Built Histories
As human societies, we tend to leave our mark in built histories -- buildings, land developments, agricultural alterations, physical territorial boundaries, artwork, fashions, tools, resource extraction -- similarly to how scars, wrinkles, and calluses etch visual roadmaps to our individual pasts.
Written histories are usually more muddied--heavily clouded with the perspectives of those ultimately in power of brandishing the pen to paper. As with any story, there is always more than one narrative to be cognizant of, yet culturally the less dominant narratives are commonly overlooked, intentionally omitted, or watered down from the societal collective as each subsequent generation is brought up on the dominant account. The human capacity to remember historical events and their implications, even as recently as the last year, is about as effective as a goldfish’s ability to sustain long term memory. In the United States, European History is usually the only intense study of history provided outside of our national history unless one decides to further their understanding at a University or through independent study.
In college, I minored in Spanish language. But language is not understood merely through learning words and sentence structure. It requires us to delve deeper into the cultures and histories associated with the vernacular in question because history is the structural backbone in all languages, allowing for growth and change in our methods of communication. Latin countries and empires encountered in my formal studies were as expansive and diverse as their geographical reaches. The Olmec, Toltec, Incan, Mayan, Aztec, and Spanish empires (among many others) each brought historical changes and technological advancements to their regions. Each regional linguistic variance seen today acts as an additional map to how collective groups of people traveled, intertwined, and ultimately evolved.
During the height of the Mayan civilization, beginning around 250 A.D., much of modern day Europe was under Roman rule. Two very powerful empires, yet like many American civilizations, societies like the Maya are commonly written as ruthless and primitive with their gory sacrifices and regional conquests taking center stage, nevermind their advanced architectural feats, agricultural headway, and burgeoning art, science and technology sectors that gave way to astronomical understandings and the 365 day calendar, among other worldly understandings that have long perplexed present day historians and archaeologists as to their accuracy. Meanwhile, the gladiator battles of Rome are glorified, architectural contributions like the dome, archways, and advanced roadways hailed, and conquests in the name of the empire seen as necessary in the effort to spread Roman ideals and morals.
An analogous story can be seen in the states -- just looking at superheroes born in literature, there are plenty derived from nuclear radiation, while in a country like Japan creatures mutated from nuclear radiation are seen as the antithesis of a hero. Godzilla, anyone?
The reality is our colonial American history is so brief. So infantile. Yet we walk with this patriotic sense of global superiority, embracing a history of steamrolling others to secure our manifest destiny with very little to no collective knowledge of countries and civilizations outside of our own. It is indoctrinated in us from an early age and can be admittedly tough to shake -- ”the US is the greatest country on earth” and “the U.S. is number one” we’re repeatedly told. We are routinely painted in the light of a black and white canvassing of historical events. No doubt, we have some very real freedoms outlined in our constitution and amendments that are not in some other nations, however we should not bolster the belief that we are the ever-present pinnacle of success and the envy of other nations. We were in some respects -- look at the advancements made by the NASA space program when we were in a race for first place against Russia -- the best, or the most advanced in certain fields. However, in almost every category, outside of military prowess and poverty rates (ouch), we are now far from the leaderboard. Education and healthcare? 27th, respectively. As a nation we are deeply flawed. We are caught in this notion that no one can do things better than the US and we bristle when our wrongs are brought to the surface, preferring to keep them out of sight and out of mind. We spend so much time, energy, and resources into recreating the wheel, so to speak and denying that we could learn from the steps taken by other countries. Take the creation of our own testing kits for COVID-19 instead of using the ones previously developed by the World Health Organization, which set up back significantly in being able to reliably test for positive cases. Or the other “1st World” nations that provide healthcare for all their population, and haven’t collapsed from economic strife.
PedeStool (2018) | aerial profile
I wonder how often we have set ourselves back, technologically, culturally, and societally, with each waged war and conquest performed in the name of a monarch, a country’s ideals, freedom, or religion? How much art, how many discoveries, how many brilliant minds washed from the collective conversation due to myopic causes? With one-sided narratives dictating policy, morals, and communal importances? Too often when we encounter “different”, we declare it unthinkable or beneath our heightened view of proper humanity and societal norms, like we are untouchable in our (limited) understanding. Too often, the needs of the majority are silenced by the desires of the powerful. Please remember that our country’s societal norms are driven by what we allow. They used to romanticize genocide. Some may say they still do. Remember that we currently podium the exorbitantly wealthy while turning a shoulder to the masses in need, tout the viability of the “American Dream” while barring those seeking refuge and a better future, and consume in short-sighted abundance with no empathy for the ramifications.
I’ll leave you with this thought. Comments and discussion are always welcome.
