On Politics and History...Part II

Part II of II...

Why is History important?

Because it tells us where we’ve been, and it provides a glimpse of where we’re going.
At the end of the day, I’m extremely optimistic. Putting aside the logical rationality inherent in a historian’s work, we’re still moving forward. Progress is being achieved. This is the historical continuum of humankind. This is the march of time.

History allows us to become detached of irrational emotion, and look at the grander scheme of things. Irrational emotionality hurts us as a civilization. A thorough understanding of history encapsulates us from that nuisance.

The nature of the historical beast is of course, that it takes time for history to be concurred upon. For a paradigm to be established, much consensus first needs to take place. At the same time, paradigm shifts, in a somewhat Kuhnian intuition do exist. That’s why revisionism is omnipresent. And that’s why history is fluid. Winston Churchill said that “History is written by the victors,” and he’s right about that. Myth sometimes becomes history.

There’s also much disagreement on how to think about History. A linear construct of history follows our logical quest for cause-and-effect. Cyclical constructs of history, while important, sometimes take on moralist overtones. The Renaissance and Enlightenment historians looked down upon the Dark Ages, and saw themselves as New Rome. In some quarters, American historians today see themselves as the New Britain, etc. Such group think may be dangerous in trying to understand nuances and significant interpretations in a historical study.

Nevertheless, I do believe that history is teleological. In this I agree with Hegel. Hegel believed that the end-result was “civilization,” I believe it is more like liberal democracy.

***

This brings us to the present. I believe that historians will consider Bush not the worst president in history, but not the greatest either. He’ll be alright. People are too passionate, and their views too myopic. When you look at where America is today—it’s not in that bad of a shape. We haven’t been attacked since September 11th; our democracy and our republic remains strong, naysayers aside; our economy is relatively strong, in terms of growth and record low unemployment. And for better or worse, we’re remaking the world in our image. This is hegemony. But the remake takes time. It always has.

We went into Iraq in March 2003, it is September 2007, and people are expecting liberal democracy and the respect of human rights and freedoms to be ubiquitous in that country. Such an accelerated transformation has never taken place. History, progress, our teleological end takes time.

The Magna Carta was signed by King John in 1215. From then on, it took almost half a millennia for the Glorious Revolution of 1688 to bring about the nascent modern English parliamentary democracy. Never since then has a British monarch commanded Absolute Power. Another two hundred years, during the reign of Queen Victoria, for the monarchy to become more symbolic than political, this achieved through a series of reforms in the Commons, which curbed the power of the monarch and the House of Lord. Almost another hundred until the end of empire. Which leads us to today, and the British Monarch, Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith (Dei Gratia Britanniarum Regnorumque Suorum Ceterorum Regina, Consortionis Populorum Princeps, Fidei Defensor), delivers a State Opening of Parliament that’s written by her Prime Minister—even though it’s still Her Majesty’s Government. This took almost 800 years.

Even America took awhile. Not until the third president of the United States ushered in Jeffersonian Democracy that the electorate was expanded. Before then, it was only the elite white male landowners whom controlled the electoral process. Even Jeffersonian Democracy was somewhat undemocratic, since during that time, a one-party system was entrenched in America. In the latter half of the 1820’s (fifty years since Independence, forty since the Bill of Rights), did Jacksonian Democracy take hold. A two-party system grew, electorate was expanded to include all white male adults, and more elected officers were commissioned. Of course, another forty before slaves were freed and technically given suffrage rights (even though because of the tragedy of Jim Crow, it took one hundred years for the promise to come to fruition). Not until 1920 did women get the right to vote. And all of that being said, there is still widespread chronic disenfranchisement in the political system. And of course, we might still not succeed, and still fall, like the Romans. In my gut, as I said before, I believe that this is all teleological. But who knows. It just might not be.

***

In short, there’s been crimes and injustices committed against certain groups throughout history. There have been events that have taken centuries to unfold before a dream becomes a reality. There’s many x factors in play when it comes to the conduct and study of history. And it takes an informed citizenry to take all these factors into play. At the end of the day, one must decide whether history is linear or cyclical, teleological or not.

And learning about the history of not only your country, but also your world, can you form a fuller, more colorful picture of progress, of the old human struggle and its fruits together.

And that’s moving forward in it of itself.