proceedings, a different ideology, a different cultural bias.
So they praise their own party and degrade the opposing party to the maximum possible extent.
Everybody does that, whether they won or lost a particular battle.
The only difference between winners and losers is that those who have struck a decisive enough victory have the power to impose their version of events, their own philosophy and cultural bias (as well, very often, as their own language and religion) on the losers, and the oppressed/occupied minority keeps its cultural/national identity alive in secret, waiting for an opportunity to regain its independence. That doesn't mean its chronicle is any more true than the dominant nation's - it's just different.

So, from such content, if someone, like this author, has identified a pattern and has thought further based on such content, the whole thing becomes a complete lie.
Maybe. But someone can be wrong without being dishonest.
As reliable and 100% correct history is difficult to be found, it is quite a useless effort to form speculations based on this sort of historical patterns.
You can't get 100% accurate picture of the past, ever. Even if you had time travel, you'd bring your own beliefs, perceptions and prejudices to whatever you witnessed.
Patterns are easy to detect. Look up at the clouds. Do you see a horse, a sailboat, a wedding cake, a dinosaur...? Humans see pattern in everything - sometimes it's inherent, sometimes it's potential and sometimes it's imaginary.

Re: History repeats itself! Is this true?

Posted: April 21st, 2021, 2:22 am
by Sushan
Alias wrote: April 18th, 2021, 9:36 am
Sushan wrote: April 18th, 2021, 7:55 am Yes, you have raised a valid and a valuable point. History is written by winners.
History is written by winners, losers and bystanders. Each perspective is different, and each participant and witness has a different level and kind of interest in the proceedings, a different ideology, a different cultural bias.
So they praise their own party and degrade the opposing party to the maximum possible extent.
Everybody does that, whether they won or lost a particular battle.
The only difference between winners and losers is that those who have struck a decisive enough victory have the power to impose their version of events, their own philosophy and cultural bias (as well, very often, as their own language and religion) on the losers, and the oppressed/occupied minority keeps its cultural/national identity alive in secret, waiting for an opportunity to regain its independence. That doesn't mean its chronicle is any more true than the dominant nation's - it's just different.

So, from such content, if someone, like this author, has identified a pattern and has thought further based on such content, the whole thing becomes a complete lie.
Maybe. But someone can be wrong without being dishonest.
As reliable and 100% correct history is difficult to be found, it is quite a useless effort to form speculations based on this sort of historical patterns.
You can't get 100% accurate picture of the past, ever. Even if you had time travel, you'd bring your own beliefs, perceptions and prejudices to whatever you witnessed.
Patterns are easy to detect. Look up at the clouds. Do you see a horse, a sailboat, a wedding cake, a dinosaur...? Humans see pattern in everything - sometimes it's inherent, sometimes it's potential and sometimes it's imaginary.
People can identify patterns in many things. That is why people say that 'history rhymes'. That can be true and a valid pattern as well as only an imaginary pattern. These patterns too can be tainted with own beliefs and perceptions of various people. So whatever the account of history will be more or less apart from the actual truth.

If one can video film each and everything with voice as well, then only the one who is watching that can get the 100% accurate complete picture.