Deadening Silence in the Midst of Calamatous Noise

I am a historian. Some of my professors would spit blood at this claim, but it is true nonetheless. I am a historian because I constantly think of things in temporal terms. I do not simply evaluate ideas, situations, people or objects in an isolated moment, but take into account both the past and the future. I believe that it is vital to human existence to be able to do this. Since the present is ever fleeting the human condition is to be caught up in the act of memorizing, remembering and projecting those rememories into the future, so as to make appropriate choices and actions in what we commonly think of as "the present". Confused? I am! If nothing else, take from that an understanding that the study of history is not merely the memorization of facts. It is vital to human existence and I am therefore compelled to study it.

That last paragraph was more of a rabbit trail from what I actually want to discuss in this post. As a historian I am constantly evaluating the past, both my past and the past of the world as I see it. I read many different works, I watch films, I talk with people and I observe the world around me. I look back at different times in history and build pictures of what it must have been like to exist in that moment. For example, to be a teenager in the 90's was to be depressed and disillusioned. This is a vast oversimplification, but the job of the historian is to simplify the eternally complicated past. Needless to say, and this is essentially the reason why some of my professors hate me, all of history is a myth, which the historian recreates and tells in order to understand the past, present and future. There is no such thing as an objective historian. History is not written by the victor, rather it is written by historians. If such is the case then we must also realise that accounts of history are therefore entirely informed by the historian's own personal experience. Still I have not arrived at what I intended to write about today.

I have been reflecting lately about this first decade of the third millenium AD/CE. I have been wondering, by what characteristics will it be remembered. Has anything happened of note? Sure we have the Iraq War, but people merely call that "Vietnam", which is grossely historically false. Although the war is similiarly motivated by American Exceptionalism and Imperialism, to call Iraq Vietnam would be like calling chapter twelve of a novel chapter three. Our decade has also seen an increase in incredibly feel-good humanism both secular and Christian. In my view, people just seem to be saying nothing, and a hell of a lot of nothing. Take blogging for instance. I believe that the Introspective Irishman has been writing a post on this topic for quite some time. As far as deconstruction and disillusionment is concerned western culture seems to have hit a pinnacle. We can't get more beat than the beatnics. We can't get much more nihilistic than Death Metal and Punk Rock unless bands begin hacking their audiences to death with Norse Broadswords in teenage antiestablishment fueled rages. We can't get more hypocritical in the west in regards to "the environment-global warming-climate change", "poverty", "AIDS", etc etc...

We have really reached a nothingness in society and culture. Nothing is moving. There is no where to move...except Mars...or the ocean floor. Nothing is controversial. All the lines have been crossed...except perhaps the aforementioned Norse Broadsword idea. We have worked ourselves into such a stew of acceptance that reaction is coming. Christianity, hardly monolithic, is moving to become either completely the same as secular humanism or reaching back to strict dogma after terrying in the land of humanistic acceptance of diversity. Islamic countries are getting right pissed off at "The Great Satan-the US". East and South-East Asia are becoming economic powerhouses which threaten all sorts of global conflict. Africa is still in a bloody mess from the rape and pillage of the past 300 years. And here we sit in North America, in our urban yuppie apartments, our comfortable suburban ranchers, and we feel sick. We are so sick that we go faster, work more, play our Ipod a bit louder to block out the deadening silence in the midst of calamatous noise. There is no up and there is no down and nothing really matters, everything has been said before. There is no point in doing anything except to prolong our physical existence.

But, what is man if his chief good is to but sleep and feed? The words of the sage come back to me..."eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die...fear God and obey God's commandments". I refuse to attach some sort of imagined religious/relational purpose on the physical acts of life. That is what the likes of Rick Warren (the author of The Purpose Driven Life) would have me do. I saw a book last month which acclaimed Warren as the most influential pastor of our time. This is true. He has acknowledged the meaninglessness of everything and written copious amounts of drivel to insert an imagined purpose into human existence.

I'm still waiting for something to truly happen in this decade, but perhaps my problem is that I think that other eras have had purpose. Perhaps it is only the historical rememory of the past which leads me to believe that the past was any different from this era. See, for good or ill, I am a historian, in every sense of the word...