+++
title = "History: escape to the past or lessons for the present?"
author = ["George M Jones"]
publishDate = 2020-10-30
lastmod = 2023-12-06T05:46:17-05:00
tags = ["life", "history", "100DaysToOffload"]
categories = ["blog"]
draft = false
+++

I've always liked history.  And because the un-examined predilection
is not worth having (γνῶθι σεαυτόν), I turn to Livy to understand it:

> This I hold to be the chief value and reward of history, to have
> examples of all kinds set forth as an illustrious record, from which
> you may choose what is worthy of imitation in public and private life,
> and what is to be shunned as wrong in inception and ruinous in outcome
>
> Livy, Preface to History of Rome.
>
> Quoted from "Classics In Translation: Volume II, Latin Literature",
> MacKendrick and Howe, 1982

So, history provides examples for present living.  It provides a moral
and practical purpose, helping to guide our interactions with others
in the present, but also...

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> To me on the contrary it is one of the rewards of my labors to turn
> away for a little while from the multitude of evils which our own age
> has witnessed, and to give my whole mind to those earlier times,
> released from every care or consideration by which the historian's mind
> might be troubled and distracted, if not deflected from the pursuit of
> truth.
>
> Livy, Preface to History of Rome.
>
> Quoted from "Classics In Translation: Volume II, Latin Literature",
> MacKendrick and Howe, 1982

The study of history can also provide a private, personal escape from
the calamities and confusion of the present.

And of course, there can be value in loving or doing a thing for it's
own sake.  Without such passions, life becomes meaningless drudgery.
That said, here, from this morning's introspection, are a few more
possible reasons I might be fascinated with history.  History can be:

-   an escape
-   a "safe place"
-   a source of examples for living in the world today
-   a place to find idealized people and institutions (that may never
    have actually existed in the form we visualize)
-   something fixed in a changing world
-   a place where we know the outcomes
-   a place where we can approach the world in the third person
-   something to give context and explanations to our current beliefs
-   a place where we do not have to enter into personal conflict
-   a collection of interesting stories

And, yes, I do have one son studying to be a History/Social Studies
teacher and another who has devoured the western cannon.  The apples
do not fall far from the tree.

Post 34 of #100DaysToOffload <https://100daystooffload.com/>