Zelensky’s grandfather was a Soviet man, who fought Nazis during WWII...And, now Zelensky wears a t-shirt demeaning USSR and gives medals to Nazis...😕 pic.twitter.com/3DGFiOiFvG— Vera Van Horne (@VeraVanHorne) October 13, 2022
Historical understanding is made completely redundant by idealist philosophies like liberalism. If you think the world is shaped by ideas, then none of that shit matters. The material conditions don't matter, understanding how they emerged doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is a grab basket of ideas which are tautologically good, having those ideas, and spreading those ideas. As long as you have voters voting, courts courting, journalists journaling, and legislatures legislating, and free makets freedoming, you can rest assured that all the problems will work themselves out in the end. For idealists, history serves little purpose other than trivia.
I started reading Graeber's The Dawn of Everything, by which I mean over the last month I've read the first two chapters. But in those chapters the authors just completely destroy the version of the Enlightenment I remember being taught in high school (which was something like "some philosophers came up with some good ideas, so good in fact that people threw off the yolks of feudalism and religion and instead turned to liberal democratic freedoms and rationality.")
voters voting
In talking to libs I know, this seems to be the stumbling block in all political conversations. "Well, I get to vote so I'm free." But, like, you get to vote for a guy wearing a red tie or a blue tie or maybe even a green or a yellow tie and then... corporations write the laws and pay those politicians to pass those laws and what you want or need doesn't matter. Maybe it's a little uncharitable, but sometimes I think they know that, but don't know what to do because revolution seems impossible or unacceptable, and so they must handwave it away to themselves with a "they'll fix that someday."
Liberal history knowledge is on the level of "and then they taught the pilgrims how to grow corn and they were all friends"
Historical understanding is made completely redundant by idealist philosophies like liberalism. If you think the world is shaped by ideas, then none of that shit matters. The material conditions don't matter, understanding how they emerged doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is a grab basket of ideas which are tautologically good, having those ideas, and spreading those ideas. As long as you have voters voting, courts courting, journalists journaling, and legislatures legislating, and free makets freedoming, you can rest assured that all the problems will work themselves out in the end. For idealists, history serves little purpose other than trivia.
A lib friend unintentionally demonstrated this when he said that "North Korea shows that communism hasn't changed since Stalin"
I would be Gene Wilderfacing so hard at that I'd get a cease and desist from his grandchildren
I started reading Graeber's The Dawn of Everything, by which I mean over the last month I've read the first two chapters. But in those chapters the authors just completely destroy the version of the Enlightenment I remember being taught in high school (which was something like "some philosophers came up with some good ideas, so good in fact that people threw off the yolks of feudalism and religion and instead turned to liberal democratic freedoms and rationality.")
In talking to libs I know, this seems to be the stumbling block in all political conversations. "Well, I get to vote so I'm free." But, like, you get to vote for a guy wearing a red tie or a blue tie or maybe even a green or a yellow tie and then... corporations write the laws and pay those politicians to pass those laws and what you want or need doesn't matter. Maybe it's a little uncharitable, but sometimes I think they know that, but don't know what to do because revolution seems impossible or unacceptable, and so they must handwave it away to themselves with a "they'll fix that someday."