Do you care about being on the right side of history?

[QuertyGirl]

I'm an archaeologist so I do have some perspective on the long view of history.

Just wondering if normal people ever think about this?

There have been lots of times where plenty of people have signed up to ideas that we now see as manifestly wrong if not downright abhorrent.

Everything from Nazism, phernology, eugenics, racism to hitting your kids and drink driving, has had otherwise intelligent people campaigning to for them.

Does anyone here look at the modern world and ideas and take a guess how history will treat these ideas?

For a start, I think that homeopathy, plastic grass, how we treat ND people and cars for short trips will all be consigned to the historical scrap heap.

@hryllilegur

I take your point, but excessive car use is demonstrably and manifestly harmful in urban environments.

That's not what this thread is about though 😎

This. We don't have control over who will write what becomes "history" and how it will be spun. I care about choosing to do what I believe to be the right thing day to day.

I totally disagree.

If we stop deciding that judgment is the aim, we can try to understand what was driving things and how it came to be that something like slavery seemed acceptable.

Not deciding that we are the moral arbiters of history doesn’t mean some sort of celebratory relativism.

Nor does it change the fact the we have all sorts of additional context, plus a set of our own peculiar lenses to judge through.

And it certainly doesn’t mean we actually have a crystal ball about how people
will view us in the future - as if that’s going to be a singular thing that never changes either.

Agreed. I think future generations will see people of this era as a laughing stock. Imagine learning that the leaders of Western nations in the 21st century debated what a woman was and couldn't come up with an answer. Imagine showing history classes Nicola Sturgeon tying herself in knots to avoid saying a double rapist was a man, or Starmer panic-stricken that anyone would think that he believed only women have a cervix.

@hryllilegur

A decent historian or archaeologist will be more than capable of appreciating the inherent horror of slavery and, examining how it came to pass. The two are not mutually exclusive.

I'd also argue that it's impossible to study history without judging it- you do as soon as you start make decision about which bits to study.

I think what's happening to some children just now in the name of trans rights will be seen along the same lines as lobotomies in the near future.

It's horrifying that healthy body parts are being cut off and children set down a path of sterilisation.

@bluetongue where do I say anything about returning to lockdowns or similar restrictions? Is improving air quality indoors "losing our minds"?

Viruses aside, high levels of CO2 impair cognitive performance, so ventilation is important, while PM2.5 pollution also impairs brain function (plus causing a raft of other health problems) so installing HEPA filtration in public buildings can only offer benefits. The fact that we're dragging out feet in this is to our shame.

I have become very detached from eg. ideas of left and right and avoidant of anything that stinks of ideology and tribalism and conformity to right think/speech/eating/etc.

Possibly this period will be looked upon as the period after the peak of organised religion. I remember writing an essay about how pluralism and fundamentalism were two sides of the same coin in reaction to not having an authoritarian certainty about life and death and how to live. Even 20 odd years on there would be so much to write about how that has developed.

Maybe it will be seen as the era of cult like adherence to all sorts of weird and wonderful and fragmenting and divisive belief systems or 'new religions'. A bit like an adolescence era.

So I guess I sit on the fence and observe and wonder when/if signs of maturing will appear

I give it very little thought, and I think it is impossible to predict which things will be shocking to future generations.

I think not being vegetarian/ keeping pets will be considered the wrong side of history. I get all the moral arguments against eating meat but the feeling we're designed to eat meat is stronger.

This is true. But where there is a functioning democracy it's the little people who vote for the people who make the big changes that make it easier for us to make little changes. We can all make small changes to how we live our daily lives but unless the decision makers make the necessary big changes we can have little impact.

I have thought about it, but I don’t really believe in the afterlife so realistically, I won’t care.

I like the thought that our culture will be remembered and studied in a few thousand years’ time. However, given the accelerating pace of climate change, I don’t think the human race will last that long. I have DC so I hope it will last at least another 100-200 years, but when I try to picture the future after that, I just see Earth carrying on without us!

It's fascinating @QuertyGirl. DS1 is learning about my history for GCSE.🤯 I think future historians will have a field day studying how easy it became to manipulate people using Social Media.

This is a very interesting subject to me. As someone who is not academic or an expert - just curious, I wonder if the tech age will see a similar effect with the internet and social media as there was in the aftermath of the printing press (15th century), which in its time saw a rise in literacy and was the means by which ideas and conspiracies could be spread. In an atmosphere of growing mistrust with Rome and the Church, a spread of conspiracy theories, self appointed prophets who gathered followers, anti-papist movements flourished leading eventually to the rise of protestantism and the break with Rome, followed by long periods of sectarian conflict and persecution. In our own times we have seen a polarising of opinion and views which has created much toxic societal division.

I feel the mainstream narrative is now losing ground as ‘the centre falls apart’ in our crazy post-truth era.

I hope we will be utterly condemned for how we treat animals.

It makes it easier to understand his totalitarianism can't get a foothold quite easily.

I don’t really think of it that way, or at all for some of your examples. I just try and make the best choices I can at the time I need to make them.

Yes, definitely.i make lots of decisions based on ethics. I've been vegan since long before it was a 'thing'. Our treatment of animals, insects and the environment will be something else we look back on unfavourably too.
Interesting thread op.

I disagree. Modern medicine has come SO far and chemotherapy saves lives. (Mine included.)

I hope the incessant push for profit over people will be seen for the disgrace it is.

I'll be dead. Is why I don't worry about my personal legacy.
Lots of times i have been wrong about things.
My screw ups are legion. I am not going to dwell on them.
I can't tell if I'm right or wrong now.
Not interested in what future people who I will never meet think of me.

HEPA filters don't remove CO2.

I look forward to PP saying she will pay for all those HEPA filters, and their electricity costs, and their replacement filters and ongoing maintenance, and for an eco-friendly waste system when the filters & devices wear out.

You might not be dead @lljkk. As I said earlier, my lifetime is on DS1's history curriculum.🙈

"Lack of almost any regulation around social media is huge in my view"

This: it's insane. We will look back on allowing children and young teens on SM with no regulation in the same way we look at letting them in cars with no seatbelts or letting teachers whack them with canes.