the_dog_god wrote:
Didn't you hear? Describing History was outlawed over four years ag- *hears sirens wailing*
Uh-oh!
Seriously though? Some of history's worst moments are the most amazing, emotional and interesting pieces.
Read Song of Napalm (By Bruce Weigl) or Dulce Et Decorum Est or Disabled (By Wilfred Owen). Watch The Green Mile, find pictures of Thích Quảng Đức, or the Holocaust.
From War, we derive some of the greatest stories and poetry and artwork. People who are so repressed by the horrible conditions around them channel their being into finding a way to express their emotions through amazing artforms.
Studying history offers insight into a reality we will (hopefully) never experience. It helps us solve things diplomatically, as opposed to repeating the mistakes of the past. Its fine and dandy for me to learn about the history of New Zealand, but eventually I'll hit the massacres of ANZAC day. Should I not be allowed to learn of the true conditions as somebody else who had every chance to walk away doesn't want to hear the details?
War, and murder and death and slavery are not pretty pictures. But History isn't that friendly if you look back on it. When TV programmes and movies and books and video games so often decrease the reality of death, why shouldn't a history class be allowed to be shown the true reality? That death is a horrible, horrible thing. That people like the BTK Killer, or events like the Holocaust did not have people simply fall out of sight, and then skip forward to a funeral. That in real life, deaths affect people around them drastically. One of the most powerful interviews I've ever seen was a Vietnam Veteran who was shakiong, and had dozens and dozens of bags and bottles of pills spread out before him. "This is my life now."
To understand, to even have a chance at fathoming, this horrible thought - well it can't be done with a text book spouting facts and figures. So its scary, and its horrible, and you may walk out of it feeling more squeamish - its life. Its history. Its real.
If you had every chance to walk away, you've got nobody else but yourself to blame if you lie in bed awake all night because of it. Heck, maybe you need it. We can't all live in a world of happy thoughts by ignoring the bad stuff. Ignorance is strength. War is peace and freedom is slavery.
OMG, TDG, you are an amazing speaker! Well, I guess writer is a better word. Phew, what you just wrote absolutely blew me away. To be able to say it so succinctly, and yet with such force and passion, wow. You have quite a gift there.
Tested made this fabulous set for me!!! Isn't it great?