The Great Forgetting

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
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Enki
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The Great Forgetting

Post by Enki »

http://www.davidsheen.com/b/b1.htm
It was paleontology that exposed the Great Forgetting. It did so by making it unarguably clear that humans had been around long, long before any conceivable date for the planting of the first crop and the beginning of civilization.
Paleontology made untenable the idea that humanity, agriculture, and civilization all began at roughly the same time. History and archaeology had put it beyond doubt that agriculture and civilization were just a few thousand years old, but paleontology put it beyond doubt that humanity was millions of years old. Paleontology made it impossible to believe that Man had been born an agriculturist and a civilization-builder. Paleontology forced us to conclude that Man had been born something else entirely -- a forager and a homeless nomad -- and this is what had been forgotten in the Great Forgetting.
Deep Ecology Primitivists are on this tip of 'The Great Forgetting', the basic gist is that there were thousands of cultures totally forgotten because they predated the dawn of agriculture. That history goes back millions of years prior to agriculture and its written record.

The destruction of Palmyra is very interesting in that it illustrates with a contemporary example the nature of totalitarian ideology and the imperative to forget. The Isis ideologues want to force people to forget what came before them in order to achieve a more pure Islamist order. This has been a common act throughout history. The slaughter of the Welsh Bards disconnected people from their oral history. Empire has supplanted history with new ideology, the story of the gospel chronicles this act by the Romans against the Jews. And later the Christian destruction of the Library at Alexandria does the same. It could be argued that atheists who try to shame those who take the bible seriously at all is a softer attempt at the same.
Men often oppose a thing merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike.
-Alexander Hamilton
noddy
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Re: The Great Forgetting

Post by noddy »

i get the point of this but am uncomfortable with the conspiracy tone - noone ever taught me pre history in these terms and it seems a tad strawman.

maybe i just grew up surrounded by pre history (australia, melanesia) and take most of it for granted :)
It could be argued that atheists who try to shame those who take the bible seriously at all is a softer attempt at the same.
they are in control of the education system so are confident enough in their cultural destruction ability they dont need to use aggressive force.

in my reading of history the slaughter happens during the initial clash of alphas - the cultural destruction will follow if one group has an obviously better(easier?) way of living than the other as this causes the losing group to stop doing things the hard way.

western ways are destroying culture in every society on the planet right now, much of if it happens by osmosis and we arent even present.
ultracrepidarian
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Enki
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Re: The Great Forgetting

Post by Enki »

Agreed, the conspiratorial tone is shrill, but the basic concept is interesting. We lost a lot and there have been forces historically that have been proactive about suppressing history. The culture wars of bygone eras.
Men often oppose a thing merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike.
-Alexander Hamilton
noddy
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Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2011 3:09 pm

Re: The Great Forgetting

Post by noddy »

one of the essays i read on this subject quite amusingly pointed out that the reason the egyptians/greek/romans dominate the descriptions of history and get used as the starting points and reference points is due to the simple fact they captured lots of information in carved rock which lasts for millenia.

the great crime of the earlier and later civilizations is transient storage techniques.

magnetic bits on computer storage barely last years, if it wasnt for our rubbish tips we could disappear silently aswell hah.
ultracrepidarian
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Re: The Great Forgetting

Post by Mr. Perfect »

Can we give these people a "Captain Obvious/Common Knowledge" award.
Censorship isn't necessary
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