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comment by jleopold
jleopold  ·  3316 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Ask Hubski: How will history judge us part 3

I think it would be worthwhile to look briefly as some historiography (history of history) to start. History is all about interpretation, and as a group, historians tend to periodize in movements. Looking at the American Revolution, we have the very earliest writers, those who actually took part in it and their children and grandchildren, who saw the Revolution and War of Independence as separate, though connected events. Further, it was a grand struggle of the virtue of democracy and liberty against the vices of tyranny and despotism. As time progressed, interpretations either grew more cynical (such as the leftists of the 60s who saw the Revolution as an elite movement to ensure their continued superiority) or maintained the idealistic approach started by the Framers (in part, a conservative backlash to various leftist movements). The point is, we are going to be judged very differently at different times, and our interpretation of current events doesn't count for squat long run.

So, I always tell myself that at some point in the future, my ideals and actions will be judged as harshly as we judge Nazi Germany or the USSR. In fact, at some point, we'll be hated for our lasting prejudices and bigotry, but at some other points it will be for things like universal healthcare or gun controls.

We also have to keep in mind what sort of picture we will leave behind. Archeologists of the future will not be able to decipher stone tablets from our age (except headstones, which would lead to a strange interpretation). They will be left with mass produced books and magazines, digital files, file folders of just our written works alone. Will they comprehend, or even notice, the diffrence between a library and a book-store? Will they be able to access our early recording technology like floppy discs, or even what ever our next new thing is? If so, what story will the incomplete files they do find tell? A culture of technical creators writing thousands upon thousands of lines of code, or materialists who listed every food they needed? Which will they judge worse?

Beats me.

Overall, we tend to get more progressive over time. But that isn't a hard and fast rule. Our progress has reversed at times in the past, and it will in the future. With history accelerating like it is, I don't think we have any where near a sufficient understanding of even a couple of generations from now to answer your question meaningfully. The Ancient Greeks could never have expected us, or our view of them. But, like we should, I think they would expect to be judged in thousands of different ways.





bioemerl  ·  3315 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Overall, we tend to get more progressive over time.

We also have a habit of defining "progressive" of "our current social knowledge" not "what is best"