Trying to learn from history and apply it to the NOW.

July21

I’ve been watching ‘WW2 in Color’ while I do my rehab and I realized how much we tend to construct narratives of x happened and then y happened and that had this huge effect on this part of the war. It made me really wonder if those events really did have that effect or if the human in us just picked them out to build that narrative… maybe there were other events that would serve that narrative as well and another historian would use instead.

It made me think about what is going on today and how everyone is so ready to say oh x event is similar to this in history and thus y. I can’t remember where I heard it, but it really stuck with me when someone told me that nothing will look the same when it repeats, but it will be a new version of the same thing. That made a lot of sense to me. Everyone is so afraid about the rise of fascism or a repeat of Hitler but it is not going to look the same when it happens. That is the danger, that we think it is going to look like x when instead it is going to look like x version 2.0 and it will be very hard to recognize. Sure it might have similar symptoms or attempt similar outcomes, but it will not look the same and it will look different enough that people will not be able to see it clearly. In fact, it seems like one aspect is that people who would swear they would do anything to prevent the evil of the holocaust would fall into supporting the very power that would recreate that same evil because they can’t identify it in its new form.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Unions lately with some of the work I’ve been doing. Labor has less and less power and the death of unions in the USA has influenced that. So, if you had to reimagine unions and returning some of the power to labor what might that look like if you did it now? It is so hard to break out of the ruts of history but I think that is where the past can teach us so much if we break it down into pieces. How would you recreate some of the outcomes unions created and do it in a new way?

I think this is starting to come up as we talk about what monopolies are now versus are textbook history version based on Standard Oil. We need new techniques to identify monopolies that hurt the public good and we need new ways to combat them that isn’t just about breaking them up. But, if you are stuck in a history rut you might be blind to the huge power these companies have and unable to identify or address the issues.

Anyway, just some rambles I’ve been thinking on.

Great read here on imagining massive changes to financial institutions and systems…

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posted under Dangers To World

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This is bwb’s personal blog, so he can share his thoughts with the world, however scary or silly they might be. Plus family and friends can track what I am up to, and where I am in the world.

I am pretty simple. I love Mangos. I love the ocean (although mostly at sunset, as I’m a ginger). I love to travel, eat exotic food, do long bike rides, read, and use my imagination. At some point, I decided it was better to be a pirate captain than an admiral. I am a globalist and see the entire world as my responsibility and playground. And I am married to an amazing woman who makes life even more fun :)! And we are now the proud parents of Calico Jack :).


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